jcgoodman

Opened my Leica cupboard the other day to select a screw-mount camera for some film photography. Discovered the IIIa has had pups.

<p>Hi Larry - My Yeenon is for M-mount, to which I add a Leitz M to SM adapter, so, yes this could be causing the vignetting. No vignetting using a non-Yeenon NEX to LTM adapter, although no close-focus helicoid with the latter.</p>

<p>Just discovered - the vignetting in the above photo was caused by the Yeenon adapter. No vignetting with other, simpler adapters.<br> Regards to everyone,<br> John,<br> Melbourne, Australia.</p>

<p>Leitz Hektor 135mm on Sony A7ii - all of my three Hektor 135s, without filters or hood, produce vignetting in the corners of image - caused, I think, by the body of the lens.</p><div></div>

<p>The A7ii, in the Sony/Leica photo, above, carries a Yeenon Helicoid Close-focus adapter - the version with an Infinity-Lock (recommended). This is another piece of fun gear - well-worth its purchase price! Apart from early 1930s close-focusing versions of the Elmar 35 and 50mm lenses, and the later Dual-Range Summicron 50mm, Leica photographers have had to direct their efforts to the "over 1 meter" universe, without resorting to various close-focus/copying accessories.</p><div></div>

<p>Pic...</p><div></div>

<p>The Sony, in the picture, bears a Leitz Elmar 3,5cm lens; the Leica has a Leitz Elmar 5cm lens. Both lenses fitted with appropriate hoods, screw-in filters, aperture-actuating rings.</p>

<p>This same technique can be used to gauge the focus when screw-in, or otherwise attached, near-focus lenses are employed in addition to the prime lens, e.g. the little screw-in diopter lenses No.1, 2, or 3. A ground-glass focus-checker, such as the Leitz VEHIG, can be used for initial set up. Markers can be placed on the neckstrap, corresponding to the various distances with the lens set at, say, infinity. Framing is, of course, apt to be a little inexact, but we are revisiting, here, the world of the Leica-equipped explorer of the 1930s.</p><div></div>

<p>Distance is measured from the back of the camera, or - from the film-plane.</p><div></div>

<p>Lemon at Half-Meter, as gauged:</p>

<p>Some Leica LTM enthusiasts will possess examples of Elmar 5cm and Elmar 3,5cm lenses that focus as close as half a meter - these lenses were issued before the addition of a rangefinder to the Leica camera, whereafter the closest focusing distance became one meter.<br> A handy half-meter distance gauge can be made by setting a neck strap, such as is found on an eveready case, to extend to half a meter, as illustrated, for quick use in the field. The attached photograph shows this technique being used with a close-focus Elmar 35mm lens, closed down to f12,5. The neck strap is allowed to fall away, and the exposure taken.</p><div></div>

<p>Imagine: the invention of a digital sensor as thin as a piece of film! It could be slid into an old Barnack body, with the required processors etc being housed in something like the shell of a Mooly motor, attached to the base of the camera. Such seemingly outlandish concepts have often become realities.</p>

<p>The two large black lenses in the camera case, in the photo, above, are: Thambar 9cm, and, in the middle of the case, a Hektor 13,5cm.</p>

<p>I admit that I am a "rusted-on" antiquarian, and would encourage everyone to insist on "Full Frame". This ties in with Leica history: a genealogy of enthusiasm. An old-Leica-modelled digital camera would thus have an accessory shoe in the correct position, so that any of the old viewfinders can be used. The body should, of course, be useable on Focoslides, Panoramic Heads etc., and be able to be inserted into the old ever-ready cases.<br> Pipedreams? Perhaps. But I really did expect that, by now, such a camera would have been manufactured.</p>

<p>Many photographers, (me, certainly) would welcome such a thing as: a Full-Frame digital Leica body, of good digital capacity, e.g.. 36-meg or more, and constructed to the same dimensions as a Leica Standard (II or III), perhaps with M-mount so that LTM adapters can be used. I would enthusiastically insert such a marvel into my Leica outfit-case, interchanging it with an original early film camera when required.</p><div></div>

<p>I first used the Frame Finder in the 1970s, in the UK, taking B&W landscape photographs in the middle of winter - dark, gloomy vistas, not all that interesting when viewed through the usual small optical Leitz pre-war finders. There is a certain "something", too, at being able to see a view with 100% of the available light, and at life-size - an advantage of the non-optical frame-finder. (I must here confess that ancient Leica equipment has been my choice of gear - irrationally life-complicating perhaps, but loads of fun, and with plenty of astonishment at what can be achieved with this old stuff).<br> During the brighter seasons, I used a green Wratten filter in the front frame, as an aid in judging the masses of highlights and shadows in a view.</p> <p>Frame Finder attached, I would often come across some building or monument, or group of people etc that I would photograph, and now and then find that I had lopped off the tip of a church steeple, or sheared off a chunk of Stonehenge when framing rather tightly. This was way before digital photography, and the losses would be discovered only after returning to London, and extracting the developed negative from my Rondinax tank. (I later took a Rondinax tank, and small bottles of chemicals - Emofin 2-Bath - with me on excursions and developed en-route!). The plastic aiming-guide was born, out in the West Country.<br> ...and that's how I began to press the Frame Finder to its Outer Limits!</p>

<p>Not a commercial proposition from me - although smart, well-produced versions could possibly be of interest, if someone produced them. The item illustrated was quickly made up for field use.</p>

<p>The Plastic Mask, removed:</p><div></div>

<p>Above is actually the Rear View - here's the Front View:</p><div></div>

<p>I like using the Leitz Frame-Finder, but as it was designed for sports and action photography, with the idea of keeping the subject in the centre of the frame, the finder is not so good for exact composure of shots - the edges of the frame seem to "wander" if the eye is not centered on, and positioned close to, the rear sight. This is especially so when the 35mm lens is used - the front frame of the finder being turned back nearer to the rear sight.<br />A slide-in mask of almost-clear plastic, with central hole and red lines ruled with felt-tipped pen, has been found to be of help in more reliably defining the field of view - in this case the field of the Elmar 3,5cm lens.<br />A clear, or coloured plastic could be similarly employed. A slightly green plastic can be used, with the added advantage of it serving as a Landscape Viewing Filter for Black and White photography.<img src="http://www.photo.net/photos/jcgoodman" alt="" /></p><div></div>

Now for something completely different! Here is a stereo pair originally captured with a STEREOLY beam-splitter mounted in front of a "Red Scale" Elmar 5cm lens. Film was Kodachrome 25. Perhaps photo.netters would like to mess around with this image and see if a single 3-D impression can be obtained direct from the computer screen. The STEREOLY has already done the Left/Right crossover at the time of exposure. 3-D enthusiasts will know what I mean here.<div></div>