Black Paint Leicas

[Moose22]

I do not mind being mistaken for a fetishist. I mean, at what point does someone earn the imaginary right to indulge?

The day you're born, as far as I'm concerned. And it's not imaginary to my mind. It's a natural right.

Keep making good images. Keep sharing them, I enjoy them. Whatever drives your passion, let it drive!

If you like BP L's so much here is Elliot Erwitt's bashed about beauty...
View attachment 291322
He might even think this about"But Leica people can be a lot."

That's such an awesome image. At what point does it stop being a "plack paint" leica and start being a "mostly brass" leica? A patina well earned with years of handling and use.

 

[NB23]

Guys you’re too kind.

Buy BP Barnacks while they’re cheap(ish)

 

[RDW]

If I have finished shooting and I have a couple of frames left, I just rewind the film and get along to developing it. Maybe if I had a Leica, I would use those extra frames to take pictures of it. Actually, if I had a Leica, the extra frames would be in the Leica, so I couldn't take pictures of it. So I guess you really need two Leicas. If you only have one Leica, the only option is to take a picture of yourself in the mirror like Andreas Feininger. Of course, you are going to need an accessory viewfinder and a black turtleneck for the full effect.

To be honest, I think most of the 7800 photos of Leicas posted by their owners in that thread I mentioned were taken with a phone, but it's not really something I would want to say out loud. The heresy of it. But they do look pretty sharp in an unglowy sort of way. Bourgeois, in other words.

That one isn't a mirror shot, it's Feininger's portrait of Dennis Stock (the Magnum photographer who took the famous shot of James Dean walking through NYC in the rain).

Now this is a mirror shot...

Ilse Bing, Self-Portrait with Leica.
https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.119341.html

 

[faberryman]

That one isn't a mirror shot, it's Feininger's portrait of Dennis Stock (the Magnum photographer who took the famous shot of James Dean walking through NYC in the rain).

So is this Feininger? If so, my world is turned upside down. Not only is the iconic photograph I posted not Feininger, but Feininger used a Contax.

 

[RDW]

So is this Feininger? If so, my world is turned upside down. Not only is the iconic photograph I posted not Feininger, but Feininger used a Contax.

That's him. But Feininger would have had no time for threads like this. One quote attributed to him is:

"Photographers — idiots, of which there are so many — say, “Oh, if only I had a Nikon or a Leica, I could make great photographs.” That’s the dumbest thing I ever heard in my life. It’s nothing but a matter of seeing, and thinking, and interest.”

From his book Feininger On Photography:

'Most beginners pass at one time or another through this stage of collecting. And little harm is done—if they can only get it out of their systems early in the game. But many a photographer with a future never gets past this stage of gadgeteering, never tears his interest away from the means in photography and concentrates on the purpose —making pictures! I used to know such a man who had the makings of a first-class photographer but who never arrived simply because he couldn’t help falling in love with beautiful equipment. And his wasn’t the only case. I know of another photographer making pictures whose quality was inverse in proportion to the amount of money and equipment spent in producing them. These people are living examples proving convincingly that it is not the quantity of expensive means used in making a photograph that accounts for its greatness as a picture, but the qualifications of the man who knew how to put these means to intelligent use.'

He tried the Leica himself several times, but never got on with it:

'So there I was again, unable to resist the temptation, and for the third time I went and bought myself a Leica—with all the trimmings. Some people only learn the hard way. Naturally, it didn’t work out this time either. But this time I found the reason: the Leica is too beautiful for me! To me, a Leica is a work of Art, is mechanical perfection personified, is not a means to an end, but the end itself. I could put a Leica on my desk and keep it there as an ornament, I can play around with it and enjoy it like a piece of “technical jewelry”—but I can never treat it casually, as casually as a camera should be treated. I sold this third Leica outfit of mine four months after I had bought it. I wonder when I shall buy my next one.'

Nor was he a fan of beginning photographers being sold overly expensive cameras like the Contax they didn't need:

'... on one side of the counter a prosperous-looking customer intent on buying a camera; on the other side a glib-tongued clerk intent on playing the sucker for all he is worth; between them an array of half a dozen or so cameras from Contax and Leica up to 4x5 Speed Graphic. The customer takes up one camera after another, fondles it, cocks and trips the shutter, peeps through the viewfinder, sights through the door at the building across the street, puts the camera down, takes up another one, and repeats the performance while the clerk pours out a running comment on the merits of each model, guessing the shifting thoughts of his victim with uncanny accuracy, praising whatever the customer would like to hear praised, but never for a moment forgetting to emphasize the special advantages of the most expensive of all the cameras on the counter, a Contax with an f 1.5 lens. The salesman climaxes his arguments by whipping out one of the complete Contax catalogues describing the several hundred different accessories “adapting this camera for every conceivable purpose,” and finally closes the deal by selling the, by now, completely bewildered customer the Contax.'

