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So, my M3 arrived on Christmas Eve and now has a roll of HP5+ in it. Still working on the settings to cope with the light and lack of meter (using iPhone Light Meter App for now). Just means taking two shots all the time as I realise I've checked something but not made any changes! A real change from my previous SLR/DSLRs - things are now always in focus, except in the little square. I know practice is the best form of learning, and I'm doing a lot of that. But does anyone have any recommendations for books on rangefinder technique?

Greetings all! This past December I decided to dive into film photography for the first time. I bought a new Leica MP and used 35mm summicron ASPH (v5). I took the camera and a number of different film stocks on a family trip to Taiwan. What a joy to use! I finally understand what others have said with regards to the pleasure of using these cameras, regardless of how the photos come out. A few things I learned: I tended to underexpose and need to get a better handle on the exposure meter. As a wearer of glasses, the 35mm framelines at 0.72x magnification can, at times, be challenging to see. I also found myself wanting to frame tighter (50mm Summilux is on the wishlist!!). I need to get better at ensuring that the camera is level - I had to straighten a few photos in post. I need to work on white balance and editing in post. Either way, I'm really excited to continue down this path and looking forward to more participation in this forum! Here are a few photos from the trip:

Hi everybody, I’m a computer science engineer who has been working, as a hobby, the last three years in a new, more precise, way of recreating film look with digital cameras. I’m posting here for feedback, in case anybody of you would like to test the application (with the M9) and show the results and your opinions. I usually shoot film photography but also I like the comfort of digital. The problem is that I’ve never been happy with existing film emulations. Mainly because of that, because they are emulations instead of simulations. METHOD USED For doing so, instead of doing a generic conversion for every camera, I’ve done a specialised conversion for the Leica M9 based on simulating the chemical process and spectrum response, instead of applying curves and other stuff. In the end, I thought, if analog and digital are just two instruments which capture light, I thought, maybe is there any mathematical conversion to make the digital to look like film? I mean, if I take the same photo with analog and digital, under exact same conditions (light / aperture / exposition /…) could I make them look exactly the same? It’s based on chemical simulation and the Leica M9’s response to spectrum. Then LUTs and finally some extra calibration. I think that it could be improved because I’ve used home made or open source tools for calibrating and so on, which are far from perfect. EXAMPLES (Analog vs Converted Digital) Following are some examples of Superia 200 and TriX 400. Click in each photo to see high resolution. DNGs shoots taken with Leica M9 (left), and FILM shoots taken with Minolta CLE (right) at same conditions (aperture / exposition / ISO). All shoots taken with Zeiss Biogon T* ZM 35mm f/2. The examples show several photos, which are the following: +------------------------+------------------------+ | original DNG | | +------------------------+------------------------+ | converted DNG | scanned FILM | +------------------------+------------------------+ | developed DNG | developed FILM | +------------------------+------------------------+ For the generated simulated negative TIFF file and the scanned TIFF file I’ve applied exactly the same develop parameters. TriX 400 - 1 TriX 400 - 2 TriX 400 - 3 Superia 200 - 1 Superia 200 - 2 Superia 200 - 3 Superia 200 - 4 Superia 200 - 5 Superia 200 - 6 CONCLUSIONS Tonal range - Biggest difference between digital and film Dynamic range - Digital is faaar more detailed in the blacks, film never gets burnt, meanwhile digital gets burn quite fast. Film has more microcontrast, it's more sharpen Digital is a little bit more contrast after developing, I imagine it’s because it reach white level faster, then, when doing autolevels with the developing program, as a result, it’s a more contrast image. DOWNLOAD I'm having a console application ready, if interest is shown it will be ready quite soon! CAVEHEATS / LIMITATIONS The program only accept DNG, because I need all the light captured by the camera, instead of a JPG already converted and really dependent on camera self made adjustments. The program only accepts photos taken at the ISO of the certain film that is gonna be used. For example, for TriX400 it will accept only Leica M9 DNGs at 400 ISO. I’ve also done tests with ISO 200 and 800, and the results were quite satisfactory but, for complexity reasons, I prefer to let it be native film ISO for the moment. Highlights are not always correct, and sometimes they look weird, mainly in color film. This is due to bayer sensor pattern and its different intensity response (for Red, Green and Blue channels). FUTURE (& PAST) WORK Leica M10-D Leica M8.2 THANKS Super thanks to the creator of LibRaw, a wonderful C++ library for working with RAW files. Any questions I’m open to answer 🙂 Best regards everybody. Tomás AKA “Camalogica”

