Leica M3
As some of you may know, when I visited Ray he let me use his father’s M3. Excitedly I threw in a roll of TMAX 400 (well, I fumbled loading the vintage camera, but Ray helped) and I exposed a roll as we walked around a fairgrounds. Some highlights of the roll (from my perspective) are below. Some these are included so you can see the lens/film combo at work (this roll was contrasty as well as the roll from the Bessa/Zeiss combo, but in a different way). I really need to ask North Coast what their developer/time combo is for TMAX 400. Enjoy as you may. Thanks again, Ray.
Like the Space Needle grain and the carousel shot (or whatever ride that is
the best.
I agree with Mark but would add that all these images are thoroughly enjoyable and captivating. Great work.
I like them, Chris. I especially like the reflection of the Ferris wheel. I’m curious, of the 3 cameras that you used, the Bessa, M3, and the Contax, which did you prefer. Of course, this is probably a question based on context of use, but I wonder if you had an opinion either way.
Well, heh, the grain on the Space Needle is because the image is cropped quite a bit. I wonder who encouraged me to crop . . .
Thank you, Cedric, coming from you that comment means quite a bit.
Paul, they are so different. Contax: auto exposure, auto focus (I exposed in Aperture Priority, as I do 90% of the time with AE cameras). Bessa: rangefinder, zone focussed, that day probably general exposure (the Bessa has AE, but I don’t use it much). The Leica doesn’t have a meter, so it’s fully manual. On that day, the highest percentage of keepers for me came from the Leica images, actually. I honestly don’t know why.
“On that day, the highest percentage of keepers for me came from the Leica images, actually. ”
The above brings a smile to me. My new meter should arrive today so I will be giving the Leica some exercise soon I hope. These are fantastic Chris I really like the high contrast and seeing what you saw, especially since I was with you at the time.
That crop of the tower was nice to see, loved the grain that came though thanks to it. We are really suckers for these kind of textures, aren’t we? Now when I’m in the handy man business, first thing that came to my mind was, wouldn’t it be nice with a wallpaper with photographic grain like this… Lovely!
I’m so glad these brought a smile to you, Ray. And I’m honored that you let me use your Dad’s camera. That was special.
I liked the grain from that crop as well. But there was something special about that lens and camera, though.