colin_elliott

<p>Thank you all for the helpful comments.<br>

I'm expecting some issues with the "fun police" when I'm in England too, on the way to Australia. Seems my old country has become a police state since I left its shores.<br>

Mark, helpful comment regarding the dust. I wasn't expecting it to be that hot in mid- November. I was thinking around 85 to 95 F.(33-38 C). Have I misjudged?</p>

<p>Anthony, Thanks for your post.<br>

Yes, I always use a tripod if shooting @ 1/500th or less.<br>

I will be taking ALL my film with me. I have located Ektar in Perth but it's around 3 times the cost compared to the USA! No Velvia. Buying bulk in advance, gives me the opportunity to run a "pretest" on the emulsion before shooting an imortant assignment.</p>

<p>I am going to be visiting Ayres Rock in Australia this November and will of course be taking my Contax 645.<br>

The trip to Ayres will be part of a tour from the Resort close to there. I am wondering if anyone has experience/knowledge as to how far the rock is from the Bus Parking lot that takes visitors to the Sunset and Sunrise viewing areas? My longest lens will be the 140mm Sonnar.<br>

It is unlikely that I wiil get closer than these designated areas.<br>

With interchangeable backs I was thinking of loading up with Velvia 100 (220) and Kodak Ektar 100(120).<br>

My intention following this Australian visit is to make some large prints for framing, so ultra fine grain is imperative. Any further advices and considerations would be appreciated.<br>

Thank you</p>

<p>Fred,<br>

Congratulations on your purchase.<br>

You can get all the 60mm filters you want, and more, from B+W.<br>

Not as expensive as the Leica ones but every bit as good.</p>

<p>Apart from the cons already pointed out regarding the M5, one should also remember the lens restriction issues vis-a-vis collapsible lenses and some retro-focus W.A. In addition only the very latest Visoflex III will fit the body.<br>

Personally, I would choose the M6. 20 years is not a long time for a mechanical Leica. I have had my M6 (first Solms issue)since new and whilst it has never had a CLA, it has been checked by Leica and found to be "within factory specifications/tolerances". </p>

<p>Ray, There most definitely IS a foam strip on the back door of the M6!<br>

It is a thin, narrow, dense type of foam. A few years ago, mine started to disintegrate and Leica USA, sent me a replacement f.o.c. </p>

<p>Koray,<br>

Your "back door" also seems to be missing a foam strip along its bottom edge. You may wish to order one of these from Leica. I don't imagine they'd charge you for that.</p>

<p>The purpose of the ABLON film trimming template was for those who bulk loaded their cassettes.<br>

I still have my ABLON and Leitz Bulk Loader.</p>

<p>Andrew,<br>

I spoke to him about 3 and a half years ago...............I'm still waiting for his email to come!!!</p>

<p>Jonathan,<br>

I'm making a big assumption here that the camera came with a back and a lens. If so, as QG suggests, run a couple of films through it. I would suggest something like Velvia 50 ; with such little tolerance for error and no correction from the processing lab, you'll be able to pinpoint sticky aperture problems, faulty shutter speeds and possibly any focussing issues. In addition you can check out frame spacing and any light leaks.<br>

Have the films returned uncut so that you can compare the exposures with the "copious" notes that you made at the time of shooting. </p>

<p>Jonathan,<br>

I'm making a big assumption here that the camera came with a back and a lens. If so, as QG suggests, run a couple of films through it. I would suggest something like Velvia 50 ; with such little tolerance for error and no correction from the processing lab, you'll be able to pinpoint sticky aperture problems, faulty shutter speeds and possibly any focussing issues. In addition you can check out frame spacing and any light leaks.<br>

Have the films returned uncut so that you can compare the exposures with the "copious" notes that you made at the time of shooting. </p>

<p>" An increase to 24Mpx is not a bad idea but useless if you're shooting handheld"<br>

Karim, Why do you state this? What is the reasoning? (I am not a digital shooter).</p>

<p>Ingemar,<br>

The only filters I would or have stacked , are a polariser and a ND graduated. In landscape photography, I find this combination often necessary. However, my preference is to avoid if possible due to all those planar to planar to convex surfaces.</p>

<p>Jody,<br>

There's nothing "yesterday" about Velvia 50.Still very popular. It's still my image recording material of choice, widely available 120/220 and 35mm. For every 64 exposures(2x220 rolls) I probably make 5 images on a memory card!</p>

<p>Just a small correction:<br>

Velvia (Fuji) most definitely will have and Kodak may have the equivalent of DX coding. Fuji call it "Barcode System" on their 120/220 rollfilm stock.<br>

Whether the Hasselblad backs have the sophistication to "read" it is another matter</p>

<p>Joe,<br>

Unless you are only going to use the camera in Manual mode and meter via a seperate handheld exposure meter, the Linear Polariser is going to be next to useless.<br>

Autofocus cameras (as well as some manual focus ones),require a Circular polariser due to the beam splitting aspect of metering/focussing design. Linear ones will lead to incorrect exposure readings if used.</p>

<p>Paul,You can't "see" the d.o.f. but you can read it from the engraved (not just painted) scale on the 2 superb Leitz lenses for this neat little camera.<br>

I use d.o.f. scales all the time and is regrettable that the vast majority of dslr manufacturers have no such markings on their lenses these days.</p>

<p>I would suggest the Lee filters made for rangefinders (RF75 range) </p>

<p>Hector, Actually the first production runs were called (and engraved) M-1.<br>

It was subsequent to this that Leitz objected and Olympus changed it to OM1</p>