35 mm film

Photography and Vintage Cameras by Mike Connealy is a perfectly focused one subject blog. You will find information and photos on vintage film cameras and photos, excellent photos made with the old gear. Many photos of the US southwest.

I “met” Mike a few years back on photo.net. He is a thoughtful gentleman. He and I did a little lobbying and helped get the vintage camera forum established on photo.net. Photo.net’s Classic Manual Camera Forum is friendly, active, informative and entertaining forum.

For a fun online experience check out both, you will have fun and learn something.

below, a Voigtlander Vitessa, 35mm film folding camera with 50mm lens

Vitessa, the tall plunger sticking up is the film advance lever, the lens retracts into the body and the “barn doors” close for a pocketable size.

Next weekend I intend to use my old film camera, a Leica IIIf, to photograph an encampment of War of 1812 re-enactors who will be at Little Lake Park in Midland, Ontario for Canada Day.

The Leica IIIf is a 35mm film compact rangefinder camera with the Leica screwmount lens mount. With a collapsible Elmar 5cm f3.5 lens, it is a very small, eminently pocketable camera.

It has no swing open back like many old film cameras. Instead it has a removable base plate and although this makes reloading slower and fussy, it results in an incredibly strong body.

Below is some internet resources and a series of my photos and you should pay attention in particular to the shot of the back that shows the two eye openings for the rangefinder and the viewfinder. You use the rangefinder to align the split image. You use the viewfinder to frame the image, it shows the full 50mm view.

Internet resources:

some stuff about loading the Leica IIIf, as always its amazing what you can find out about a 60 year old camera on the internet

http://photo.net/columns/joshroot/filmtown/2009/january/leica-IIIf-fuji-provia-100f by Josh Root on photo.net

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heMk-4hde9E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJSiNm0IWj4

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=45352

http://www.kenrockwell.com/leica/screw-mount/iiif.htm

http://photo.net/leica-rangefinders-forum/002pDy

Cameraquest article, Leica IIIf RD ST Camera as art form http://www.cameraquest.com/3frdst.htm

Leica IIIf with Elmar 5 cm f3.5 lens extended into shooting position

Leica IIIf fitted with a Leitz Hektor 13.5cm (135mm) telephoto lens

front view of Leica IIIf with 5cm Elmar lens collapsed and lens cap mounted

Top view of Leica IIIf with Elmar 5 cm lens collapsed

Leica IIIf rear view showing location and size of eye openings for Rangefinder and separate viewfinder

Leica IIIf side view showing Elmar 5 cm lens extended into shooting position

how to trim the film leader for loading in a Leica IIIf

Screwmount Lens size comparison: l. to r. Jupiter 8 5cm f2.0 lens (non-collapsible), Elmar 5cm f3.5 (collapsed), Cosina Voigtlander 5 cm f3.5 (collapsed) – a bit misleading, the CV has its lens flare hood attached