Date imprint

[Jodad]

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Any ideas how to get the date into your photos when using a Leica mp? I’d like to have the date recorded so I could use the camera as a journal. Well, the film would be the journal and the camera and lens would act as a pen/pencil technically but, you know what I mean. Trying to think creatively but can’t come up with anything practical. I know I could get another camera that has the date imprint function already but I like the camera I have so I don’t want to do that. Any other ideas and suggestions welcome.

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[lykaman]

20 minutes ago, Jodad said:

Any ideas how to get the date into your photos when using a Leica mp? I’d like to have the date recorded so I could use the camera as a journal. Well, the film would be the journal and the camera and lens would act as a pen/pencil technically but, you know what I mean. Trying to think creatively but can’t come up with anything practical. I know I could get another camera that has the date imprint function already but I like the camera I have so I don’t want to do that. Any other ideas and suggestions welcome.

The info you want is in the EXIF info..  It's usually the cheaper P&S that have the Date/Time On Image.. Maybe you can use a GPs on your phone and sync it with the camera..  L

[madNbad]

The low tech method is a notepad with all of the pertinent information then take a picture of the page.

[ianman]

12 hours ago, Jodad said:

Any ideas how to get the date into your photos when using a Leica mp?

What do you mean by 'into'? If you are scanning your negs then just add the date you want to the EXIF info.

If you are staying analog all the way,  write the info on the negative sleeves. Or do like I used to in my kidnapping days and take a photo of the days newspaper.

[a.noctilux]

Where I live, days newspaper is scarse, I've not seen one since long.

 

Years ago, when I lived in Paris where we could find some newspapers in kiosks (do they still exist), when one bought one newspaper of the day, this person was suspected,

...as kidnapper, 😉.

[Jodad]

17 hours ago, lykaman said:

The info you want is in the EXIF info..  It's usually the cheaper P&S that have the Date/Time On Image.. Maybe you can use a GPs on your phone and sync it with the camera..  L

This is actually quite cool and would possibly work with a digital but wouldn’t work with a film M

[ianman]

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4 hours ago, Jodad said:

This is actually quite cool and would possibly work with a digital but wouldn’t work with a film M

Again, are you scanning your negs? If so there is an application that syncs notes with scanned files as Exif data.

[250swb]

23 hours ago, Jodad said:

Any ideas how to get the date into your photos when using a Leica mp? I’d like to have the date recorded so I could use the camera as a journal. Well, the film would be the journal and the camera and lens would act as a pen/pencil technically but, you know what I mean. Trying to think creatively but can’t come up with anything practical. I know I could get another camera that has the date imprint function already but I like the camera I have so I don’t want to do that. Any other ideas and suggestions welcome.

Pencil and paper (but who invests in that sort of technology nowadays?), or develop and scan yours negs on the same day and save with the date included. In the history of photography people have done the same sort of thing, it really shouldn't be beyond the imagination without buying another camera as a crutch (and an ugly crutch at that with date stamped images that you can't get rid of even if it turned out to be best best photo the world has ever seen) especially as there are only 36 exposures on a roll.......unless you intend to have Christmas 2019 at the start of the roll and Christmas 2020 at the end.

[TomB_tx]

The OP has a valid question. A lot of film SLRs offered a Data Back which recorded the date / time on the film by LEDs. The M construction never allowed for that. I still see Data Backs for auction for models by Nikon, Canon, Pentax & others, but finding one working and capable of current years is doubtful.

[ianman]

20 minutes ago, TomB_tx said:

The OP has a valid question. A lot of film SLRs offered a Data Back which recorded the date / time on the film by LEDs. The M construction never allowed for that.

So how is the question valid then? Surely anyone buying an MP or any other model knows this option is not available. Even so, cheap and easy solutions have been suggested. But to date we still don't know if the OP meant dating negatives or digital files.

[a.noctilux]

Data M cameras exist (ed) :

clever device to have on the pictures all kind of data writen on transparent plastic strips

MD

MDa

MD-2

but not MP

[TomB_tx]

46 minutes ago, ianman said:

So how is the question valid then? Surely anyone buying an MP or any other model knows this option is not available. Even so, cheap and easy solutions have been suggested. But to date we still don't know if the OP meant dating negatives or digital files.

Since the OP asked the question in the film M forum...

[Archiver]

This idea is very appealing, but there hasn't been any data back for the MP that I know of. Some higher end Nikon SLRs were able to imprint the date in the sprocket hole area, I think. And many P&S cameras had data backs, from cheap to expensive; my Nikon L35AD has a data back, and the Contax T3 had an optional data back.

My solution would be to take a digital image around the same time as the film image, so you have dated visual record of the film image you just took. Depending on your habits, this can be with a cellphone or pocket camera, or even an action camera. I've been able to figure out the dates of many of my film images by correlating them with digital images taken around the same time.

As the M9 does not shoot video, but sometimes I want it, there are times when I put the Sony RX0 on the M9 hotshoe. It's pretty discreet and doesn't poke out too much, and shoots video while I'm taking stills. It also doubles as a 24mm lens when I have a shorter lens like a 50 on the M9. The same could apply to your MP.

 

[adan]

Got a smartphone? Use it to:

1) snap quicky "reference" pictures or videos of each locale (like Archiver) - it will date- and time-stamp that picture, and even ID the location if GPS-enabled.

2) or make an audio-note on the phone.

3) or enter the time and place in a Notes app - with phones that can capture finger-writing on touch-screens (iOS 10), you can even have that extra "analog" feeling of handwriting.

Since I don't even have a phone (and/or before smartphones existed), I've even been willing to burn a frame snapping a newspaper date or such. If I forgot my analog notebook.

All of that can be entered into a scan's (and ANY image's) IPTC (International Press Telecommunications Council) data fields - standard (and even required) practice for photojournalists. Doesn't even require an EXIF editor.... I notice that in Adobe Bridge (and thus presumably LR), data can also be entered directly in the METADATA panel - there are sections for all the "IPTC Core" and "IPTC extention." Once entered, it is a permanent part of the image file, unless/until you want to make a change.

This shows Photoshop > File > File Info.... > IPTC panel.

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This shows IPTC access in Abode Bridge Metadata panel.