My interests toward film are ignited again by my dad’s efforts in developing C41, ECN-2 and E-6 at home after his retirement. We talked frequently on the chemicals, processes and experiment the push process together. We now have succeeded in pushing the Kodak Vision3 500T to 800 and 1600. For me, 800 is enough to cover my needs shooting streets from dawn to dusk and the artificial lights. And I now enjoy the M4 more than the M10-P. We use a Plustek 8200i to scan. Okay, let’s kick-off with a frame. Leica M4, LLL 35/2, Kodak 5219@800

Hi all, new to the forums, but long time leica film+digital shooter. Does anyone know of a quality lab in the greater Washington DC area for C-41 and the occasional BW rolls I can't get to at home for time constrains etc? I'm looking for quality and a willingness to work together with the photographer, if you know what I mean. Currently I use picturehouse+thesmalldarkroom in NY or GelatinLabs in NJ , by mail, both are awesome, but it would be great to also have a local spot. Thanks in advance

nice to know they're developing new film cameras

Hi all, I’ve been having a run of bad luck with a roll of Ektar in my M6 - the first time I failed to load effectively and got to frame 38 before it clicked with me that it had not clicked in the camera… opened the back and sure enough there was the tag outside the little cage. How many times has this happened. Heartbreaking. I’m not a newbie, I’ve been using film cameras for decades, Leicas for several years… anyway. Live and learn. So, reload, check tension and watch the rewind spool handle rotate; all good? Not so! Eighteen frames later the advance lever jammed tight, like it does at the end of the spool. I guessed the film got stuck. I couldn’t advance the lever ( didn’t try to force it) and I knew it was 36 exposure roll… so I rewound and thankfully managed to hear the tag leaving the take up spool.. so easy to reload .. third time lucky maybe? - I wound on twenty frames or so ( exposing with cap on lens at f22) and started again, photographing a local carnival that my band was playing at. Shot some great pics, then some more, and this morning in the early light some wonderful landscapes.. this roll is lasting forever… no it can’t have happened again can it? Frame 38. Click. Wind on. Still frame 38.. and now the rewind isn’t rotating. Dammit. Tried to rewind and it’s easy to rewind, easy, too easy.. no resistance.. nothing fir it but to open the back and dammit the film is neatly wound round the take up spool and the canister is not attached to it! Shut the back quick ( I know, I know). I out the camera in a dark bag ( yes, should have done that first ) and took out the canister. I’ve included a pic or two. This is how it looked when I opened it. Manufacturing fault? I think so. There’s no way I used any undue force to advance the film. More pertinently and much more pressingly- how can I get the film out of the camera? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated, thanks and apologies for the lengthy message. Cheers Dom

@Sparkassenkunde@stephan54 you might like this short compile about film photos in japan, shows some good locations >>Portra 400 & Cinestill 800T

Leica M7 + 35mm Summarit f2.5. Fuji Neopan 400CN. Southampton, England 2016 Gerry

MP, 35mm Summaron f2.8, HP5Plus.

I am relatively new hear and love to see the wonderful photos here and I visit site to see the authors work but I have a question. In my search on Google I read that xrays will effect film by turning it black. If this is the case how do I protect it while going through airport security? Help... I suppose I could but it through checked baggage but I've heard this sometimes get xrayed too. I'm excited. I get to use my R lenses on my film Leica film cameras and on my Canon digital. My first real outing in quite some time.

I am intrigued that Kodak are now pushing Kodachrome photography (note, I did not say Kodachrome is back) by publishing a new Kodachrome magazine, edition 2 of which is now available at a price of £20 here in the UK. It features Kodachrome images from the archives but is very expensive for what it is. I also note that a contact sheet featured in Edition 2 was shot on Ilford HP5, but it is what the featured photographer was using ‘back in the day’. Does this re-emergence mean that they are trying to raise interest in Kodachrome again? Pretty unlikely, but a strange move. Gerry

From Kosmo Foto, here are two articles on the future of film based photography. Both are long reads but present some worthwhile information IMO. A passage from the above article: "...the nearly one billion rolls of film a year sold in the US at the height of the film market in the early 2000s has dwindled to a few tens of millions a year..." Yes. it is always better to sell a billion rolls of film a year - but if photographers are buying a "paltry" 30 million rolls of film a year - 1/33rd of the billion rolls a year of legend and lore - that still amounts to over 576,900 rolls of film purchased per week. If the profit per roll of film for both manufacturer and retail seller were $2.00 a roll - and I would guess that given film prices today, that is a reasonable estimate, and may be low for the manufacturer - that amounts to a over a million dollars profit per week for both manufacturers and retailers. That's not pocket change and I would think there are a lot of other businesses out there who compete for much smaller pots of gold than $52 million plus per year.