 

[faberryman]

Before your post setting me straight me about the iconic image I posted not being of Feininger but by Feininger, I didn't know much about him other than that photo, but based on the Feininger quotes you posted above it seems like maybe I have an affinity for his way of thinking. Usually the whole camera equipment thing focuses on an epic battle to the death between Leica/Hasselblad and Holga, when in fact most cameras fall somehwere in between and work perfectly fine, and if you are all the time thinking about your camera your attention is just being diverted from the task at hand. It is sort of Walter Mitty-like where instead of sitting in the car waiting for your wife to finish up her shopping and thinking about how exciting your life would be if you were a secret agent, you are sitting in your easy chair reading the latest issue of Popular Photography and zeroing in on the ads in the back thinking about what your life would be like if you had a Leica/Hasselblad. Anyway, I think I'll spend some time this afternoon reading about Feininger and looking at his images, and be the better for it. Thanks.

 

[NB23]

Feininger is not the brightest man around, imo.
Scared of using a Leica because a Leica is a perfect device? For a man who preaches the virtues of equipment meant to be used instead of fondled, it seems to me the Leica was made for him.

Besides, a Black Paint Leica would have been exactly the answer. Use it and abuse it. No, this is not fetishism: a cowboy loves his boots more and more as they get used. Same as a worker and his Red Wings boots. A hairdresser with her best pair of scissors, and so on.

No, really, Leica gave the market such a GREAT product that a by-product quickly arose: veneration, worship.

 

[RDW]

I didn't know much about him other than that photo, but based on the Feininger quotes you posted above it seems like maybe I have an affinity for his way of thinking. Usually the whole camera equipment thing focuses on an epic battle to the death between Leica/Hasselblad and Holga, when in fact most cameras fall somehwere in between and work perfectly fine, and if you are all the time thinking about your camera your attention is just being diverted from the task at hand. .

I think you may well enjoy checking his stuff out. As well as leaving behind a large portfolio of images, he wrote several important books on the process of photography, one of the few really significant photographers to do so (Ansel Adams and David Hurn spring to mind). Here's a sample of his way of thinking from one of his last books, a late edition of The Complete Photographer:

Feininger is not the brightest man around, imo.
Scared of using a Leica because a Leica is a perfect device? For a man who preaches the virtues of equipment meant to be used instead of fondled, it seems to me the Leica was made for him.

Besides, a Black Paint Leica would have been exactly the answer. Use it and abuse it. No, this is not fetishism: a cowboy loves his boots more and more as they get used. Same as a worker and his Red Wings boots. A hairdresser with her best pair of scissors, and so on.

No, really, Leica gave the market such a GREAT product that a by-product quickly arose: veneration, worship.

Feininger, imo, had one of the sharpest minds in photography, with both considerable artistic talent and a high level of technical knowledge (he mocks a 'walking encyclopedia of photo-technical information' in the extract above, but it's pretty clear his own command of the technicalities was on this level!). It may not be obvious from the short extract in the earlier post that he's telling the story against himself (he'd admired what his colleagues were doing with the Leica, but found it didn't suit him, even after repeated and expensive attempts to like it). But he understands, as gear fetishists do not (and this is fetishism) that the choice of camera has only a small contribution to the final result, at least beyond a certain minimal level of technical quality, which can be had for perhaps 5% of the price of a Leica M (even a chrome one). I suspect he'd have found the idea that any camera is worthy of veneration and worship as hilarious as I do.

 

[faberryman]

Feininger is not the brightest man around, imo.
Scared of using a Leica because a Leica is a perfect device? For a man who preaches the virtues of equipment meant to be used instead of fondled, it seems to me the Leica was made for him.

Besides, a Black Paint Leica would have been exactly the answer. Use it and abuse it. No, this is not fetishism: a cowboy loves his boots more and more as they get used. Same as a worker and his Red Wings boots. A hairdresser with her best pair of scissors, and so on.

No, really, Leica gave the market such a GREAT product that a by-product quickly arose: veneration, worship.

In my experience, you are an exception. You talk a lot about your Leicas (and your Focomat), but you also use them extensively, and have a significant body of exceptional images to show for it.

 

[NB23]

I was obviously tongue in cheek, his writing and thoughts are impeccable (and a little contradictory), but I also confess to being vastly uncultivated when it comes to other remarkable photographers. I had to choose early on; either spend time in the darkroom looking at my images or spending that valuable time looking at other people’s work... which ends up influencing me, driving me away from myself.

