2 a letter from the president by Gary Hough 4 a letter from the editor by Bill Rosauer
5 lhsa spring shoot in santa fe by Mark
the shape of ice by Albert B. Knapp MD & Ruth Oratz MD
flamenco in madred by David Knoble
40 schneider kreuznach lenses on leica m cameras by Lex Bosman
46 at last, a digital leica for my m & r lenses by Terry Maltby
49 then there were four & the earliest fison by Jim Lager
50 dr. wolff's first leica exhibitions by Ed Schwartzreich
Inquries about membership, upcoming events, replacement Viewfinder issues, and special orders should be directed to:
Richard Rejino, LHSA Executive Director 14070 Proton Road, Dallas, TX 75244 info@lhsa.org, (972) 233-9107
Viewfinder is the official publication of the LHSA, The International Leica Society, a nonprofit organization incorporated in the state of Delaware. Copyright 2014. Reproduction or use of any material contained herein without permission of the Sociey if forbidden.
Leica is a registered trademark. It and other trademarks pertaining to the Leica System are the property of LEICA CAMERA, USA, INC.
ISSN 1543-8732
www.lhsa.org
PRESIDENT Gary Hough gary.hough@lhsa.org (425) 485-7865
VICE PRESIDENT Alan Weinschel alan.weinschel@lhsa.org
SECRETARY/TREASURER
Thomas Campbell leicar7@aol.com (843) 345-1213
IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT
Stephen Clowery clowerys@aol.com (215) 283-1799
PRESIDENT EMERITUS
James L. Lager
Rolf Fricke Bill Rosauer
APPOINTED OFFICERS
Viewfinder Editor
Bill Rosauer P.O. Box 5916 Buffalo Grove, IL 60089 lhsaeditor@yahoo.com (847) 634-9211
Associate Viewfinder Editor
Ed Schwartzreich ed.schwartzreich@imagere.com (802) 244-4925
ELECTED DIRECTORS
Class of 2018
Nicholas Pinto npphotog@gmail.com
David Farkas david@leicastoremiami.com (954) 920-3648
David Spielman david@davidspielman.com (504) 899-7670
Class of 2019
Andrew Godlewski harley772@yahoo.com (973) 459-9533
Bill Royce wfroyce@gmail.com
Peter Dooling peter@leicastoremiami.com
Class of 2020
Douglas Drumheller dougdrum@comcast.net (412) 366-5871
Jay Paxton
jaypax@mlhs.net (713) 966-7200
Dan Tamarkin dan@tamarkin.com (312) 642-2255
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
S.R. Gilcreast, Jr. Peterborough, NH 03458 (603) 381-8293
James L. Lager
jlager@bellatlantic.net (201) 768-9347
S. Willis Wright beoon@aol.com (516) 381-8418
Cover) From James Rice's article, Real Cuba (pp. 20-27)
A LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT
by GARY HOUGH
50 years of lhsa
The years 2017-2018 mark the 50th Anniversary Jubilee of your Leica Society. When an entity is around for half a century, it is worth noting! It begs the question: what inspired several Leica enthusiasts to form a camera club in the 1960s? What was their motivation – their inspiration?
YESTERDAY
Leica cameras have been around since 1925, when they were introduced at a trade fair in Leipzig. As the camera evolved over nine decades, generations of users have turned to it in their hour of need, or their millisecond of inspiration. The list of iconic Leica photographers is long, and they inspire us to be part of that legacy.
Speaking of iconic, Leica artist Cartier Bresson captured what the Leica camera means to so many: “I have never abandoned the Leica, anything different that I have tried has always brought me back to it. I am not saying this is the case for others. But as far as I am concerned it is the camera. It literally constitutes the optical extension of my eye.”
Paul Wolff won a Leica at the Frankfurt Photography Exhibition in 1926 and became a high priest for the brand, winning many converts with his 1934 book “My Experiences with the Leica” His compatriot, Ilse Bing, born to a Jewish family in Frankfurt, was dubbed ‘the Queen of the Leica” after an exhibit in 1931. She bought a Leica in 1929, and what is remarkable, as one strolls through a roster of her peers, is how quickly the Leica habit caught on.
“Capturing the moment,” not just for Cartier-Bresson, but for all photographers, became much more decisive in 1954. When Leica launched the M3 that year, the clarity was a coup de foudre. Even now, when you look through an M3, the world before you is brighter and crisper than seems feasible. A Leica viewfinder resembles no other because the frame outline – the thin white lines parallel to each side of the frame – show you the borders of the photograph but also what is happening, or about to happen, just outside of the frame. It is the essence of clairvoyance.
In the early days, LHSA was declared as “a club for collectors of old Leica models and accessories,” by approximately two
dozen people and member Gerald Leeson, one of the original organizers. The year was 1969, and a professor at Ohio State University, Al Clark, had agreed to provide a meeting room, an agenda, and a good place to have lunch. By 1971, the group had renamed itself from the Leica Collectors International, to The Leica Historical Society of America. One person attending the first meetings, then a student at Ohio State, was James Lager. Jim has produced hundreds of articles for our publications. A quarterly journal was developed and established early in the formation of your society and was called the Viewfinder. In 1973, the first issues of the Society’s new publication for trading and selling equipment were called the Leicalog, then changed to Leica Catalog. Our current Viewfinder Editor, Bill Rosauer joined around 1982 and has faithfully held all the leadership positions. Ed Schwartzreich joined in 1992 and has contributed many articles to the Viewfinder, currently as Associate Viewfinder Editor. Your Secretary and Treasurer, Tom Campbell is another long time contributing member of our Society, as currently serves as Secretary/Treasurer.
TODAY
As with any organization that stands the test of time, one word that can describe its survival is Transformation. We have come a long way since 1969, particularly during the last few years, evolving from collectors to users of Leica equipment. Members of the Leica International Society-LHSA, are in over 35 countries. The connective glue that binds us together is the Leica legacy, which connects us to the past and the desire to belong to something that is greater than ourselves.
Your Leica Society now offers its members a wider array of opportunities for interaction, education, and inspiration than ever before. Through social media, and a better understanding of what the younger generations want to hear, we’ve expanded our visibility and created a more engaging experience for the younger generations who live and play in those spaces. Our efforts and shared experiences allow us to focus on delivering these core beliefs to grow the Society by attracting newfound energy and enthusiasm from across our Leica Community. We have formed meaningful collaborations with Leica USA and Leica AG, and recently with Leica Dealers, and they see value in working with LHSA, and we will continue to expand these relationships.
TOMORROW
What binds and drives us into tomorrow is that we at LHSA want to help with your Leica Journey. We are all seeking something, whether it’s satisfying our wants, creating meaningful experiences, looking for information and education, or comradery at meetings. We each have a strong desire to continue our quest as we each travel along our own Leica Journey.
This recent transformation has just begun! We have been laying our foundation for future growth, and through increased visibility, engagement and more meaningful experiences, and developing better messages through storytelling, we improve the odds of viewers who come to our table to become members.
We need to be able to tell our story through your stories. Help us to better show that there is lasting value in making a commitment with LHSA. We need your help to better show that we can help everyone along their Leica Journey and be “The Go to Place for all things Leica”.
You can help by being Ambassadors for LHSA. You can write compelling stories along with your imagery, in a way that resonates with the emotions of our readers, and share these with your fellow members on our website or in our publications. You may have some good ideas to advance your Society and make it more visible to our Leica Community. You could form a local Leica Group, like our SLUG in Seattle, or the one that our Vice President, Alan Weinschel is working with at SOHO in NYC. You may have some spare time and wish to serve on various Committees or become a Director. There are, I’m sure, other ways you can help. Send those suggestions to our Executive Director, Richard Rejino. Together, we can build a stronger Society, one that has perceived value in the Leica Community – a Society that works even more closely with Leica USA and Leica AG – a Society that stands at the pinnacle of aspiration.
Thanks for listening, and happy shooting!
Gary Hough, LHSA President
annual meeting in wetzlar
The LHSA 2018 annual Meeting will be held in Wetzlar October 4-7. The meeting will celebrate the end of our Jubilee Year. Registration has been limited to 150 and we are sold out, with attendees expected from 19 countries. If you wish to be on a wait list in case a spot opens please call or email:
Executive Director Richard Rejino info@lhsa.org | (972) 233-9107
A LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
by BILL ROSAUER
just returned from the dedication of the completion of Leitz Park III. I had a great time, meeting a lot of folks I have only known via emails or Facebook. I also had the opportunity to see many of my friends at Leica, some of whom I had not seen in twelve years, the last time I was in Wetzlar. David Farkas and Alan Weinschel of the LHSA were also there, our good friend Stefan Daniel of Leica, Jonathan Slack, Evris Papanikolas of Rock N Roll straps, good friends Lars Netopil and Craig Semetko. New friends “Chats” Chatterjee and Hari Subramanyam were also excellent companions, and they were so interested in the fall meeting in Wetzlar, they immediately signed up as members and should be there in October. Special thanks to Andreas Kaufmann for including me in the festivities and for making Leitz Park possible. When I greeted him at Café Leitz, he enthusiastically said, “Ah yes, Bill Rosauer of the LHSA, our number one fan club!” I will be writing several articles in upcoming issues of Viewfinder about Leitz Park.
Jim Rice is a first time contributor here in Viewfinder, with his article and photos on Real Cuba. I met Jim about two years ago after an opening at Tamarkin’s here in Chicago. We went out to my favorite restaurant in Greek Town and Jim and I instantly bonded. Jim regularly posts his images on Facebook along with interesting and sensitive observations about his subject matter. When I saw his images from Cuba, I immediately contacted him about doing an article for Viewfinder. I hope you will agree that Jim’s images are something special and different from the usual Cuba fare. I look forward to Jim’s future contributions to Viewfinder.
Ed Schwartztreich brings us a translation of an article by past Vidom editor Alfred Wehner, a whimsical ode to his very early Leica #354. Continuing his research into his favorite subject matter, Ed also shares more information on Dr. Paul Wolff’s very early photographic exhibitions for the Leica. Jim Lager shows us the earliest known FISON lens shade for the Leica, and a 1999 photo of the “Big Four” of Leica literature – Jim, Rogliatti, Sartorius and van Hasbroeck. On a side note, I ran into van Hasbroeck at the Leitz Park dedication last week in Wetzlar!
Albert Knapp and Ruth Oratz share the beauty of the Antarctic ice in another installment in their series of exotic photo
locations. I’m impressed by the beauty and variety of their subject matter, contrary to an assumption that all ice looks alike. Some of their work was done under very arduous conditions from a Zodiac inflatable boat, but the results were well worth it.