...This sandgrain day... - ...In questo giorno granello di sabbia... _ Dylan Thomas (from "Poem on his birthday") _ > https://msvphoto.wordpress.com/2019/01/07/in-this-sandgrain-day/ 2011 © Massimo S. Volonté Fotografo Scan from film Ilford HP5 400 M6ttl, 35'cron

I completed my first year of back to film (stopped shooting film in 2003 when digital became convenient). I did shoot digital for past one year as well and it was fun to compare. I shot around 32 rolls of film (mostly 36 frames each) and almost 90% was in M2 (rest on Nikon FM2 and Konica T2). Many were experimental but I did use it for my summer roadtrip and to capture life as well. I got around 86 pictures that I like very much. That is 7% of total. Still small but I was experimenting a lot. Around the same time I shot more than 6000 digital pictures (with M240 and Nex6 evenly distributed). I got around 4% keepers from that. How much do you shoot in one year? (Note: Nobody pays me, I shoot for myself) All my film keepers

Taken on Leica M4-P and 35mm Summicron f2.5 lens using Kodak T-Max 400 film. No metering done. Film was lab processed. Gerry

It's not a done deal just yet, but this is good news. I usually shoot Tri-X as an all-around B&W emulsion, but lately I have been thinking of picking up a fine grained higher contrast ISO emulsion for landscapes and some travel work. If Fuji actually does resurrect Acros, it would be a truly outstanding turn of events.

Last week I visited London with my son. I brought my M4-P and some rolls of film with me and want to share some of the pictures I made in this thread. We had a really great time in a sunny London and managed to see a lot of this town. My last visit dates back to the mid 90's and I have to admit, that my memories to this last visit where not the best. Back then we had the typical London weather with the occasional rain, and as I was much younger in those days, my wallet was a lot thinner than nowadays Although you will only see my touristic view on London in this thread, any feedback is strongly appreciated. Let's start with some street art from the East End. While we where walking on the tracks of Jack the Ripper and searched for some of the locations of his crimes in this area, we where excited about the many pieces of street art all over the place: M4-P - Summicron 35 - Agfa CT 100 Precisa (slide film)

I started using a Leica M3 a few days ago. After loading the film, the rewind lever pushes the film forward; however, the rewind knob (to the left) does not rotate. It starts rotating after about 5 exposures, and then the lever becomes really stiff. Any idea what the problem might be?

First sample is at 1/125 ss. Notice the white stripe near the right edge. It looks pretty much the same at 1/250 and 1/500, however, at 1/60 it's gone. I haven't seen the results at 1/60, but that's what I've been told. Last sample is at 1/1000 and things are much worse there. I am going to make more tests, but what do you think it can be? Shutter? A body was stored without lens attached to it and without front cap covering the mount, so shutter was basically uncovered. However, I couldn't find any obvious signs of damage on shutter. And if it's a shutter problem, repair would probably cost more then a camera itself, right?

I shot my first test roll in newly acquired Leica M2. In precisely one frame, I got a shadow line on top of the picture (see below). It was shot at 1/500. There are other frames just before and after with same shutterspeed which do not have the same artifact. Anybody seen this? My camera was supposed to be CLAed (I bought from Tamarkin). Rest of the frames are good, except only this one. I have warranty therefore I will shoot another roll to see what happens, but would like to know what tribal knowledge in this forum has to say about this.

Hello there, I have decided to start a topic on jammed shutter issue of Leica film cameras. I experienced this issue while taking photos at the Shard. My camera had been loaded with Adox CMS 20 II, the microfilm had the highest resolving power. The first fifteen frames were beautiful to enjoy the view. Yet after 16th frame, the camera was jammed. Since I tried to force its advance lever, it was totally broken. One wondering what was happened may look at the result here. I sent my camera to Wetzlar via Leica Store Mayfair. After eight weeks, it came back to London in a repaired condition under warranty. Recently, I have heard similar experiences to mine. Some of them is not related to choose Adox's films, since they have occurred while using Ilford's HP5+, and so on. In order to build a guide for one who could experience the same, may you share your experiences on jammed shutter, or advance lever stuck?

Inconsequential evening stroll with M7 / Summicron 50 and a roll of 400 TX. Approaching the Philharmonie de Paris / Drab Dusk (1)

Could anybody comment on possible causes/ remedies for what I see on all films from a newly acquired 1932 II (D)? The film is exposed into the lower (in camera upper) sprocket holes and the image is slightly misrotated. This happened on all films so far. I cut all film leaders with my template as usual. I did not encounter any problems while loading. I did exactly according to the old Leica instructions (as I always do with my other LTMs). Any suggestions? Thanks! Mathias

A local street scene seen whilst out yesterday testing my 'new' 21-35mm Vario Elmar-R on my R5 (loaded with HP5+).