What happened to all the Barnack heads...?!

[david_werbeloff1]

Hi All:

 

What happened to all the folks who were running around with Barnacks

in their jacket pockets who were talking about their experiences and

the LTM lenses they found best for the job? Purists show yourselves!

 

Best, David

[Karim Ghantous]

I love the Barnack cameras. The first time I found out about them I was hooked. I bought one sometime after (and wrote an article about it which was published much to my delight). They are beautiful objects. Sure, they're not much smaller than an Olympus OM SLR but still, they are in practical terms very compact. There was a thread recently about transplanting the M shutter into the Barnack bodies - showing that some of us are still into these babies.

 

The word 'purist' is not really applicable. ;-) There's nothing more pure about the pre-war cameras as there is about a meterless M body. Furthermore there are two issues: lenses and bodies.

 

The lenses can be used on any old camera, from a Canon to a Voigtlander to an M7. The bodies are the bigger choice: larger, quieter but more expensive M6? Or cheaper, smaller but relatively hard to use IIIc?

 

One of our regulars here, Huw, put a light meter inside his IIIb, complete with finder readout a-la M6. Another regular (Claudia you know who you are!) thinks the M bodies are too "clunky" and prefers the older design.

 

I have a couple of screw cameras, one which I will CLA myself eventually when I can get me some tools and lubricants. I intend to use the other one often, too. They're fascinating cameras, no doubt. And with more lenses available for it than ever before, there's every reason to have one. :-)

[al_kaplan1]

I stick a CL/40 combo in my jacket pocket. The III-C and III-f bodies I once owned were nice but once you stick an accessory finder on top for a 35mm lens they lose that sleekness.

[dan flanders]

My first Barnack (actuallly my first Leica) was a second or third hand black III that I managed to trade for in the early days of WW2. It had only an old Elmar (eleven o'clock tab) that I took off with me into the Air Corps to become a Navigator. When I got to England it turned out that the lens had been sent back home to Texas with my other unnecessary belongings. Our ball gunner had a Kodak 35 which he kept in the turret for action pictures when he wasn't working his guns. Unfortunately (for the camera) but fortunately (for him) it took a direct hit from a chunk of flack that wiped out the cameras machinery but left the lens intact. Needless to say it saved the flack from touching the gunner's hide. He had a lens and I had a Leica body. With the expert help of the boys in the base machine shop we mounted the Kodak lens on the Leica via a short piece of aluminum pipe and the gunner and I took turns photographing the action between harrassing the BF-109's and FW-190's that were harrassing us. The intelligence boys found out about our footage and glommed onto our film promising to return it to us when they got through with it. We never saw it again. After the war the III was reunited with its lens and went off to college with me and performed yeoman service several more years until it was stolen. I managed to obtain another Barnack, this time a IIIa which I still use occasionally when I want to relive old times. So, is it any wonder I have a soft spot in my head for old Leicas? The Barnack ain't as convenient in many use areas as the M's but anyone who has carried one for any length of time will tell you there's nothing so easy to carry and use. Ergonomics? The Barnacks have 'em, in spades!

[dan flanders]

Finders? Who needs a stinkin' finder?!

[awahlster]

Harry I'll go your comment one further my only Leica at this time is a 1955 If RD that's got one viewfinder or rangefinder! Zone focus and you HAVE to use an accessory finder or just point the thing in the general direction you what the photo to come from !

 

I find the black and chrome Canon finders quite nice so I one of those with my Canon 35mm f1.8 Blk. & Chr. I'm about to recieve a Canon L-1 to make good use out of my Leica 52m f2.8 Elmar.

[rod g.]

Wow Harry! Great story, thanks for sharing.

[ronald_moravec1]

Bless you Henry. I took a walk through a B17 a few years ago and my only thought was it took nerves of steel to sit in a aluminun beer can while people were shooting at you. Only the pilots had armoured seats. The rest only had flack jackets.

 

Of course you never got the film back. Some of my older buddies tell me that cameras were not allowed so they carried the film unprocessed to the end.

[simon_bruxelles]

Harry, thanks for the great story.

It's great to know there are people still using the Barnack Leicas who bought them when they were the peak of mechanical picture making.

I wonder how many of today's top-of-the-range 35mm cameras will still be in regular use in 60 years time. I suspect they will be prettyt much limited to the mechanical M-model Leicas, a design that will by then be over 110 years old, assuming film is still available.

Of course anyone still using film will be regarded as quaint and old-fashioned as a photographer using a Victorian mahogany and brass camera would be today.