David Knoble takes us along for an adventure into the colorful and exotic world of flamenco in Madrid, Spain. David gets some outstanding results with the Leica M-D and APO Summicron 50 ASPH lens, in an exercise of restraint using one camera/one lens. Being without a rear LCD, the M-D forces one to concentrate only on the essentials, the core philosophy of “Das Wesentliche”.
My old friend Mark Bohrer returns to the pages of Viewfinder in this issue with two articles. He gives us a report on the LHSA Sante Fe Spring Shoot, which by all accounts was a resounding success. Mark also brings his unique perspective to wildlife photography, with his article “Bring a Knife to a Gunfight?”, where Mark defies conventional wisdom that nothing less than a DSLR and 400mm lens will suffice for this type of photography. Mark shows us that the M10 and 135mm lens can be very useful in this type of work. Dick Gilcreast returns with his Tips and Techniques series, touting the benefits of the screw mount cameras and an older 135/4.5 Hektor as a light weight, effective package to use at a track meet. Terry Maltby, longtime LHSA member and Leica user finds renewed pleasure in using his trusty M and R lenses in the digital age with is newly acquired Leica T camera.
Lex Bosman, LHSA member from the Netherlands, takes a look at using some specialized Schneider-Kreuznach lenses and Novoflex accessories on the M camera. If you are not familiar with these companies, Schneider-Kreuznach is a long-established and well-respected maker of photographic lenses, having made several lenses for Leica, notably the 50/1.5 Xenon, the 21mm Super Angulon in M and R mounts and the 35mm PA Curtagon. Novoflex has made many interesting accessories for use with the Leica over the years.
Bis Nächste zeit! - Bill
PHOTOGRAPHY CAN BE A SOLITARY PURSUIT.
You know how you want the scene to look to tell your story. But it requires your single-minded attention to stay on-track, while being alert for interesting sidetrips. Manual tools also need focused concentration to get the technically-excellent, well-composed pictures telling that story, far more than you need with auto-pilot AF dSLRs and zoom lenses.
And you may admire other people's work online. But even if they're in your city, busy lives may keep you from meeting them to trade ideas face-to-face. You need to schedule time for a photo workshop to make it happen.
SHOOTING LEICAS IN SANTA FE
by MARK BOHRER
LHSA SPRING SHOOT
GETTING (RE-)ACQUAINTED
I'd never been to an International Leica Society event before, so when I saw LHSA's 2018 Spring Shoot was scheduled in Santa Fe just an hour north of me, I jumped on it. Santa Fe is someplace I'm usually passing through on my way to the mountains and hot springs at Ojo Caliente, Ancestral Puebloan ruins at Chaco Canyon, winter wine tasting in Taos, or Great Sand Dunes in southeastern Colorado. Aside from meeting other Leica photographers, the Spring Shoot offered a chance to reexamine Santa Fe scenes in an unhurried way, all those possibilities I'd come to ignore.
I registered at 6pm that first evening, and said hi to Leica shooters from different parts of the country, demographics and experience. I saw everything from Leica I model D film cameras with no rangefinder or viewfinder to digital M10s and SLs. LHSA Executive Director Richard Rejino welcomed everyone and laid out the schedule, raising my appetite for the coming days.
SPIELMAN INSPIRES PLAZA SHOOTING
David Spielman inspired the next morning with stories of unposed people walking into neighborhood devastation after Katrina, well-known writers respectfully captured in their homes, and musicians - famous and unknown - playing around New Orleans. And he talked about his shooting methods, including mapping and notes in a pocket notebook wherever he goes. He re-validated film with his excellent black and white work - he uses an M6 and Tri-X.
We got our assignments by group color and subject, with a reminder to shoot anything else interesting (those side-trips again). Then it was time to head out.
My Yellow group was assigned Santa Fe's Plaza on this first cloudy morning. I had wanted a chance to try Leica's autofocus lenses, so I borrowed a Vario-Elmarit-SL 24-90mm f/2.8-4 for my SL, courtesy of Leica Akademie's Tom Smith. Hazy, diffused light made it almost too easy to shoot after 10am when our little group set out.
I captured a modern-day traveler on the old Santa Fe Trail, and the signs hanging above the covered walkway circling the plaza. I also shot fellow attendee Eric Baumgartner speaking with a local who'd been carrying a battered guitar case (we later discovered he had a Gibson Les Paul inside that he played very well). And Bob Brutsch ran interference while I photographed local Puebloans selling art and jewelry in front of the Palace of the Governors. But I wanted something less clichéd, so I began walking around.
I discovered more appealing subjects in the sculpture outside the New Mexico Museum of Art and unexpected reading in
the trash outside the Santa Fe Public Library. But there was also a funeral at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, whose construction was directed by Archbishop Jean Baptiste Lamy between 1869 and 1886. I kept back as purple-shirted mourners filed out and the casket made its last journey to the waiting hearse.
After another circuit past cow skulls, an on-demand poetry writer complete with mechanical typewriter, and bright colors of local weavers, I took time for lunch at La Plazuela inside the La Fonda Hotel. Food, bars and restaurants are favorite subjects of mine. For food, the 35mm f/1.2 Nokton's minimum 19 inch focusing distance comes in handy with the M10's EVF, or adapted to the SL.
SHOOTING PEOPLE
In the afternoon, we listened to Don Usner. He began his journey shooting pictures without people. Then he ended up looking for people to put in his pictures. This resonated with me - as a twenty-something adult I had an Ansel Adams-ish aversion to people in my shots, which I also eventually got over.
Don reminded us we're invading the personal space of people we photograph, so it's important to give value in exchange. Be open and honestly direct, show an interest, and you may find a connection. Then return with pictures to share. Don used this approach for his pictures of lowrider culture in New Mexico, a fascinating pictorial journey of classic cars, hopping contests, and muscular tattooed men and women who'd scare off most people. He discovered lowrider family connections, and made us realize these are people with their own likes, hopes and culture.
My afternoon group assignment was people. But I have a hard time walking up to and engaging strangers in conversation. Fortunately for me, Native American musicians on the Plaza
Modern rider on the old Santa Fe Trail. Gallery lion enjoying the day. Native American drummers.
made it easy, drawing a ready-made crowd of interesting faces. Their intent concentration and playing were another good story. There were also canine spectators and the attractions of local shops - the ones allowing photography inside.
The late afternoon session had David Spielman relating his personal journey of discovery from picking up a camera at age 15, to exiting college and choosing a city to shoot in, to what drives him to photograph and publish. He walked away from catalog photography, where he'd discovered that even managers have to spend tons of time away from the camera. After quitting that job, he thought the phone would stop ringing. Then he discovered people liked his work and wanted him to shoot for them.
But his key lesson for us was that you're only as successful as how hard you're willing to work. That can be especially true today when everyone's brother-in-law is a digital photographer. Spielman learned that you have to let the brother-in-law fail before clients call you back.
There was a gallery session scheduled for the evening, but I skipped it to have dinner with my wife. The next morning, more than a few people thought I'd been right to prioritize that way. And the Bourbon Grill gave me another chance at local food photography.
HOW TO SURVIVE SHOOTING FREELANCE
Santa fe-based photographer Wilbur Norman started off the final morning. His early training as an anthropologist led him to use the power of images and words to illustrate and describe indigenous cultures disrupted by contact with modern society. He provided practical hints for running a freelance photography business and funding personal projects, among many other things. He also talked about the increase in freelancers in this time of corporate cost reductions and shrinking staff. Most importantly, he admonished everyone to avoid working at less than your cost, to value your work.
Norman inspired us with his black and white portraits of the Buena Vista Social Club’s Omara Portuondo, whose picture on his phone kept him out of trouble in Cuba, songwriter / folk guitarist Richie Havens in concert, and photographer Prentice H. Polk, whose own portrait of botanist George Washington Carver is in the Smithsonian Museum. We went out to shoot individually this time, reminded to possibly go back and shoot something from the previous day to get it right.
Maybe I was more relaxed or it could have been the example of fellow attendee Larry Kerschberg who seemed to have an easygoing way with people, but I ended up approaching folks running the booths at the Santa Fe Artists Market to photograph. A high-speed Railrunner locomotive was nearby in the railyard, so there were many interesting subjects.
WARTIME DREAMS
After another great lunch at La Plazuela, Tony O'Brien talked about shooting in wartime. On his way to shoot the first Gulf war, he stopped in Berlin. It was there that an associate looked at his Canon gear and told him, "You must have Leicas. I'm going to find the Leica rep!" Tony left with Leica gear and without his Canons.
On one of his trips to Afghanistan, he gave the kids he met three wishes. Many told him the first thing they dreamed of having was an education. Those thoughts and pictures were at the core of his book Afghan Dreams.
He appreciates people giving him the gift of allowing him to walk into their lives. Shooting over the years, he's discovered that the good folks with positive hopes and dreams outnumber the bad people. And everyone is a worthy personjunkies helped him when the police beat him up.
EDIT FOR REVIEW
After Tony's presentation, I punted afternoon shooting to edit and choose my five best pictures for the afternoon review. That’s when the purple shirts in my funeral picture became black and white, focusing more attention on body language and facial expression, and when contrast became enhanced and colors more saturated – or not. It was great to see everyone's best, from first-time Leica users to seasoned shooters. There will also be a book of everyone's three best shots later in May. Talk about incentive!
Sean Reid's online review of the 24-90mm f/2.8-4 VarioElmarit-SL summarizes, "It's heavy but it's good." I found this to be accurate with my loaner lens. I liked the images it gave, especially image-stabilized at long shutter speeds for blur, but its weight and middling aperture didn't give me enough reason to consider buying one. I'll stick with lighter fast M-primes instead. Guess I’m still addicted to depth of field isolation,
(ab0ve) Funeral and hearse, Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi.
and I’m definitely sick of being a photo gear packhorse.
After many goodbyes and final conversations with new friends, it was time to go. I’ll look forward to that book of Spring Shoot photographs, and future events.
ABOUT MARK BOHRER
Mark Bohrer has been shooting with Leicas since he found his grandfather's M3 in the basement in 1969. Today he leads photo tours to hidden cultural and natural sites in New Mexico. His website is www.activelightphotograplhy.com.
MORE INFORMATION
Norman, W. (n.d.) Wilbur Norman –Photography. Retrieved from: https://www.wilburnorman.com/
Santa Fe Artists Market (n.d.)
Welcome to the Santa Fe Artists Market. Retrieved from: santafeartistsmarket.com/
Spielman, D. (n.d.)