Funny anecdote: november 2020 I stumbled on a book from Lee Friedlander. “Oh, according to the many internet forums, I am supposed to own this book and know this guy’s work”. I purchased the book, wrapped it and put it under the xmas tree as a gift to myself from Myself. Christmas passed and I didn’t open it. My wife packed the tree and tossed the unwrapped book away. In february I decided I’d keep it for next christmas. So here we are... as soon as my wife and kids unpack the christmas tree I will throw the book under the tree again. I don’t guarantee I’ll open it though. I’m still halfway through Depardon’s book from a year ago. Somehow I got bored in the middle, I wasn’t sure if each page needed to sink in or if I simply didn’t like it. I’m still unsure. I much prefer fondling my two focomat IIc three hours a day, every day.

 

[NB23]

In my experience, you are an exception. You talk a lot about your Leicas (and your Focomat), but you also use them extensively, and have a significant body of exceptional images to show for it.

I talk more about my Rolleiflex, and I admire the Xpan even more... but still today I consider my best work ever was made in 93-95, teenager, with cheap minoltas. I could never beat those years. Probably something to do with a “pure, unadulterated, virgin and sincere” vision.

 

[Huss]

... but still today I consider my best work ever was made in 93-95, teenager, with cheap minoltas. I could never beat those years. Probably something to do with a “pure, unadulterated, virgin and sincere” vision.

Would they have been better if you had used BP Leicas?

 

[NB23]

Would they have been better if you had used BP Leicas?

Not really... I remember holding a Barnack at 17 and really hating it. I was dreaming of a Minolta 9xi... had a x-9. But the X-9 was really the closest thing to the essentials. And still today, I think it has the best viewfinder interface. Then switched to a 7000i and my photography dropped substantially. I was caught in the technology race and tech gear lust.

 

[faberryman]

I remember holding a Barnack at 17 and really hating it.

You edged me out. I first used a Barnack at 20. My instructor loaned it to me because I was curious about it. So I used it for a couple of weeks doing my very best imitation of HCB, attempting to focus and frame images with those two tiny rangefinder/viewfinder windows, and generally feeling frustrated. One of the reasons I admire HCB so much is that he was actually make good photographs without really being able to see what he was doing. I bet he was pretty happy to move on to an M3. Anyway, I gave the Barnack back to my instructor, thanked him for the experience, and went back to using my Pentax. So use a Barnak? Nope. Been there done that. Of course, it might be perfect for someone else.

 

[Huss]

The Barnack I use is a 1F - the version w/o the RF/VF. Those are fun. I do not like the twin peep hole versions, and actually prefer a Canon P to them.

 

[reddesert]

I read one of Feininger's books - possibly "Successful Photography" or "The Complete Photographer" - in high school when I was starting out, and it was helpful. His book of photos of New York in the 1940s is a nice compilation of photos of the smoky and lit-up metropolis from a modernist perspective. Here's a webpage with some examples: https://www.vintag.es/2017/10/the-face-of-new-york-in-1940s-through.html

I remember going to look at a used Barnack Leica for sale when I was about 17. It was pretty inexpensive (maybe not much more than $100), but I was set back by the squinty VF and RF, and passed. I'd like to have it now, but passing was probably the right thing at the time. I used a big old SLR instead, and then got a fixed-lens RF to have something quieter and smaller.

 

[kivis]

Sitting here enjoying both my Black CHROME M-A and this black paint chat. Wahoo Wah!

 

[Huss]

Right now only one manufacturer is making black paint on brass lenses as a standard production item. In LTM and M mounts no less!
Perfect for your BP Barnack or M.

 

[NB23]

Ticks these boxes?

-made in Germany?
-exclusive, short numbers production?
-very expensive?
-original design, not a copy?

Sorry but no Cigar.

 

[logan2z]

Ticks these boxes?

-very expensive?

Why would you want it to tick that box?

 

[Huss]

And thank you for no cigar. Those things can be lethal. Ask the commander of the Moskva who 'wandered into the powder room' forgetting he was smoking one.

 

[Huss]

..
-original design, not a copy?

..

Is there another 40mm 2.8 BP out there that I am not aware of? It's nothing like the Rollei (which was made by CV..)

 

[NB23]

Is there another 40mm 2.8 BP out there that I am not aware of? It's nothing like the Rollei (which was made by CV..)

Pretty much a Leica 3.5cm summaron wannabe with a twistey-twist

 

[cliveh]

My Leica II, the best camera design and precision engineering in the history of photography (in my opinion).

 

[NB23]

Why would you want it to tick that box?

The exclusivity game.


There are lots black painted Brass objects out there, made in China, all very inexpensive. Saw such stuff at the dollar store the other day (can’t remember what, though, but I swear I did).
There is nothing magical about brass black painted stuff. The magic happens when all the boxes are ticked, including the Big, main Box: has it LEICA written on it?