Simon

[anthony_brookes5]

Whoa !! I think quite a few of us carry our screwwmounts with us. This is my Leica III with F2 Summar - fits in my pockeet - only need is to pull out the lens.<div></div>

[anthony_brookes5]

And here's another.<div></div>

[Aoresteen]

My IIIf has a CV 21mm lens on it most of the time. And my If has the CV 15mm on it. These are great cameras.

 

I like the accessory viewfinder on top; with the 21 & 15 on the M4-P I would still have to use the accessory viewfinders so with lenses wider than 28mm, Barnacks make a lot of sense.

 

This weekend I was at Tarpon Springs FL. I took my Hasselblad with the 50 & 110 lenses. For the really wide shots was my trusty IIIf with the 21mm. The IIIf w/ 21 CV lens was a lot cheaper than a Hasselblad Superwide!

[Troll]

Where are they? Out making pictures, instead of sitting in front of a stupid

screen.

[paul_taylor2]

I find myself selling off much of my LTM equipment as I want faster lenses, a brighter viewfinder and a lightmeter. So the money will go to an M-6 Classic (anything out there for me?)

 

But I'll never part with my IIIf RD/ST. It was made the same year I was - 1954, and with a 50 Summicron the perfect setup for me. Small and quiet. Went to Europe with me awhile back and, with a IIIC and a VC 15, produced a number of memorable pictures. I'll never part with it. My only problem has been static electricity on rewinding. Last roll was rewound after I let the shower run for a few minutes to increase humidity, then sitting on the floor with my bare foot against the cold water pipe going into the toilet. The roll turned out perfect - no horizontal streaks, and nobody witnessed my gymnastics.

 

The digitals have a place in the market today, but they will all be in the landfills while our equipment keeps on rolling.

[paul t]

Wonderful story, Harry. It's the intriguingly diverse life stories of the people on

this forum that helps make it so addictive. <p>Certainly the camera I value

most is the Zeiss folder my dad bought in Italy, where he holidayed after

surviving North Africa and Monte Cassino.

[paulstenquist]

I shoot digital almost exclusively, these days. But when I do take a film break, it's usually

with my IIIF RD. I'm doing a mini Barnack-themed gallery show in a small local gallery. The

show is titled, "Barnack Leicas on the Streets of Europe." It includes eight shots from Paris

and Madrid, a large photo of my IIIF (taken with my Pentax digital:-), and a short essay

about Leicas and street photography.

Paul<div></div>

[ben z]

I use my screwmount Leica whenever I want something I can stick in a jacket pocket. It's my party camera because it doesn't make a bulge under my coat. I always use a collapsible 3.5 Elmar on it these days, because like Al said once you put an Immarect on it it loses the pocketability.

[anthony_brookes5]

I used my Leica 1 last summer - this is the camera<div></div>

[anthony_brookes5]

And this is the picture - much better at bigger file size<div></div>

[skinny_mcgee]

111a here! I love it!

[richard s.]

Better late than never (was away from the computer yesterday).

 

Leica II with an nickel Elmar 50/3.5, external Voigtlander 50mm finder and a Color-Skopar 50/2.5.

 

Very much a Barnack head ... didn't you see my recent post suggesting Leica reintroduce a screwmount?

[rgh]

The first Leica I ever used was a friend's father's Leica II with an uncoated 'white glass' Elmar. l wasn't familiar with cameras, 16 years old, but there was this something about that camera that made me want to explore photography and Leica cameras.

 

M-series were my cameras of choice till I could afford a 'treat' and bought a IIIf RD ST because it was just so beautiful, and then a 1935 black paint Leica III, and another IIIf with Leicavit, and of course the LTM lenses to go with them...

 

But at some point I just said to myself " how much am I really using all these cameras? cool looking and fun but... ", with the M-series being a more complete camera in actual use. The LTM Leicas are nice, well-made, very beautiful but their time seems to have passed for me.

 

I still have my 30s black lacquer Leica III which I will always keep as it just happens to have my initials silver inlayed on the top plate (I didn't do it, that was done back when the camera was new by the original owner). And if I want a Barnack experience for the day it does its job still perfectly [amazingly] after 70 years.

[jeff h.]

I use my Grandfather's old Leica Standard "E" (1935) with its ancient Elmar 50/3.5 and

have a CV 15mm on order. I trim my film leaders by hand and rewind slowly to reduce risk

of static-electricity, and I've never had a problem (that I can blame on the camera).