David Spielman Photographer. Retrieved from: https://www.davidspielman.com/index
Tony O'Brien (n.d.) Luminous-Lint. Retrieved from: http://www.luminous-lint. com/app/photographer/Tony__OBrien/A/
(above) Heading upstairs, La Fonda Hotel (below) Sculpture, New Mexico Museum of Art
THE LIGHTWEIGHT 135MM F/4.5 HEKTOR
rangefinder 135mm lens is particularly useful for amateur sports work. Not big and heavy like a 200 with Visoflex, or a 180 on a reflex camera, and not so short as a 90, it serves to replace all of those. Add a 50 on a second camera to take care of close shots and groups, and the two lenses together are all that is needed for a day at a grandson’s high school track meets, for instance, working with two older Leica IIIc cameras. The equipment is small and light, but still able to bring back the shots. A good choice for the long lens can be one of the lightweight 135mm f/4.5 Hektors, as seen here.
The Hektor may not be quite as fast as a later f/4 Elmar lens in SM mount, and it may not have quite the ultra-flat MTF curves of the latest lenses, but it is quite sharp, and the versions made from 1949 on are lighter in weight -- and this one is black! – so I can concentrate on the shooting and not be obliged to answer bystanders’ questions, as was apt to happen when I was using a more attention-getting chrome Hektor. It makes a great lens to carry in a small bag for an afternoon at the races. Sometimes without any bag at all.
The 135mm f/4.5 Hektor is of course available in black or chrome finish, both quite common on the used market. The 1949 lighterweight versions (down from 550g to 440g) first appeared in the traditional black paint, soon changed to chrome in 1950. All are identified by a black vulcanite band around the base. Thus the only black lightweight 135 Hektors were produced in 1949 – the lens shown No. 700154 from the middle of that year – and its vulcanite band is sharkskin, seen on Leica cameras made during that same period.
But why use the old screw-mount cameras?
TIPS & TECHNIQUES
by DICK GILCREAST
Well, they are small and relatively light, they have comfortable handling, and they have that excellent 1.5x enlarged rangefinder image (with diopter adjustment!) combined with the instantaneous shutter response that all Leicas are famous for. Also in their favor, they keep me grounded in the essentials of photography. The great latitude of modern color negative
film doesn’t need precise camera metering in outdoor conditions. Distant action doesn’t need auto parallax correction. And, with rapid action, good timing on the initial shot is needed more than rapid winding for a second backup shot. So the old cameras do as well as the newer ones under these circumstances. And the lighter bag keeps my shoulder happy.
Incidentally – although not really necessary – I have always felt it a good idea to mount and dismount the screw-mount Hektor while set at its closest distance of five feet. Many of these lenses have a partial rangefinder cam segment at the back of the lens, and the close focus retracts that cam and reduces the momentary displacement of the camera’s rangefinder coupling roller while the lens is rotated during mounting.
A good 135mm viewfinder to use for sports on any rangefinder Leica is the SHOOC brightline with its life-size 1:1 image. True, the image is not enlarged, but it makes it possible to frame the subject tightly while still seeing what is going on immediately outside the frame. It also has no distracting focus spots or rangefinder patch in the middle of the frame to divert the eye from the action. And the continuous life-size image also makes it easy to assess distance (with both eyes open if you want) as well as keeping track of pre-focus points and looking for cleaner gaps in a busy background while the action passes in front of it. This is all much more easily done in a brightline finder than when using a reflex camera with its large and constantly shifting image, tight black borders, and instant total blackout hiding the critical moment.
The record of Hektor production (Leica Pocket Book, 8th edition, Bower and Clark) shows production doubled in 1949 to 3109 lenses form the previous year’s 1786, so it was instantly popular. And with good reason. It was very sharp for its day, and still compares well now. After 1950 its production increased to well over 5000 by 1952, and, with production in both screw and bayonet mounts during the reign of the M3, the total numbers had swelled to over 10,000 per year in 1955. It stayed close to that figure each year until the introduction of the f/4 Elmar in 1960.
The slightly slower speed of the Hektor makes no difference in these days of sharp and grainless ISO 200 or 400 color negative films. But the lighter weight does make a difference compared to that excellent (but heavy) early black bayonet mount 135mm f/4 Tele-Elmar M lens which I used for a long time. As the years passed It began to feel twice as heavy as the Hektor when hung on
the front of an M camera, let alone the (very heavy) 135mm f/2.8 Elmarit with goggle-eyes that I carried in Europe one summer. Two larger and heavier M cameras with four larger and heavier lenses finally got to be more than I wanted to carry all day, hence my return to using a couple of IIIc bodies with 135 Hektor and 50 Summitar at day-long track meets.
Exposures on ISO 400 film in normal daylight will be around 1/1000th at f/8. But if the light should decrease due to clouds or a setting sun there are four stops available down to 1/200th at f/4.5 before a need to start panning the action to keep it sharp. And of course a 50mm f/2 can be used for panning at the finish line under evening floodlights, if it comes to that.
The 50mm brightline finder SBOOI, also with life size 1:1 vision, can be used for all 50mm work near and far, being particularly nice for viewing full frame when wearing glasses. And it has a
parallax correction line for shots at closest distance when needed. It was first available in 1949 (Lager, Leica Illustrated Guide II). I got one in 1952. It helped to prepare my eye for my first M3 later on… but that’s another story.
photos
The head-on and panned running photos were made with the 135 Hektor on ISO 400 Agfa Vista color negative film, both a 1/1000th during competition.
The group photo was made with the 50 Summitar on Vista 200 immediately following and unexpected overall cross country win.
The camera and lens shown are Leica IIIc No. 504107 from 1950, and 135mm f/4.5 Hektor No. 700154, with compact black hood FLQOO which can take a 50mm Summicron lens cap. The viewfinder is the 135mm brightline SHOOC.
by ALFRED WEHNER
Schätzchen
Alfred Wehner is one of the founders of Leica Historica (the German Leica society), and editor of its VIDOM journal from its founding in 1975 to 2006.
Alfred Wehner explains his piece "Schätzen" for us. “This text is from what I wrote in VIDOM Nr. 88 (2005). It is a dialogue between Leica No. 354 and her second owner on occasion of her 80th birthday and his 70th. I allowed myself two pages of satire as reward for my endeavors with the rest of the magazine. 'Schätzchen' means 'dearie' and at that time there was a cult-movie titled 'Zur Sache Schätzchen' ('Let's come to the point, dearie').
"LEICA No. 354 was delivered in 1925 to a Mannheim photo dealer who sold it to a Heidelberg professional photographer; he used it for outdoor photography. Tourists were assembled to be photographed in front of the famous ruins of Heidelberg castle (the stage where they assembled exists still). After his death the descendants sold everything from the photo studio, but they missed Leica No. 354, which lay in the drawer of a bedside cabinet. Later on they discovered the camera but they were unable to use it. The owner wanted an automatic Japanese mirror-reflex camera. I paid him enough money to buy one, so everyone was happy.
"As a professional photographer, No. 354's first owner seemed not quite satisfied with the early product. He sent it back to Wetzlar a few times where it was gradually upgraded, the ELMAX and the camera body being converted to screw mounts.”
"I have translated the "Schätzchen" into English; I added the depth-of-field table which was mentioned in the text as a proof how I found out what the first owner was doing with the camera."
Happy Birthday, Sweetie! Now you will be 80!
This is unheard of! Who would trumpet the age of a lady? And by the way, you aren’t so young either; don’t pride yourself on the ten years you are running behind me, my grey-bearded lover. Your age can be seen more clearly than mine. Am I not the lithe and lissome one, whereas you have must visit the fitness studio just so that you will be able to walk upright?
Excuse me, my dearest, I was thinking that you liked flirting with your years. You are so slim and quick, everybody takes you for a young girl, and when one looks into your bright eye...
You old charmer! I forgive you, you impolite companion. You may take me in your hand, put your fingers fondly around me and whisper something lovingly into my ear.
What are you saying now? You want me to tell you about my first lover? Aren’t you content to own me now? Do you want to possess even my juvenile years? Finally would you like to know how I was born? Well now, I tell you all.
I was born on April 20, 1925. My name: LEICA three-five-four. Birthplace: Wetzlar. Grandfathers: Oskar Barnack & Max Berek. Father: August Bauer. Birth Assistants: the Leitz mechanics of the first hour. Immediately after birth I was allowed to travel, to Mannheim, destination: Breunigs Photo Centrale. And then? Then came he, my first. He saw me and he knew what I could do. He was a professional, a master of light and shade, he owned a studio in Heidelberg with large cameras. But he also liked to work outside, preferably in front of the beautiful renaissance facade of the Old Heidelberg castle. Whoever visited Germany from far away needed to go to Old Heidelberg and to bring a photograph back home showing him in front of the castle. That was the rule at that time. If you will take me to Heidelberg I show you the stage where busloads of tourists are assembled for a group photo in front of the castle still nowadays.
Didn’t you see the little table that my first had handwritten and had slipped in the little rear compartment of my everready case? There he wrote down all the combinations of distance and diaphragm settings that would lead to his desired result: how close can I go to a person and at which lens stop and meter distance setting so that the foreground and background (at infinity) remain sharp? The infinite background - that was the castle. Depending on the light he adjusted only the lens stop and meter distance setting, shutter time always remaining the same. He knew the settings by heart, as you will see. His little table has remained pristine. It sat in the case until you took it out. As I told you, my first was a professional, he did not leave a shot to chance. With me he was always fast, much faster than his colleagues with their old-fashioned plate cameras. But he was also a critical person, and I would like to know what he had written to Oskar Barnack and August Bauer when he sent me to Wetzlar in 1928 and 1931 for repair and improvement. Each time I returned to him rejuvenated and upgraded. He even ordered a new mount for the lens and a 0-standardized lens mount for my body, because he had foreseen that I should be the center of a complete system.
But my collecting friends will turn up their noses at this conversion; they will say that you are no longer original and a virgin!
What about that! Who said “no longer original“? Everything that came out of the Leitz workshop is original, it was made by the right mechanics with the right tools and the right parts. Tell your collecting historians to remember this. Tell them to reflect on what history is. History is not a single moment, not an instant shot. History is a process, is dynamics, is development, forward or backward. Everything flows, nothing remains as it once had been. It is not history when you remain in a drawer - this is only a long frozen instant. If you look at me you can see how history happened, what Barnack and his colleagues were able to improve. And how close their early children were to their hearts. For No. three-five-four their sole task was first to
Sweetie
satisfy her. This was a concern for every man at Leitz, from the boss down to the apprentice.
And then?
Then came World War II, and Heidelberg was exempted from the bombing. At the end of the war there was nothing to eat and nothing to buy, but with a Leica you could have swapped for many things. But my first kept me apart, in the drawer of his bedside cabinet, and here I remained until his death for a very long frozen instant. His heirs emptied the studio and sold everything save me. The son-in-law discovered me and took me home, but he was no professional, he had not learned to guess the distance, to see the light and to judge its intensity. He wanted a camera which thought for him, therefore he needed money and you gave it to him. And you got me. Now it is twenty years that I am with you. No, you are not a professional, but you could be one. I appreciate that you do not incarcerate me in a cabinet, but let me see the world and your friends. And that now and then you grant me film and make fine pictures. I love resting in your hand, I love it when you advance the film, when you release the shutter and when I can confirm every day that I am better than those new filmless things. Don’t you have one of them? Am I not right?
