Double exposure with Leica MP

[phototrope]

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Anyone know how to do a double exposure shot with a Leica MP ?

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[earleygallery]

That’s not a feature on the Leica M, you will risk damage to the camera if you try it, apart from rewinding the film and reloading it, winding up to the relevant frame (keeping the lens cap on etc).

It would be easier to buy a cheap film SLR which has multiple exposure functionality. 

[adan]

As James says, the M film cameras don't have the "clutch" needed to disconnect film advance from shutter cocking. You can't do one without the other. You can try, by putting the camera into rewind mode and then advancing the film-wind while holding down the rewind switch and the rewind knob - but you will get nasty grinding noises and some film slippage, at best.

Double-exposing from 2 (or more) negs in the darkroom, or sandwiching negatives in the enlarger, or superimposing film scans in Photoshop, are the options.

Or, of course, using flash plus ambient light at long exposures (1/8th-1 sec.), to get ambient trails or glows "doubled" on a sharp flash image.

[wattsy]

Not all M film cameras. The M5 (which I've never used) can do multiple exposures (and the procedure is apparently described in the camera's manual). That doesn't help the OP though. Other than James's suggestion to rewind the film and reload it (which could lead to some interesting results) or Andy's suggestion of using flash, the only thing I can think of is to obtain an M or LTM lens that is adapted to incorporate a leaf shutter and use that in conjunction with the bulb shutter speed.

[monther]

You could:

1. Load a dud roll of film
2. Leave the back of the camera open
3. When the shutter is cocked, mark the film with a sharpie
4. Advance the film as normal.
5. Put camera into 'R' for rewind 
6. Rewind the film carefully noting how many turns to go back a frame.
7. Practice a few times before advancing to #8
8. Success.

Double exposures never floated my boat but I'd do them as an enlarger sandwich as adan suggested if I felt I really wanted to.

[wattsy]

10 hours ago, monther said:

You could:

1. Load a dud roll of film
2. Leave the back of the camera open
3. When the shutter is cocked, mark the film with a sharpie
4. Advance the film as normal.
5. Put camera into 'R' for rewind 
6. Rewind the film carefully noting how many turns to go back a frame.
7. Practice a few times before advancing to #8
8. Success.

It's an interesting idea but I'm not sure that there is a consistent wind distance for a given rotation of the film rewind knob. The mechanism has to have some kind of clutch that allows some 'slippage' because of the difference in diameter of the wound film as the spool goes from empty to full. The sprockets on the film are fixed but the amount of film that one turn equals will get larger as the spool fills.