Do Leica lenses have "built-in sunshine"?

[GRHazelton]

Is that organ a Hammond or a Wurlizter?

For a German lens, a pipe organ should be a tracker, perhaps a Beckerath.

 

[Arklatexian]

That's what I read in an old Leica review.

Chip, that was Leica advertising designed to make Leica Haters snarl and Leica long term users smile. I think I understand why the Leica haters always bring up how much they cost, never the fact that an all mechanical RF camera sold new in the mid-1950s, as was mine, is still making better pictures than its owner is capable in 2017, as does mine. As a salesman, I sold this camera new to its first owner who used it for several years then sold it to a magazine journalist who later sold it to me and I am still using it. Most other brands that I sold new at the time I sold this Leica have long since been scrapped unless they were stored and not used. Did/do I buy Leica to brag about how much I spent? Hell no! I bought/buy because they still work after 60 years. And before the 1950s I knew of Barnack Leicas that had been in use for years before that and I would not be at all surprised if some of them are still in use. I am getting too old to spend this much time on a soap box so I must get down. For most Leica owners price had nothing to do with why they purchased one and to think otherwise is to be mistaken.........Regards!

 

[blockend]

Chip, that was Leica advertising designed to make Leica Haters snarl and Leica long term users smile. I think I understand why the Leica haters always bring up how much they cost, never the fact that an all mechanical RF camera sold new in the mid-1950s, as was mine, is still making better pictures than its owner is capable in 2017, as does mine. As a salesman, I sold this camera new to its first owner who used it for several years then sold it to a magazine journalist who later sold it to me and I am still using it. Most other brands that I sold new at the time I sold this Leica have long since been scrapped unless they were stored and not used. Did/do I buy Leica to brag about how much I spent? Hell no! I bought/buy because they still work after 60 years. And before the 1950s I knew of Barnack Leicas that had been in use for years before that and I would not be at all surprised if some of them are still in use. I am getting too old to spend this much time on a soap box so I must get down. For most Leica owners price had nothing to do with why they purchased one and to think otherwise is to be mistaken.........Regards!

Do Leica haters really exist? I can imagine Leica owners attracting some flak, but some of them bring that upon themselves. So many old Leicas survive because they were strongly made, were treated with considerable care, and were a sufficiently large investment that owners maintained them when other brands had been traded in for the next model.

Professional SLRs killed Leica rangefinders as anything but a niche tool. You'd have to really want a rangefinder to not use a Nikon F professionally, and those who did hadn't got a lot of choice. Interchangeable lens rangefinder cameras were made by Nikon, Canon and a few other brands, but they emerged in a short window until the arrival of the first serious SLRs, whereas Leica had 30 years of heritage and lenses to fall back on. By the late 1960s Leica had no serious competition in their market sector because everyone else had left. They benefitted by being last man standing and their pricing strategy allowed them to weather financial storms for a while.

There have always been serious Leica users whose candid photography matched what rangefinders did best, but most were sold to dentists and camera sniffers, and they are the cameras that come to market now. One owner Leicas are thrashed to death or as new because that's how they were used. A multi owner Leica that hasn't been looked after will function like any camera that hasn't been cared for. I'm a Leica owner but a degree of realism is required when talking about their lenses. Barnack lenses were virtually the only quality miniature lenses available, so there wasn't much to compare them to. M lenses were many multiples the price of an equivalent, some of which offered 9/10 or 11/10 of Leica's offerings.

Leica cameras are like Morgan cars in the UK, they survived by doing the same thing they've done since the 30s in the knowledge they'll be enough buyers to want one at the price they're asking.

 

[Theo Sulphate]

...
Leica cameras are like Morgan cars in the UK, they survived by doing the same thing they've done since the 30s in the knowledge they'll be enough buyers to want one at the price they're asking.

They're like Morgan in more ways than one: just like Morgan is the last remaining UK auto builder that's never been bought out by another company, Leica remains independent as well.

 

[blockend]

They're like Morgan in more ways than one: just like Morgan is the last remaining UK auto builder that's never been bought out by another company, Leica remains independent as well.

There's McLaren and Caterham, too, but no volume manufacturers. When I was a teenager I used to make deliveries to a chap who was reputed to be the last horseshoe nail manufacturer in the Britain. He was a one man operation pulling the handle on a Victorian machine, and had seen all his competitors off. That's what happens if you're smart or bloody-minded enough to ignore the rest of civilisation.

 

[AgX]

They're like Morgan in more ways than one: just like Morgan is the last remaining UK auto builder that's never been bought out by another company, Leica remains independent as well.

Not quite:
from the family owned Leitz/Leica company the consumer division was split off in 1996 and was turned into a company on public shares. In 2012 the shares were taken over by a german investment firm and Leica changed into different private, non-stock firm.