Well, when I grant you a fine grain film, you outshine them with your high resolution, not to mention the first-class correction of your lens. But those digitals have built many features within a small body; with you I would have had to add many clumsy additional accessories to achieve the same effect. Just think of the picture of the two of us that I had taken with an oldfashioned Nikon Digital (E 5000) to illustrate our talk: the little Leitz table tripod, the digital screwed on top of it, the monitor reversed, activating the self-timer, looking through your viewfinder into the monitor and waiting until it had portrayed us - this is damn good, practical, fast and also extremely sharp. Using you would have meant adding a close-up lens, measuring the distance with a meter stick, using a long wire release and aiming just somewhere in our direction.
Stop raving about digital technology, use your own head instead as my first had done. He was a practitioner. Why didn’t you stand with me in front of a great mirror as he
would have done?
Many thanks my dear. Do you really need to remind me about the abilities of your first?
Do you still love me, old greybeard?
Yes, my sweetie, more then ever before. None may compete with your slenderness, with your dark lustrous skin, with your roundness and your light weight. You slip in in the pocket of my jacket as if you were not really present, yet you are here and belong to me like a part of my hand and my eye. Do you know that you and your sisters, through the hand of great photographers have changed the world of pictures? With Leica I the triumph of fast photography started because she was produced in great numbers. Barnack’s Ur Leica and the Nullserie were only the start, but the breakthrough started with you, because many photographers worked with you. To be successful a revolution needs not only an idea and a leader, but many followers, and you, the Leica I, have attracted them.
I think that in honor of you they ought to build a replica of the Leica I at Solms; a camera which avoids the imperfection on the Nullserie and realizes your advantages. A camera not only to commemorate Oskar Barnack and Max Berek, but also in honour of August Bauer and the first mechanics who built you and your sisters.
A replica for a collector’s cabinet?
You know quite well that I don’t have such a cabinet. Everything is to be used, even replicas of the Leica I.
And what about me?
You will always be my sweetie, you may make pictures. I hope I live unto your hundreth’s birthday, even with shaky hands.
No problem, use the five-hundredth of a second!
Alfred Wehner
Translated Feb. 8, 2018 German version printed in VIDOM 88, 1985
BRING A KNIFE TO A GUNFIGHT?
USING THE LEICA M FOR WILDLIFE
Don't bring a knife to a gunfight, right?
Conventional wisdom says use a long lens for wildlife - at least 400mm, and longer is better for birds. And leave the short lenses at home?
Not really. Alongside the super-telephoto on the dSLR, I always carry a second camera with not-so-long lenses when I'm shooting wildlife. I'll need it for landscapes and closeups, and just maybe for group flight shots.
That second camera is a Leica M10. The 135mm viewfinder frame and lens let me track wildlife motion outside what goes on pixels, making usable captures much more likely. The M10 and 135mm lens came in very handy at a well-known National Wildlife Refuge.
Waterbirds Go To Bosque For the Food
The Arctic feeds at least 500,000 breeding sandhill cranes each summer. Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge hosts 5,000-10,000 of those cranes every winter, along with 12,000 to 24,000 snow geese and other migrating water birds. Cranes and geese will fly over 3500 miles to get there before winter snow covers their food.
I’d last been there in December 2003 after reading about bird photographer Arthur Morris’ trips to the place. I captured snow geese thundering up in a single noisy cloud against a pink dawn sky on that trip, and wanted to take another shot at it with better gear.
by MARK BOHRER
Bosque is a short 107 mile drive south of my home base in Albuquerque. As usual, it took us awhile to get dogs, humans and a small RV ready in the morning, so we arrived in midafternoon. After a brief stop at the visitor center, we drove in.
Marsh or Farm?
The refuge has two loop roads, the Marsh loop (south) and the Farm loop (north). Snow geese like water, so you'd expect them on the Marsh loop. But we found them in the ponds on the Farm loop. Sandhill cranes like corn and alfalfa leavings in the farm loop area. But they were also mostly in the ponds that afternoon, and not very close. I was disappointed by my lack of frame-filling opportunities with the big lenses, but I shot evening light with the M10 anyway. I figured I'd probably gotten a few good silhouettes, but sunset color was fleeting and duller than my last trip 14 years ago.
After a barely-edible dinner in Socorro and what I thought was unproductive shooting the next morning, we took a break for better food further south in Ruidoso. I hadn't done as well as I thought I should with the 400mm and 1120mm-equivalent telephotos. What I didn't think about were the shots captured from the Leica's shorter lenses, the in-your-face wetland landscapes, reflecting ponds and marshes with sun-starred winter trees that hadn't quite lost their leaves (more later on how I made those shots).
Morning Captures
When we arrived back at Bosque a day later, I was refreshed and ready to go. After another early morning at Chupadero
Mountain RV Park a few miles outside the refuge, we went searching for snow geese. As the fog burned off with the rising sun, we found them. They were in the empty cornfields where the cranes usually hang out, on the north end of the Farm loop.
A few hundred gabbling geese looking for food on the ground will just hit you with their noise. Add heavy wingbeats and excited 'out of my way' calls of a mass liftoff and you have a
sound riot rivaling an enthusiastic crowd at the Hollywood Bowl. I didn't get the liftoff with sunrise pinks and reds I'd wanted, but I did capture one in mid-morning. And it was still a spectacle.
All good things come to an end. In this case, low-angle December sun extended my shooting time. But around 9:30 am, I could hear old mentor Moose Peterson’s voice in my head saying, “Light’s getting pretty hard – time to pack up!”
We headed north to Socorro's old Spanish plaza for revitalizing hot chocolate and coffee. Breakfast beverages were at least reliable there.
Travel & Flight Shots with a Leica M
A Leica M’s optical viewfinder won't show me exactly what's on pixels, so I'll shoot a little loose. The only time an M10’s frame lines are close to 100% accurate is at 2m, and I’m never precisely at that distance.
When I'm capturing wildlife with a second camera and 135mm lens, I need to get close enough to allow cropping without too much resolution loss. Some of this is luck, but more is careful observation. Birds tend to choose the same overhead flight paths, and it's up to the shooter to see this and find the best position. Manual focus M-lenses complicate this a bit,
requiring subjects moving perpendicular to the camera's aim to allow close-to-sharp follow-focusing.
After observing and choosing your position, you'll want to set the camera for over-exposure. I shoot aperture-priority because I'll have other things to worry about in the heat of battle. I set exposure compensation with the M10's thumbrest dial, usually from +0.3 to +1.7 EV. With white snow geese, I stay towards the +0.3 end of that range to avoid blowing out detail in white feathers. A digital camera lets you check this on the fly with histograms and LCD previews so you can change exposure compensation if you need it.
Then I pick an ISO for shutter speeds in the 1/750 to 1/4000 second range after sunrise. Recent digital cameras produce very acceptable raw-format noise for ISOs as high as 1600 or 3200, so I can usually get the speeds I need handheld without excessive noise. The M10 gives me noise I can live with at ISO 12500, especially if I nail exposure or slightly overexpose in a bright central area. Then I can decrease exposure in Lightroom afterwards, and add noise reduction in selective areas with brush and graduated filter tools.
The flight shots were all captured with a 135mm f/4 Elmar from the early 1960s. Everything else here came from a 50mm f/1.4 Summilux-M ASPH or 75mm f/2 APO-Summicron-M. The sunstar landscape shows a pair of sunstars, one direct and one reflected. There was some diffraction around the tree branches to begin with. Stopping down to f/11 enhanced it, and a little moving around revealed the second sunstar in the water reflection.
I started with a 50mm for the sunset pond silhouettes, but switched to a 75mm to narrow the coverage. Live view didn’t show me shadow detail – current LCD / EVF technology lacks the eye’s dynamic range, though it makes composing easier on a tripod. I focused and composed as well as I could in the optical viewfinder. In DNG or any other raw format, you’ll always get more contrast range on pixels than the LCD or EVF show you.
Practice is important with longer focal lengths. I'm very used to 135mm, since a 135mm Hektor and a 50mm f/1.5 Summarit were the two lenses I had for an M3 in my teens. But no amount of practice and stealth will get you close enough to wild birds or mammals with 135mm. You'll need 400mm or longer for wild couples and closeups. Just bring the 135mm and shorter lenses too. Sometimes a knife is the right tool, even in a gunfight.
Choice of 135mm Lenses
I had the option of my old 135mm f/4.5 Hektor or something else. I picked up a 135mm f/4 Elmar (not Tele-) a few years
ago, a $150 eBay special. Yes, it has a longer focusing throw than a Tele-Elmar would have. No, it doesn’t quite have the ultimate sharpness of a 135mm f/3.4 APO-Telyt-M, a lens I sold awhile back when I switched to an M8 and its lack of 135mm framelines.
But the 135mm Elmar is very sharp almost to the corners at f/5.6 or f/8. Leica lens authority Erwin Puts thinks it’s better at f/4 than the 135mm Hektor at f/11. I haven’t missed the Hektor’s blurriness or the pristine sharpness of the APOTelyt at all with the Elmar. It just works, as you can judge from these pictures.
preceding page
(above) Snow geese on liftoff.
(below) Double sunstar, low flow channel.
below
Solo crane over the marsh.
opposite page (clockwise from top) Winter trees and reflection, low flow channel. Hot chocolate at Socorro's Sourdough Mine Restaurant Sunset pond silhouettes.
About Mark Bohrer
Mark Bohrer has been shooting with Leicas since he found his grandfather's M3 in the basement in 1969. Today he leads photo tours to hidden cultural and natural sites in New Mexico. His website is www.activelightphotograplhy.com.
More Information
International Crane Foundation. (n.d.)
Sandhill Crane Species Field Guide. Retrieved from: www.savingcranes.org/species-field-guide/sandhill-crane/
Paskus, L. (December 14, 2015) Sandhill Cranes Take Their Time Returning. Retrieved from: nmindepth.com/2015/12/14/sandhill-cranes-take-their-time-returning/
United States Government Publishing Office (n.d.) Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge New Mexico Map. Retrieved from: permanent.access.gpo.gov/LPS108905/LPS108905/www.friendsofthebosque. org/mapNMandtourloop.html
Puts, E. (2011) Leica Compendium, third edition. Inprint.lv, Riga. Available in digital format from www.imx.nl/photo/styled-49/
CUBA
1959 Fidel Castro, Camilo Cienfuegos, and Ché Guevara successfully overthrew the Batista government and took over in Havana. Back in Indiana, in 1959, my mother gave me my first camera. She challenged me to go out and make photographs that were “classic”. I asked her, “What kind of photographs are classic”? She said, “That’s for you to figure out”. I spent 1959-1961 with my camera in the basket of my bicycle, riding all over our small town, looking for photographs that were “classic”. The American cars of the 1950’s became intriguing subjects for me, as did everyday life on the streets of our small town. Although I didn’t realize what I was doing, in fact I was documenting life around me in my small hometown.
