I sold my M8 and bought a 1A

[PennineT]

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After having my Leica M8 for several months and finding that, in my opinion, it did not posses the same, if difficult to define, qualities as my lllF. I decided to sell the M8 and the Summicron 'King of Bokeh' 35mm V4. The lens I loved but the camera just did not cut it and I preferred to use my Lumix G3 for digital work!

 

Some of the money I freed up I decided to invest in a Leica 1A. I have been amazed at the quality of this little camera.

 

I developed my first film from this 83 year old camera and have discovered that quality of image has really not come on that much in that long time span.

 

I will post some of the images from the film when I have a little more time.

 

Tony

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[PennineT]

a few pics from Leica 1A, the first roll in.....not sure how long

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[Paul Verrips]

Tony,

 

I'm amazed by the IQ from this 83 years old Leica. Don't know if you did a lot of PP, but it's convincing that this was worth your switch.

 

Regards, Paul

[smb]

Well done. I just picked up a IIIf w/summitar. Not as old as yours but those cameras sure have a fantastic IQ and are well built.

[Lee Martin]

We tend to think that years of development and high tech improvements have made current images move into a different league. These photographs show just how good the images can be from an 83 year old camera. Thanks for posting them. I hope you really enjoy using it

[earleygallery]

Superb!

 

But....you need to post this in the film and collectors forums to be appreciated, you'll just get a lot of stick from the digital mob here!!

[Bill Allsopp]

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Superb!

 

But....you need to post this in the film and collectors forums to be appreciated, you'll just get a lot of stick from the digital mob here!!

No stick from me, superb! +1

[erl]

Certainly a good performer and I agree about the apparent small increase in image quality over the years. I am wondering if what we are seeing is the quality of film and developers over the same period.

 

An interesting comparison would be if one could shoot films of the same period, developed in developer of that period also. I wonder if cameras of this vintage were 'held back' by limitations of film and dev originally. A bit like early wire recordings being 'held back' by early reproduction methods.

 

P.S. PennineT, I will move this thread to the Collectors & Historica section. You will get more responses there.

[chris_livsey]

Move appreciated, never would have seen them in the digital arena.

 

I think it is film that has moved on, the developers, although not named here? are very much the same, excepting HC110 and similar. I have just posted some developed with Beutler, hard to get more retro than that.

Having said that HC110, I think of as new, is actually 50 years old this year

[PennineT]

An interesting comparison would be if one could shoot films of the same period, developed in developer of that period also. I wonder if cameras of this vintage were 'held back' by limitations of film and dev originally. A bit like early wire recordings being 'held back' by early reproduction methods.

 

Hello Erl,

 

not the developer, I was using. "The original D-76 formula was invented by Capstaff in 1926" but possibly the film, FP4 in this case.

 

There have always been people with knowledge and skill to get the best out of miniature photography that the Leica and its acolytes made available. These days, using digital post processing, it is so much easier to get good results. The type of quality is relatively easy to learn to achieve using digital, whilst 'wet' techniques took/take longer to learn and were/are more exclusive due to demands of equipment and environment.

 

On the other hand, really outstanding photographs seem as difficult as ever to achieve.

 

Tony

Edited May 29, 2013 by PennineT
typo

[greyelm]

Nice camera producing very good images. I presume you just 'guessed' the focus distance, in which case the results show that you don't need fancy rangefinders to get good results.

 

I fancy a Ia to add to my collection but they tend to be less common, the nearest I have is a 1929 Standard converted to a II.

[erl]

I must say that my recently acquired (well 6 mnths ago!) 111f absolutely astounds me, together with it's Summitar 50/2.0 lens. I am getting better images than I ever got out of my Pentax's and Nikon's some years ago. In my case I think it is a combo of better films ans also better developing techniques. Makes me wonder what I could have done with those cams of my youth with today's knowledge.

[sabears]

WELL DONE!

[jc_braconi]

The quality comes for 90 % from the Elmar lens a magical concept from a great engineer.

[PennineT]

Nice camera producing very good images. I presume you just 'guessed' the focus distance, in which case the results show that you don't need fancy rangefinders to get good results.

 

I fancy a Ia to add to my collection but they tend to be less common, the nearest I have is a 1929 Standard converted to a II.

Hi, well I prefer to call the distance estimate a judgement or a calculation, but basically a guesstimate ;-)

Tony

[PennineT]

I must say that my recently acquired (well 6 mnths ago!) 111f absolutely astounds me, together with it's Summitar 50/2.0 lens. I am getting better images than I ever got out of my Pentax's and Nikon's some years ago. In my case I think it is a combo of better films ans also better developing techniques. Makes me wonder what I could have done with those cams of my youth with today's knowledge.

“Youth is wasted on the young.” ― Oscar Wilde

yes, if only I'd known then .....

[jc_braconi]

I must say that my recently acquired (well 6 mnths ago!) 111f absolutely astounds me, together with it's Summitar 50/2.0 lens. I am getting better images than I ever got out of my Pentax's and Nikon's some years ago. In my case I think it is a combo of better films ans also better developing techniques. Makes me wonder what I could have done with those cams of my youth with today's knowledge.

Past in the early 70's my friends had Pentax and Nikon but everytime we projected my Kodak Kodachrome 25 or 64 slides taken with M3's / Summicron DR 50 with the Pradovit's Colorplan 90mm they were with open mouths but without voice

[chris_livsey]

]The original D-76 formula was invented by Capstaff in 1926[/url]" but possibly the film, FP4 in this case.

 

Not being pedantic but I think you mean FP4 Plus.

 

FP4 was introduced in 1968 and discontinued in 1990 for the Plus version. I have just processed a roll of the FP4 original. I "inherited" it in an IXMOO cassette I bought so the film must be a minimum of 24 years old. Surprisingly it is only about 1-2 stops down on box speed and very little fog. I used Beutler. Not posted any yet as my scanning is backed up, Winnogrand syndrome

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Hallo,

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[PennineT]

Not being pedantic but I think you mean FP4 Plus.

 

FP4 was introduced in 1968 and discontinued in 1990 for the Plus version. I have just processed a roll of the FP4 original. I "inherited" it in an IXMOO cassette I bought so the film must be a minimum of 24 years old. Surprisingly it is only about 1-2 stops down on box speed and very little fog. I used Beutler. Not posted any yet as my scanning is backed up, Winnogrand syndrome

 

Hi Chris, your quite right about the Plus. I must be stuck in the mid 70's a little.

Tony

[garygsandhu]

Bright light, lens stopped down and modern film-- I wouldn't expect much of a difference. The M8 would be better af higher ISO and mixed lighting in colour.