 

[Dan Fromm]

Hmm. Leica haters? I don't hate Leica or Leica products.

I do dislike, if not exactly hate, the Leicanuts who beat me about the head and shoulders while chanting "Leica is best! You are an idiot! Leica is best! You are an idiot! Leica is best! You are an idiot!" They're not discerning enough to tell the difference between idiots and ignorant barbarians. I might not be an idiot, am proud to be a birthright ignorant barbarian.

 

[fstop]

Do Leica haters really exist? I can imagine Leica owners attracting some flak, but some of them bring that upon themselves. So many old Leicas survive because they were strongly made, were treated with considerable care, and were a sufficiently large investment that owners maintained them when other brands had been traded in for the next model.

Professional SLRs killed Leica rangefinders as anything but a niche tool. You'd have to really want a rangefinder to not use a Nikon F professionally, and those who .

Leica haters exist within the Leica enthusiast group , the RF guys won't acknowledge the superb SLRs Leica produced.

 

[removed account4]

i don't hate leicas, but im not a "fan boy " ( i'm a realist )

i find it fun to read what leica fans** say about their cameras, how
the lenses have been made to capture the sun on a dark day or how leica-anything is
superior in every way shape or form to any other photographic equipment ( PERIOD ! )
how even the feeblest of photographers with the weakest of compositions manage to take
pullitzer prize winning images, even when the work was created with the fabled leica submini exposed with the
tri x being enlarged to 30x40" processed in rodinal, and somehow grainless as well with
hauntingly sublime midtones and micro-contrast that would reanimate the dead ( OV COURSE! )
its almost like the silver skates or red shoes, but it isn't 1 camera that is magical, its all of them ..

since i've got connections in hollywoodland, i've been working on a treatment for about a year
and the best thing about the film will be how i will insist it be taken with leica cameras + glass
by a blind crew cause you know, its still going to be perfect !

** you can substitute any camera made for leica ( and the country it is made ) like rollei,
hasselblad, nikon, kodak bullseye, brownie, holga, or 19th century lens design like
modified or unmodified petzval &c if it is not a handheld camera.

 

[Theo Sulphate]

People that are obsessed with "their" brand of camera being the "best" are incapable of making a single photo worth looking at. They're too obsessed with equipment and somehow have their ego wrapped up in a brand (and most likely a sports team as well).

I've not met a camera-brand fanboy in real life; they all seem to be on the internet.

On one of my walls at home is a really nice 8x10 color print of a lake with Half Dome in the background. Colors are beautiful, composition is nice, very pleasing to look at. It's a scanned enlargement of a photo I made with my SX-70 11 years ago. I could've used one of my Leicas, but it doesn't matter.

 

[Dan Fromm]

I've not met a camera-brand fanboy in real life; they all seem to be on the internet.

They used to exist, may still.

In 1970 when I was shopping for my first real camera one of the people I played chamber music with was a leicanut. He tried very hard to convince me that a Leica was what I needed, if necessary an SL 2, but he preferred Ms for everything. After I'd had a happy year or so with my humble Nikkormat FTn another friend tried to convince me to scrap my Nikon gear in favor of an LTM kit like his. Thanks, no.

 

[David Brown]

I swear, whenever I take my car through a car wash, it drives better afterwards. It's smoother, quieter and faster.

It's not your imagination. It's true ...

 

[David Brown]

I've not met a camera-brand fanboy in real life; they all seem to be on the internet.

Lucky you. I have ...

 

[Arklatexian]

Do Leica haters really exist? I can imagine Leica owners attracting some flak, but some of them bring that upon themselves. So many old Leicas survive because they were strongly made, were treated with considerable care, and were a sufficiently large investment that owners maintained them when other brands had been traded in for the next model.

Professional SLRs killed Leica rangefinders as anything but a niche tool. You'd have to really want a rangefinder to not use a Nikon F professionally, and those who did hadn't got a lot of choice. Interchangeable lens rangefinder cameras were made by Nikon, Canon and a few other brands, but they emerged in a short window until the arrival of the first serious SLRs, whereas Leica had 30 years of heritage and lenses to fall back on. By the late 1960s Leica had no serious competition in their market sector because everyone else had left. They benefitted by being last man standing and their pricing strategy allowed them to weather financial storms for a while.

There have always been serious Leica users whose candid photography matched what rangefinders did best, but most were sold to dentists and camera sniffers, and they are the cameras that come to market now. One owner Leicas are thrashed to death or as new because that's how they were used. A multi owner Leica that hasn't been looked after will function like any camera that hasn't been cared for. I'm a Leica owner but a degree of realism is required when talking about their lenses. Barnack lenses were virtually the only quality miniature lenses available, so there wasn't much to compare them to. M lenses were many multiples the price of an equivalent, some of which offered 9/10 or 11/10 of Leica's offerings.