In 1961, an intruder entered our home and shot my father, critically wounding him, and also shot and killed my mother. My world was turned upside down. In the aftermath of the shooting, I went to live with my maternal grandparents. In the midst of the immense grief, all of my photographs and my cameras were lost forever. After that day, whenever I saw a camera, all I could think of was my mother. And so I didn’t touch a camera for a long time.
It took forty years for a camera to seriously find its way back into my hands. In 2001 I was newly divorced and I decided that I had to try and pick up a camera once again. Analog photography was rapidly being impacted by digital photography, and so I bought a digital Nikon D50 DSLR. I worked my way through several digital DSLR’s, including a Nikon D70, Nikon D300, and then a Nikon D3s. I was learning the nuances of digital photography, but somehow the magic just wasn’t returning.
(opposite page) Baracoa
M240/28mm Cron
f/11, 1/30 sec, ISO 1000
(below) Santiago de Cuba
M240/28mm Cron
f/11, 1/60 sec, ISO 800
One night I happened to watch a video by Konstantin Adenauer of Germany, entitled “Craig Semetko: A Portrait”. Semetko was using a Leica rangefinder camera, something that was foreign to me, but intriguing at the same time. Soon I had purchased a copy of Craig’s first photo book, “Unposed”. As I studied his photographs, it felt like I was being transported back to my childhood, looking at my mother’s black-and-white photographs. I loaded up my Nikon D3s, all my Nikkor lenses, and traded them for a Leica M9 Rangefinder camera and a 50mm f/2 Summicron lens. In a very short period of time, I realized I was beginning to find the little boy with his camera in the basket of his bicycle once again. The magic of the Leica M9 and a 50mm lens helped me find me again, and my photographic journey began again in earnest.
I rediscovered my love of simply documenting life as it happens around me, always striving to find that “classic” moment that my mother had challenged me to find. For some reason, using a Leica rangefinder instead of a DSLR had helped me find my photographic vision again. The Leica rangefinder with a prime lens forced me to work more methodically, and when I worked more methodically my vision
by JAMES RICE
improved. The prime lens made my legs do the work instead of simply relying on a zoom lens. Shooting the M9 with its 50mm lens in many ways was similar to using my first Kodak Brownie Camera and later my Imperial Satellite 127. When I converted my M9 digital files to black-and-white, I was mesmerized. It was as though I had come full circle from my childhood forty years ago.
The opportunity to travel to Cuba for eight days in the spring of 2018 presented itself and I was thrilled at the thought of stepping onto Cuban soil. My equipment had comfortably settled into two cameras and two lenses: a Leica M240 with a 28mm Summicron ASPH and the Leica M Monochrom 246 with a 50mm APO Summicron ASPH. I always carried both the M240/28mm Cron and MM246/50mm APO around my neck together. With those two focal lengths, I was instinctive in terms of which focal length I needed for the shot. The long battery life on the M240 and MM246 allowed me to simply have both cameras on at all times – so it was a quick reach for the right camera, touch the shutter lightly to refresh, and I was ready to shoot. On narrow, cobblestone streets, I usually set my M240/28mm Cron up to use zone focusing. Depending on the light, I usually had my ISO set to around 800 or 1000, my aperture to f/11, and with my focus ring set appropriately, everything from about 1.2 meters to infinity was in focus. I used my MM246/50mm APO in settings that weren’t so confining, or when I chose to do a tight portrait. My methods were occasionally unorthodox -- I sometimes shot through the window of a bus as we traveled from one location to the next. In Santiago de Cuba, I captured a shirtless truck driver apparently deep in thought. Life happened fast, our time was short, and I didn’t want to miss a moment.
To me, documenting Cuba meant documenting the people. Since I believed that photographs of Cuba were quickly becoming cliché, I was convinced that my work in Cuba was to capture real life. Much of what I saw, even from some famous photographers, had oversaturated colors and scenes that appeared to be candid but almost certainly were posed to look as though they were candid. Therefore, I set out to capture beautiful moments of people immersed in daily life, in black-and-white, which is where my roots in photography have always been.
As is typical in Cuba, life spills from the homes directly onto the streets, almost as if there is no separation between the private and public spaces. I encountered serious games of dominoes, sometimes on the street in a residential area with four people sitting quietly around a table, and sometimes downtown in the public square with crowds of people clamoring around the table. In Baracoa a little girl’s eyes twinkled as her mother watched her adoringly from their terrace. Not far away, a grandmother lazily leaned against her doorway. Her smile and the wrinkles in her face reminded me that life is precious and fleeting.
(above) Baracoa
M240/28mm Cron
f/2, 1/1500 sec, ISO 640
(clockwise from top right)
Baracoa
M240/28mm Cron f/11, 1/90 sec, ISO 800
Santiago de Cuba
M240/28mm Cron f/11, 1/60 sec, ISO 800
Baracoa
M240/28mm Cron f/11, 1/45 sec, ISO 800
Baracoa
M240/28mm Cron f/11, 1/60 sec, ISO 640
Baracoa
M240/28mm Cron f/11, 1/180 sec, ISO 800
Baracoa
M240/28mm Cron f/11, 1/45 sec, ISO 800
Downtown, a young boy in an elementary school glanced over his shoulder and peered at me through a well worn wooden door. Not far from the school, on the steps of city hall, an apparent homeless man shared his sandwich with his two dogs. As I walked along a side street, an old man with a baggy shirt and a heavily wrinkled forehead grinned and spoke to me from a step he was sitting on. For a moment I didn’t see a partially obscured man just inside a doorway behind him, sitting shirtless in a chair. The man on the step was cordial and talkative, but the man in the chair was silent and wary of me. Such is life.
As a young boy, my first experience in my hometown barbershop in the mid-50's was magical. When the men in our Cuba entourage spied a barbershop in Baracoa, it was a done deal that we would all go in and get a haircut. The minute I stepped in, my mind raced back to the 1950's and I was that little boy again, thrilled to be in this place. Thrilled because this place was still stuck in the 1950's. There was the pedestal sink, crusty trashcans, the noisy fan, hair clippings all over the floor, and the open windows to the outside. And all the while I was turning back the calendar pages and once again becoming an excited, inquisitive little boy. I was again reminded that at 65 years old, I'm still as inquisitive as I was as a little boy. My Leica cameras are my portals to another world that isn't limited by time and space -- they take me to surprising places when I least expect it, and when that happens, I do my best to click the shutter at just the right time.
I discovered that the light and shadows in Cuba were spectacular. When I was in Baracoa, I spotted a man riding in the shadows of a bus. Through the open window, I could only see the lower half of his face, and in his left hand he held a ticket. In Santiago de Cuba, I was mesmerized as two women wearing polka dot headscarves stood in heavy shadows over a steaming pot, making some of the best espresso I have ever tasted. Not far from Santiago de Cuba, at the Gran Piedra Botanical Garden, a woman tucked away in the shadows used a makeshift broom to sweep a walkway, while a chicken pranced in the sunlight behind her. In Havana, an old man wearing a safari hat, glasses perched on his nose, and cane tucked under his arm, read from a small notebook to a man with his hands impatiently planted on his hips, the sunlight casting a long shadow in front of him. A third man, rather sinister looking, standing in the shadows, appeared to be disinterested. On another side of Havana, I glanced up to see a woman standing on a balcony, half of her face lit by the sun, half hidden in the shadows. As she stood behind the wrought iron railing, her expression left me wondering what was going on in her life.
(opposite page, above) Gran Piedra Botanical Garden. MM246/50mm APO Cron, f/8, 1/500 sec, ISO 400 (opposite page, bottom) Havana. M240/28mm Cron. f/11, 1/500 sec, ISO 1250
(this page, top) Baracoa. MM246/50mm APO Cron. f/11, 1/180 sec, ISO 320 (this page, bottom) Santiago de Cuba. M240/28mm Cron. f/2, 1/125 sec, ISO 640
(top) Havana. MM246/50mm APO Cron. f/2, 1/4000 sec, ISO 800
(bottom) Havana. MM246/50mm APO Cron. f/2, 1/500 sec, ISO 800
Not far away, I turned a corner and happened to look to my left. Deep in the shadows of a decaying building, a father was teaching his young son how to box. The textures of the walls, the rickety iron stairs, and the tenderness of this moment once again reminded me that nothing is more beautiful than real life.
One afternoon in Havana, I noticed an old Chevrolet parked along a narrow cobblestone street. As I walked closer, I realized the car wasn’t meant to be my subject. As I knelt down to compose the photograph, I paused for a moment – there was so much to see.
Beyond the Chevy, a young woman with her hand to her head stood with noticeable style and grace, a small purse hanging from her shoulder. Beyond her, the Spanish architecture of the majestic buildings glistened against a relentless afternoon sun, and a bird soared slowly in the warm skies. Only a few blocks away, in a residential area, I came across an old man sitting on a step in front of padlocked doors. Next to him his faithful dog seemed to stand guard. In real Cuba, life doesn’t need to be posed or contrived, rather it simply needs to be seen and appreciated.
Near the end of my journey in Cuba, I visited Cojimar, a small fishing village east of Havana. This village had been the inspiration for Ernest Hemingway when he wrote The Old Man and the Sea.
(below) Cojimar
M240/28mm Cron f/11, 1/350 sec, ISO 800
(front cover) Havana M240/28mm Cron f/11, 1/180 sec, ISO 800
High on a hill I discovered an abandoned building sitting in a state of severe decay. It appeared to be an old hotel.
Two ornate stone columns with lights on top held an old wrought iron gate. As I made the photograph of this place, there was both great beauty and sadness in what I saw. That was a rather frequent sentiment I felt while traveling in Cuba. The more I thought about that, it occurred to me that there is both great beauty and sadness in life, for all of us. As I walked away, I knew I wanted to embrace both the beauty and sadness, for all of my days.
James Rice is an Indiana-based documentary photographer. His roots in photography go back to the days of black-and-white film in the late 1950’s, and the bulk of his work remains in blackand-white to this day. All photographs were made with either a Leica M Monochrom 246/50mm APO Summicron ASPH or a Leica M (Typ 240)/28mm Summicron ASPH. James traveled to Cuba with Complete Cuba, a travel company based out of Chicago, focused on allowing small groups to experience a broad range of the entire island experience. Our group visited Holguin, Santiago de Cuba, Baracoa, Havana, and the countryside in between those places.
