[Leica] Further adventures of a completely screwed up guy: long and occasionally on topic

[jbcollier at shaw.ca (John Collier)]

Toddled off to the annual car show with my enthusiast son. While I  
can speak at length on the various model iterations of fifties,  
sixties and seventies MGs, Triumphs, Lotuses (Loti?), Jaguars, Aston  
Martins, Porsches and what have you, I can't tell a Yaris from an  
Echo at any distance. My son can and does all day long; all night  
long if he didn't have to sleep. So being quite fond of him, and  
hating digital point and shoot cameras with a passion, I handed him  
the digital p&s, grabbed my IIIg and off we went.

Did I mention I hate digital p&s cameras. While there is no doubt  
that a photographer engages in the scene unfolding in front of the  
lens, digital p&s cameras take over and completely subsume  the  
scene. Multiple flashes, hopeless shutter lag, the repetitive  
exposures to "capture the moment," the review and display of each  
gawd-awful image; who cares about drug dealers, I say we should hunt  
down and mercilessly punish any and every purveyor of digital p&s.

However, I do love photographing the incongruity of life through  
being viewed on the little screen so my willing subject and I set off  
with widely differing but equally high hopes of having a good time.  
Not surprisingly we both did.

My son's fine day quickly became heavenly when he realized that a  
polite request would result in a brochure. We quickly culled as many  
different brochures as interest and availability would allow. We both  
snubbed the custom cars and gave the big thumbs up to the Lotus  
Elise. Why would anyone buy anything else if you are in the market  
for a sports car? Does anyone else actually even make a sports car  
anymore? All I saw were tricked out, air conditioned pimp-mobiles.  
Yes I am including the Porsches!

Oh well enough of the OT elitist demagoguery.

The IIIg/50f2.8 performed admirably. I used the hood and cap off my  
modern Elmar-M and did not find the focus induced rotation of the  
front too annoying. I can see why the aperture selection was on the  
front of earlier lenses. Chasing it around the lens might get  
distracting after awhile. The IIIg was just as easy to use with a 50  
with as any meterless M camera. Seldom does one want a centered point  
of interest so, while moving the camera from focusing to shooting  
orientation, it was easy to slide to the other the eye over to the  
other finder. The IIIg's half life size finder was almost as  
wonderful as an M camera's; not quite, but pretty damn close by any  
measure. Only once was I shooting at 1/15 which requires a bit of  
fore and hind thought to use and then more on.

Loading, of course, was another matter entirely. It requires careful  
concentration. And, yes, all my leaders were trimmed correctly. Every  
second or third load would require "fiddling" to engage properly. I  
did not have to remove and reload, just poke the spool up and down a  
bit. Perhaps I will eventually develop a sure fire technique but I am  
apparently not there yet. M cameras, even M2s and M3s, must have been  
a revelation.

No photos yet, remember my son was using the digital, but I will post  
one or two if they turn out as I expect they might. I can't say for  
sure as I have never used an old Elmar before.

John Collier