James and his wife Dona reside in the Arts & Design District of Carmel, Indiana. His work can be found as follows:
Leica S (007), Vario-Elmar-S 30-90mm f/3.5-5.6 ASPH at 90mm at f/5.6, 1/500 SEC, ISO 800.
(bottom) Blue Iceberg, Argentine Islands, Antarctica.
Leica Q
Summilux 28mm f/1.7 ASPH at f/5.6, 1/1000 SEC, ISO 3200.
(top
Leica Q (116) Summilux 28mm f/1.7 ASPH at f/5.6, 1/500 SEC, ISO 400.
(116)
ANTARCTICA,
the frozen continent is a unique and extreme environment.
Ice defines the terrestrial and marine limits of an area extending beyond 14 million km 3 (5.4 million square miles).
Ice that is 2,000 m. thick (6,560 ft.) covers this enormous landmass. 90% of the planet’s ice is here, the largest collection of fresh water on Earth. Ice that is vast and permanent, more than 30 million years old, is also fluid and plastic, flowing continuously from the frozen center to the watery edges where continental ice and sea ice merge.
Antarctic ice has formed from successive deposits of snow, which over time have compacted; crystals adhering to one another, transformed into transparent glassy solid sheets. But the ice changes shape and color as is it migrates and moves. Initially snow is white reflecting back all light, but as it melts and refreezes, the lattice patterns mutate with the properties of water. Red and yellow is absorbed superficially, blue light reflects back from the depths of the melted and refrozen lattice, changing constantly and forever the shape and color of ice.
When ice meets the sea it becomes lighter and thinner, floating on the surface, rimming the edges of the continent with
massive buoyant shelves that then calf explosively, sending huge chunks thundering into the water, forming icebergs. Large flat tabular icebergs are born directly from the shelves and we see them from great distances on the far horizon. Fantastically shaped icebergs are fractured from the continental ice tongues and glaciers. These smaller, irregularly shaped fragments set adrift are continuously sculpted by the winds and the currents, resulting in visions of ice undreamt.
To see this ice one must travel by small ship. It is often a long and arduous journey to the Antarctic Circle and points south. But once there, the experience of ice is quite marvelous. We are out on the sea in small zodiacs, bouncing across choppy waves and skidding over brash ice to get as close as we can to gigantesque icebergs and to the continental ice shelf. White cliff faces broken here and there by cracks and crevasses of blue that is at once luminous and profound. Ice snow flowing in channels roaring out to the seas, fresh and then salty. White light reflected shimmering and glistening against deep dark waters, or aqua splashes tinted by sea algae. The icebergs emerge and recede, great pyramids, towering spires and flying buttresses, gargoyles and chessmen, immense entwined dragons, prehistoric beasts in combat, celestial constellations. The ice is flat and curved in spiral twists, blue striated by white, deep holes that open one layer into the next as series of arches and arabesques. The ice is jagged and sharp,
cubist planes cut into the frozen canvas. The ice is subtle and alluring, seductive and dangerous. Too close and it can capsize your vessel, freeze your fingers, blind you.
There are many ways to approach photographing the ice: capturing the great expanse of land and sky, massive gesture of icebergs at sea, the dynamism of the continental shelves or focusing in on the most minute details. On this polar expedition we were drawn to the intimacy of the ice, the shape and color of ice up close. In sometimes treacherous waters we approached the ice.
Albert photographed with two Leica S (Typ 007) cameras in combination with the Leica Vario-Elmar-S 30-90mm f/3.55.6 ASPH and Super-Elmar-S 24mm f/3.5 ASPH while Ruth carried the compact and trusty Leica Q (Typ 116), which fortunately for her could be tucked inside her parka, warm and dry, when the going got really rough. Working in a Zodiac we managed to withstand the most brutal onslaught of
elements, freezing rain, seawater crashing over us, drenching our equipment and souls, salt and sea foam, extremes of temperature, and vibration as we bumped and thumped along. On the first day, a giant wave flooded one of Albert’s 007s and the camera ceased to function! He washed away the water and salt later that afternoon and let it dry on board the mother ship. Miraculously, the 007 rose from the dead the next day but certain automatic functions were lost. Albert simply used that 007 in manual mode with excellent results. The other 007 was unaffected. Having a zodiac as a platform is challenging: Jostling for position was tricky and it was nearly impossible to steady our cameras as we were struggling to maintain balance and not topple into the freezing waves. A high ISO and shutter speed are musts! As serene as the images may appear, was as difficult as the conditions in which we were shooting. Nonetheless the beauty of the ice, its shape and color captured our hearts, opened our imaginations and we hope will entice you to visit the Antarctic.
NONETHELESS THE BEAUTY OF THE ICE, ITS SHAPE AND COLOR CAPTURED OUR HEARTS, OPENED OUR IMAGINATIONS AND WE HOPE WILL ENTICE YOU TO VISIT THE ANTARCTIC.
Leica S (007), Vario-Elmar-S 30-90mm f/3.5-5.6 ASPH at 61mm at f/6.8, 1/750 SEC, ISO 800.
(right) Detail, Fish Islands, Antarctica.
Leica S (007), Vario-Elmar-S 30-90mm f/3.5-5.6 ASPH at 90mm at f/8, 1/750 SEC, ISO 800.
in madrid flamenco
The Leica M-D (Typ 262) & APO-Summicron-M 50mm ASPH
by DAVID KNOBLE
Leica M-D (Type 262) was the first non-special edition digital Leica with no LCD. Taking a user back to the days of film, the Leica M-D forces a photographer to use exposure setting skills with no feedback to modify over- or under-exposure. The challenge is not for everyone, but one thing is clear. If you are willing to learn the art of exposure and have the confidence that you can set your exposure, then you will have the satisfaction of really creating an image without distraction.
It was the evening of September 12, 2016 in Madrid, Spain. We were walking through the streets in an older part of Madrid to the Cardamomo Tablao Flamenco. A friend from Madrid was passionately explaining to me the concept of Flamenco. We entered and took the front row seats on a side of the stage and the performance began. With only the average field light meter inside the Leica M-D, I set exposures much like I would with film. Using ISO 3200, I bracketed back and forth adjusting the f/stop on the APO Summicron-M 50mm ASPH, coincidentally the same lens as the LHSA 50th Anniversary Special Edition Lens. The white spotlights turned on and off with the red ones constantly lighting the stage. The dancers moved in and out of both types of light. The resulting images included some exposed just right and many with blown out reds and highlights. With all that challenge, I obtained what I wanted. One camera and one lens, below is the story of Flamenco.
Flamenco is an extremely complex art form from some very specific regions of Spain. While the most authentic performances are from the Spanish born, the roots of Flamenco are not necessarily people of Spanish origin. Flamenco is made up of cante, toque, baile, jaleo, palmas, and pitos (singing, guitar playing, dancing, vocalizing, clapping and finger snapping). But the meaning behind this mixture is much more than meets the eyes.
Kelian Jiménez begins his performance with palmos.
Flamenco is in the details. Flamenco is in some ways very similar to the blues or jazz. Flamenco has over 50 different styles, or palos. Each of these styles has rules that must be followed. When a group of dancers, musicians and singers get together, they agree on the style to be performed. Then the magic begins. Other than the style rules, improvisation is what separates the performances. While some parts of the Flamenco may be rehearsed, like a good blues or jazz musician, the rest is improvised with the mood.
Flamenco evolved from the Romani of Spain, many of whom were from India and migrated, possibly as early as 600 A.D. As their migration moved through the Ottoman Empire, or Turkey, and eventually into Spain, these Romani were not readily accepted. The Romani were labeled “Gypsies” because they were thought to have arrived from Egypt. They stayed in groups and lived off the land, roving between cities and towns. Work was hard to come by and life was not easy. This understanding of their people’s hardship and history was passed down through generations. A true Flamenco dance comes from these roots and for someone experienced, lesser forms of Flamenco are obvious.
The music starts, sometimes with a simple snapping of the fingers or tapping on a table, and builds.
Clapping emerges & takes on not only the rhythm, but the soul of the Flamenco.
Then song begins, although the song may sound more like a chant. The chant builds and swells to the heavens and comes
back to earth. The dancers build with the music and the singing. Soon the procession becomes one instead of separate components – all swell and ebb together.
The motion blurs before your eyes & the sounds envelope you.
You will certainly hear ‘Ole’ during the performance. Flamenco dancers and musicians feed on each other’s energy. When one of the dancers does something just right, you will hear one of their own call out ‘Ole.’ This spurs further fury in the moment.
The frenzy builds and climaxes until all just stop. Sometimes stopping does not mean finished, however. A twitch in the fingers of the dancer may just mean a very quiet pitos begins and the snapping builds again to a crescendo of even greater height.
During this progression, the expressions on the Flamenco dancers will change. They are reflective of the feeling they are trying to convey – the story. Like the blues, the story may have dark undertones. The expressions on the Flamenco dancer’s faces show these dark undertones to match the other components.
The stories to be told here are often those of hardship – the same hardship experienced by the Romani. Watch the faces of the dancers. Watch the intent and the furled brow. Watch the expression in their mouth and while they may not let out any sound, you can hear the wail. Flamenco is the blues on steroids.
(clockwise)
Kelian Jiménez stamps his feet shaking the floor.
Saray La Pitita feeling the moment.
Auxi Fernández clapping with musicians (palmos).
Kelian Jiménez and Paloma Fantova tapping the table just getting started.
Auxi Fernández in full swing, one with the music.
Paloma Fantova guiding the musicians to play what she feels.
Like a Shakespearean play, there are scene changes and Flamenco dancers leave the stage or are joined by another. The story continues until there is not more to be said for the night. The stomping in rhythm, the turning and twisting using clothing to extend reach and provide more substance, the Flamenco uses everything available to convey the story.
And just like that, it ends. No warning & no winding down. The story stops. It is finished until another night when the mood strikes just right. This is Flamenco.
opposite page
(top) Saray La Pitita tapping her feet too fast to see. (bottom) Auxi Fernández pauses momentarily in her story.
this page Auxi Fernández uses a blanket to extend her emotion.
SCHNEIDER KREUZNACH LENSES & NOVOFLEX
ACCESSORIES ON LEICA M CAMERAS
by LEX BOSMAN
Cleaning out closets can be very rewarding and that is how I got lucky to get some neglected older Leitz material. The dust on the Bellows II had done no harm to it and after cleaning, it turned out to function as it should together with the Visoflex III on a (analogue) Leica M camera; the Elmar 3.5/65mm which was also included in the set delivered fine images. The bellows is rather bulky, but with the use of the Elmar 3.5/65mm and the lens heads of an Elmarit 2.8/90mm, TeleElmar 4/135mm and of the Telyt 4/200mm I soon discovered many new possibilities with this old equipment. Of course, the flow of rings and adapters connected to the use of Visoflex and bellows had to be explored as well, it is a fascinating world on its own that you can easily get lost in. But there are more lenses and accessories around that can be used.
A few months later I found a Schneider-Kreuznach Xenar 4.5/135mm lens with Leica thread mount on a Novoflex bellows with focusing rail (codeword VISBIG) for little money. I learned that my lens was produced in 1958, which made me curious how this one of over fifty years old would perform today. As a short lens this was one of the options for customers who bought a Novoflex bellows, it needs the bellows to focus. So here Novoflex enters the story as well. Subsequently I found a beautiful Xenar 4.5/150mm, which turned out to have been made in 1956. Apart from these two, other bellows lenses from Schneider-Kreuznach could be chosen as well: in a 1956 Novoflex pricelist the Xenar 4.5/180mm and the Tele-Xenar 5.5/240mm are mentioned as well. This list also has several Novoflex lenses, like the 3.5/105mm Noflexar (which was produced by Schacht), and lenses from Steinheil (the Culminar 4.5/135mm for example) and the Rodenstock Imagon 4.5/120mm. Another likely Schneider lens apparently was not yet available in Leica thread mount– nor for Contax – according to this Novoflex pricelist, but this Xenar 3.5/105mm and the Xenar 4.5/105mm were available for SLR camera’s like Alpa, Arriflex, Praktica, Exakta, for the Italian Rectaflex and the British Wrayflex.
However, Schneider did produce these 105mm lenses in LTM as well and together with the other four they appear in a Schneider leaflet of around 1962 as a group of lenses for use on the bellows, attached to either SLR- or rangefinder cameras with reflex housings. These lenses were specifically meant for close-focus photos, but they could also be used for telephotos, although the bellows limits this kind of function very much. The type of the Xenar lens existed already since 1919; it has been produced in many variants and for various cameras. With four lenses in three groups it was described in another Schneider brochure as a development of the Taylor triplet (1895). Schneider apparently changed the name of the 5.5/240mm lens from Tele-Xenar to Tele-Arton in 1955, when the last batches of the first and the first batches of the second lens appear. Intriguing is the last of the production batches of only 5 Tele-Xenar 5.5/240mm lenses in July 1955: according to Schneider archival material these were meant for Leica cameras. Would this perhaps imply that Leitz considered using this Schneider lens as a bellows lens, perhaps to replace the old Telyt 4.5/200mm in the years before Walter Mandler designed the new and much better Tely 4/200mm?
After some time, I could assemble this group of Schneider lenses, when I found the Xenar 4.5/105mm (mine from 1958), the Xenar 4.5/180mm (this one produced in 1954) as well as a 1964 Tele-Arton 5.5/240mm (fig. 1) . For the Xenar 4.5/180mm I needed a Novoflex LEIXUR ring to use it on the bellows with Leica thread mount on the lens side, which Novoflex very kindly sent me. An adapter from another manufacturer exists as well, perhaps from Schneider itself.
On Leica M cameras a bellows can be used together with a reflex housing. Already in 1933 Astro Berlin introduced the Identoskop, which was the first reflex housing for Leica cameras. Two years later Leitz came with the PLOOT and other companies also saw the possibilities of the rangefinder systems that Leitz and Zeiss were producing and offered
alternative products. In the 1950’s Kilfitt and Novoflex produced reflex devices and bellows to be used with Leica or other camera’s. The company of Karl Müller in Memmingen produced a reflex housing in 1948/49 which could be obtained for the Contax IIa and IIIa cameras and for Leica cameras with thread mount, the Reproflex, which was followed in 1950 by the Novoflex (hence the name of the firm itself), equally available for Contax and Leica thread mount cameras. Initially the Reproflex was delivered with a Steinheil Culminar 13,5 cm lens (fig. 2) and it was not intended for use with a bellows, since Müller did not produce bellows yet.
The Novoflex reflex housing however, being a further development, could be used with a special bellows NOBAL. Bellows and reflex housing were fitted together with a large screw underneath the reflex housing, just like the Leitz Visoflex I was attached to the Leitz Bellows I. An ingenious system fits the reflex housing and the bellows together without use of bayonet or thread mount (fig. 3) . The cubic box for the mirror with the slanting corners of the Novoflex reflex housing is very similar to the Leitz PLOOT, but the solution to lift the mirror and release the shutter of the Novoflex is simpler than the double cable-release of the PLOOT and the Visoflex I. Novoflex provided release bridges for both Contax and Leica screw mount cameras; soon after the introduction of the Leica M3 Novoflex delivered the release bridge NOSYN for the M camera’s (fig. 4) . I was very lucky that Novoflex could still send me one! The Novoflex reflex housing (or mirror box) could be fitted with either a vertical finder (code name NOSE) or a “prismatic observoscope” (code name NOPRI) and it must have been a rival for the Leitz PLOOT, and the Visoflex I, introduced in 1951, the Mversion of which appeared in 1955. In the aforementioned 1956 Novoflex pricelist the reflex houses appear for Leica LTM and Leica M camera bodies: the one with the vertical finder for $99.50 and the one with the prism finder for $119.50. The variant with the M bayonet was probably introduced in 1955
(left, figure 1) The five Schneider-Kreuznach bellows lenses, from left to right: Tele-Arton 5.5/240mm, and Xenar 4.5/180mm, 4.5/150mm, 4.5/135mm and 4.5/105mm.
and most likely had an adapter ring to connect the LTM reflex housing with a Leica M camera body.
This may have been an interesting solution for Leica LTM and M users alike. For those Leica LTM users who already possessed a Novoflex mirror house and a bellows with, say, one or a few Schneider Xenar lenses, it may have been interesting to get an adapter from LTM to M once they had bought the Leica M3. With this addition to their photographic gear they could continue to use their lenses for macro. Earlier Novoflex reflex houses fitted with a Novoflex LEMLEI adapter (LTM to Leica M) do not always function very well with a Leica M3, where the ring around the bayonet release button obstructs the mirror release pin of the mirror box. Also in the 1950’s, Novoflex made a bellows with M bayonet on the camera side and the Leica thread mount on the lens side for use with the Visoflex I, II and III fitted with M bayonet (code name VISBIG). Later on, the universal bellows BALCAST would be introduced.
When I began to use the Novoflex bellows with the Xenar 135mm on my analogue Leica M cameras I soon found it very easy to use; it is a lot smaller than the Leitz Bellows II. The size of the lenses may at least partly count for the difference in measurement of the Leitz and Novoflex bellows (fig. 5) . The latter was apparently designed for use with compact lenses like the Xenar from Schneider, whereas the Leitz bellows was fit to accommodate various lenses and lens heads, some of which are rather large and heavy, like the Telyt 4/200mm and 4.8/280mm lenses. Together with the small Xenar the Novoflex bellows makes for a nice and compact set, as far as anything with a bellows can be compact at all. With its M bayonet the bellows couples with the Visoflex I, II and III. Of course, one can also screw the Schneider Xenar lenses on the bellows NOBAL for use with the Novoflex reflex housing.
Novoflex made several adapter rings for the use of other lenses, of which the LEIEL is interesting to use the Elmar 65mm and several Leitz lens heads on the Novoflex bellows as well. An advantage of the Novoflex bellows as compared with the Leitz Bellows II became apparent with the use of the lens head of the Elmar 4/90mm (II). When used on the Leitz bellows it
(top, figure 2) Leica IIIf with reflex housing Reproflex and Steinheil Culminar 13,5cm lens. The release bridge for the Reproflex is missing.
(middle, figure 3) Leica M3 with Novoflex reflex housing and bellows, and Schneider Xenar 4.5/105mm.
(bottom, figure 4) Leica M3 with Novoflex reflex housing and bellows, Schneider Xenar 4.5/105mm. Note the Novoflex NOSYN release bridge.
is hardly possible to turn the aperture ring on the lens, even though my fingers aren’t very thick, but on the Novoflex bellows the lens head is protruding, allowing the aperture to be used without any problem. Another Novoflex ring LEI-M allows the use of lenses with Leica M bayonet. With the Leitz ring UOOYW/16590N, designed for the use of Leica thread mount lenses on the Leitz bellows, the Xenar lenses can be used on the Leitz Bellows II as well of course, although the deeper recessed lens taking part of the Leitz bellows makes the use of the aperture ring less easy.
Several fine third-party lenses were available for use on a Leica camera body, but the choice of near focus (macro) lenses on a reflex housing with extension tube or bellows was limited. Those who were interested in macro photography could use a few of the Leitz lens heads, but the choice of focal points was limited to 90, 125 and 135mm. In the decade 1950-1960 this means that the lens head of the Elmar 4/90mm (first version, new style, from 1951 onwards) could be used, from 1957 the lens head of the Summicron 2/90, from 1959 the lens head of the Elmarit 2.8/90mm. The lens head of the Hektor 4.5/135mm was available and in 1954 the Hektor 2.5/12.5cm was introduced. The well-known Elmar 3.5/65mm would appear only in 1960. Heinz Kilfitt introduced his Makro-Kilar 90mm in 1955.
The range of five Schneider lenses with focal distances from 105 up to 240mm must have been appealing (fig. 6) . All five focal lengths were produced from 1950 onward as Xenar lenses, the 240mm was named Tele-Xenar. From 1950/51 they appear in Novoflex price lists. It may have been an advantage that these lenses could be used on various systems on the Novoflex bellows. These lenses turn out to deliver great results, especially in the near focus region. After having used them for several years I have come to like their color rendering and overall detail and sharpness very much. For instance, the bowl with a diameter of 15.3 cm and 8 cm high is treated wonderfully by the Xenar 105mm, which reproduces the details of this handcraft piece in a marvelous way (fig. 7 & 8) I like to take a set of a Leica M camera with Visoflex and Novoflex bellows outside in the garden and see which of the Xenar lenses suits the job of the moment best. With slow
(top, figure 7) Bowl, 8 cm high, 15.3cm diameter. With Schneider Xenar 4.5/105mm.
(middle, figure 8) The same bowl, also with Xenar 4.5/105mm.
(middle, figure 5) Comparison of Leitz and Novoflex bellows. Left: Leica M3 with Micro-Visoflex III and Novoflex bellows, Schneider Xenar 4.5/135mm. Right: Leica M2 with Visoflex II and Leitz Bellows II, Elmar 3.5/65mm.
(middle, figure 6) The five Schneider lenses, with Xenar 4.5/105mm and Xenar 4.5/135mm in the foreground.
moving insects and plants, the Xenar lenses deliver great results (fig. 9) . Many photos show how well the sharpness of these lenses works from center to edges (fig. 10 & 11) The feeling of depth gives these images a beautiful threedimensional effect (fig. 12) . Contrast is handled very well. Nineteen aperture blades make a perfect circle, creating a beautiful transition from sharpness to out of focus. Both with natural daylight outside, on a bright sunny day, and with various light sources for repro use at home the results are very good.
These Schneider-Kreuznach lenses are very well made and despite being 50 or 60 years old they are functioning very nicely. Their quality secured them a very long life, both in terms of production and as still functioning lenses. Several of these lenses remained available throughout the 1950’s and 1960’s and beyond. A Novoflex price list of 1971/72 still lists the Schneider Xenar lenses of 135, 150 and 180mm as well as the Tele-Arton 240mm; the Xenar 4.5/105mm was apparently replaced by the Noflexar 3.5/105mm which was produced by Schacht. And for those who might like to try one or a few, either with an analogue or a digital Leica M: of the set of five lenses described here the focal distances of 105 and 135 are easily found in the well-known second-hand market places, the distances of 150, 180 and 240mm are up for sale less frequently.
All images by Lex Bosman, except Fig. 2: Andreas Marx, NOVOFLEX Präzisionstechnik GmbH.
Many thanks to:
Martin Grahl at Novoflex and Jutta Kasper at Schneider-Kreuznach who were very helpful with information, images and with data and brochures from the archives.
Donald Kenney and Carsten Bobsin who provided detailed information on Novoflex items.
Literature:
Jim Lager. ‘Non-Leitz reflex housings for the Leica’. In: Viewfinder 49 (2016), 1, 50-53.
Olaf Nattenberg. ‘Von Exlei über Leiex zu Nopri und Nobal. Von Adaptern, Balgengeräten und Spiegelkasten‘. In: Vidom 104 (12/2012), 42-52.
Hartmut Thiele. Großes Fabrikationsbuch Schneider-Kreuznach Band I, II, III. 3d ed. München 2017.
Matthew Wilkinson (ed. A.N. Wright). A lens collector’s vademecum. 2nd ed. 1999 (digital version; no printed edition available).
( top left, figure 10) Schneider Xenar 4.5/150mm and M3. (center left, figure 12) Schneider Tele-Arton 5.5/240mm.
(below, figure 11) Schneider Xenar 4.5/180mm and M6TTL. Focused on the apple.
At last... an affordable digital Leica for using my M & R lenses.
by TERRY MALTBY
Iam now in early retirement and my spending ability is more limited, so I was extremely fortunate in that I was able to recently buy a used Leica T camera for about two-thirds less than the price of a new one. It has a condition rating of 9+ which is due only to two very minor fingernail scuff marks on the top of the body. It is definitely evolutionary but still delightfully Leica in styling and quality! Secure to hold due to its rangefinder-like weight, it feels like my M6 TTL is in my hands while using it and there is no change in obtaining outstanding clear, sharp images. It feels like I’ve already been using it for years. And there truly are no steep learning experiences to go through. I have waited a long, long time for a digital camera adapter for my Leica R lenses and before my T arrived I searched at Amazon’s site for that and —surprise!—found one strictly for the T. It is a perfectly solid, well-made Novoflex adapter that works exceptionally well. I can’t wait to use my R lenses above 135mm with it!
I have always used the aperture priority mode setting on my R8 and M6 TTL since I bought them long ago. The endorphins
in my brain do not get excited with fast auto races, busy sports activity, and other moving objects, so I never use the shutter priority setting on those cameras. Since the T requires using aperture priority with M lenses, I am happy with that. Though the new Visoflex creates a new, unique way of focusing, I am again going to use the method I have preferred to use on both of the aforementioned cameras: depth of field scale focusing or hyperfocal distance setting. Two Viewfinder issues that were sent to members in 2014 that had very informative details about the T did not mention this, so for new, young Leica Society members and other young people who read this issue, I recommend searching the Internet for ‘hyperfocal distance setting of Leica lenses’. This is much easier and faster to use than the Visoflex focuser and the rear screen on the T body.
The first four images I obtained with the T are shown here. Descriptions follow next about the lenses used and some details.
Glorious shooting, all T owners! •
Pool Accomplished with my 35mm ASPH Summicron-M lens, this displays a portion of our pool area. It was installed in 1958 but due to almost complete permanent clogging of all the galvanized pipes, massive aging of the plaster, cracks in many tiles, and out-dated coping, we got fed up. Ten years ago we had our long-term contractor remove all of these things and replace them. The cobalt blue tile is from Italy. We potted the two golden barrel cacti in 1978 when they were 3 inches wide; today they are 3 feet wide. The wax leaf hedges in the background are one of the ultimate privacy makers even though there are no two-story houses anywhere near our one-story house. We also chose them because we’d seen them and developed a passion for them at pool parties we attended at a house next door to Bob Hope’s house in Toluca Lake in 1976, two years before our now-40-year successful relationship began and two years before we bought the house. These are 25 feet tall, easy to trim annually, and do not need a lot of watering like rose plants do. I showed five people a print I made of this from my new HP Envy color printer and asked them how many representations of plants they saw. None of them saw the palm tree shadow on the bottom of the pool and only mentioned the two Golden Barrel cacti and the hedges, so they saw only two representations out of three. I nearly had to pry their cell phones from their hands in order to get them to evaluate and concentrate on this. Their vision and thinking processes were stuck in the left-brain analytical side from staring at their phones incessantly and I was certain they knew nothing about that concept.
Building Being Renovated Using the right brain (creative side) technique 1 , I captured this in 15 seconds with my 50mm Summilux-M lens at 7 a.m. Rain was reappearing that morning yet at that time there was an area of glaring, excessively bright sunlight impacting the building at the right upper corner in the viewfinder. That area shows only immensely pleasing knife-sharp detail identical to perfect human eye vision that is so typical of Leica’s lenses. As soon as I pressed the T’s shutter release, my right brain gave me a title for this image: Major Surgery
1 Betty Edwards— Drawing On The Right Side Of The Brain , 1979. (The techniques she teaches in this book are totally applicable to photography, too, inasmuch as the class sessions deeply benefited me with mastering composition. Motion picture directors*, professional photographers, architects, and other smart creative people learned this slowly through osmosis. Betty’s classes permit us to acquire composition expertise (and more and easier success when searching for great subject material, especially when it is in front of our faces and we miss it because we see the whole thing rather than parts of it). Although she is dead her son continues to create the classes, so do a Web search for them, enroll in one of them, and speedily benefit from the hands-on approach. This is much more effective than learning and practicing the same techniques from her book as the only source.)
* The Great Moviemakers of Hollywood’s Golden Age by George Stevens, Jr.—2006.)
Bear This was shot with my 90mm APO/ASPH Summicron-M lens soon after my right brain concocted the preparation of this whimsical scene and associated dialogue. Look at the fantastic quality the ASPH and APO elements create. The sharp clarity is mind-blowing, as is the 3-D look. I dare to say that this is the most astounding 90mm lens ever designed, assembled, and sold in the history of lens production by any camera manufacturer. It is absolutely astonishing!
Mom Bear: “Beary, dinner is almost ready. You are supposed to be studying that Leica book in preparation for your shoot with your dad tomorrow morning. Why aren’t you doing that??
Beary: I am reading it and I’m gonna finish it by bedtime.
Mom Bear: You aren’t studying that, you’re reading something else. I can see its title above the Leica book and it definitely has nothing do with photography!
Beary: It’s from a tear-out section in the book’s appendix where I have been reading about a fellow named Goldi----, uh, uh, Oscar Bearnak . Maybe he’s one of our distant relatives, mom.
Mom Bear : That, dear boy, is barely plausible.
Crocheted Blanket
This 50mm Summilux-M lens image reveals a small part of a 52 x 62 inches bulky yarn blanket I crocheted for couches and chairs in 6 hours with Lion Brands’ exquisite Wool-Ease Quick & Thick yarn. I have been knitting and crocheting for almost 8 years and it is a wonderful supplement to photography in that both creative hobbies are meditative, calming, positive, and ever-lasting influences in my daily life. This is the third blanket I have crocheted with this soft yarn and it has been so wonderful during our recent unusually cold winter months to come home after shooting images with my T, wrap one of these superb blankets around my legs and feet on our den couch, preview the latest images my Leica lenses have transferred to the smart card on the T, and work on yet another blanket which, this time, I will be giving to someone outside of our house who is a special friend.
WHEN THERE WERE FOUR
by JIM LAGER
Rogliatti, Sartorius, Van Hasbroeck, and Lager. Sounds like a law firm.
FOUR Leica enthusiasts for a group photo while attending an April 1999 Camera Fair in Italy. They are Gianni Rogliatti, C. Sartorius, Paul Henry van Hasbroeck, and Jim Lager.
THE EARLIEST FISON
by JIM LAGER
THE British magazine MODERN PHOTOGRAPHY circa 1930 illustrates what appears to be the earliest FISON lens shade mounted to a Leica A. The rectangular opening rotated as the lens was focused making it necessary to reorient the shade for every shot. Leitz Wetzlar produced the later FISON with a circular opening. No need for reorientation! fff
In the years 1933 to 1935, Dr. Paul Wolff, with the advocacy and assistance of Ernst Leitz II, mounted his famous traveling exhibition of Leica images to popularize the Leica camera and its capabilities. The 200 images traveled across western Europe and to both the United States and to Japan. A similar exhibition was also presented in France, but was shown along with other images by another Leica photographer.
These images astounded the public, who could not believe that the gigantic enlargements had originated from postage stamp-sized negatives. The public was also taken with the fact that the pictures were not the usual, rather static images taken with larger format cameras, but showed more of daily life as it was happening.
Through the years, I have collected the catalog brochures from this exhibition, and now can present five of them from different countries. Note that each of the catalogs has a different title for the exhibition. (The Japanese title ライ力 作品展覧曾 translates as “Leica Work Exhibition). The texts inside the brochures, mostly written by Dr. Wolff himself, appear to differ somewhat from version to version, and both the Japanese and French brochures may be still more different from the rest. The interiors of the catalogs have halftone prints of about six images, and the specifications for all the images in the exhibition: title, lens used, f/stop and so on. Of the Japanese catalog, I only have scans of the cover, text, and partial contents, but have full printed versions of the others.
I am curious whether our readers might be aware of additional catalog brochures from other countries for this exhibition. Is there a specific American one, or did Leitz simply use the British version? Other than German, English, French, Italian and Japanese, Dr. Wolff had material published in Spanish, Portuguese, Finnish and Swedish during his career. There is even some material in Turkish! Please let Editor Rosauer or myself know.