Leica cameras are like Morgan cars in the UK, they survived by doing the same thing they've done since the 30s in the knowledge they'll be enough buyers to want one at the price they're asking.

This is all well and nice, but I have an M3 or M2 single lens reflex every time I put a Leica reflex attachment on my cameras. Also those cameras revert to range finders when I take the attachments off. Something my SLR that I own can't do. The reflex housing that I use with my M cameras, with a bellows, can shoot from a 1:1 close-up to a shot at infinity. I am sure that had much to do with Leica being "late" into the SLR business. While I am in no way able to buy a new Leica, it has not escaped my attention that I would have a better choice of RF cameras than SLRs at Leica and I would not be surprised if my old reflex housings could be used on the new RF cameras.....Regards!

 

[blockend]

This is all well and nice, but I have an M3 or M2 single lens reflex every time I put a Leica reflex attachment on my cameras. Also those cameras revert to range finders when I take the attachments off. Something my SLR that I own can't do. The reflex housing that I use with my M cameras, with a bellows, can shoot from a 1:1 close-up to a shot at infinity. I am sure that had much to do with Leica being "late" into the SLR business. While I am in no way able to buy a new Leica, it has not escaped my attention that I would have a better choice of RF cameras than SLRs at Leica and I would not be surprised if my old reflex housings could be used on the new RF cameras.....Regards!

Putting a reflex attachment on a Leica in the hope of making it an SLR is like getting a hot shoe range finder for an SLR to turn it into a Leica. But infinitely more expensive. The Leica was not designed as a modular camera and every supplement is an afterthought. It works, like a Deardorff can be pressed into service as a street photography camera if necessary, but it wouldn't be most peoples' first choice. Why not use an SLR for what it does best and a rangefinder for candid's?

 

[BMbikerider]

It may sound like heresy but I thought that was also evident with the old Minolta manual lenses. This may not be so far fetched because Leitz adapted a number of Minolta lenses to name a couple, the 35-70 and 70-210, both with constant aperture. They modified the actual mount up to their standards, but the optics as far as I know were the same

 

[LeftCoastKid]

Every time I take mine out in the rain, it stops raining. I think it's true...

Fiddle, Is there a particular camera/lens/film combination that you use to stop precipitation?

Living on the left Coast, I have yet - after over a decade-and-a-half of Leica ownership/extensive use - to have noticed this phenomenon when using any of my Leica gear. I don't pay close attention to camera-lens combinations so therein may be my "problem." Without regard, I use a pair of M6s, and M4 and an M4P, and may mount a 28mm, 35mm, 50mm, or 90mm Summicron, or my 50 Summilux ASPH, on whichever body I happen to be using at the time.

Could this carelessness/oversight/indifference be the cause of the failure of my Leica gear to stop precipitation? I'm genuinely curious because the inability of my Leica gear to influence weather patterns has restricted my usage of Ektachrome in said gear. A reasonable "guesstimate" on my part would suggest that I shoot 12-15 rolls of Tri-X/HP5+ for every roll of E100G/VS I am able to shoot with my Leicas, owing mostly, I would suggest, to the absence of a faster E6 emulsion, and the frequency of precipitation in my locale.

While I'd never be accused of being a Leica fanboy (I regard them as an utterly indispensable tool for certain situations), I agree completely with a remark made by Ai Print and a few other Leica users on this forum: Leica lenses render color in an manner readily discernible from that of lenses produced by other manufacturers. As for stopping rain, however, the jury is still out for me. Fiddle, any further information, or suggestions, you may be willing to share, regarding the Leica's rain disruption properties would, of course, be most graciously appreciated.

 

[Dan Fromm]

Living on the left Coast, I have yet - after over a decade-and-a-half of Leica ownership/extensive use - to have noticed this phenomenon when using any of my Leica gear.

Oh, dear, another poster who just takes equipment out of the box and uses it without reading the manual. If you'd read the manual you know that Leica lenses won't make sunshine without batteries.

 

[Dan Fromm]

This is all well and nice, but I have an M3 or M2 single lens reflex every time I put a Leica reflex attachment on my cameras. Also those cameras revert to range finders when I take the attachments off. Something my SLR that I own can't do. The reflex housing that I use with my M cameras, with a bellows, can shoot from a 1:1 close-up to a shot at infinity. I am sure that had much to do with Leica being "late" into the SLR business. While I am in no way able to buy a new Leica, it has not escaped my attention that I would have a better choice of RF cameras than SLRs at Leica and I would not be surprised if my old reflex housings could be used on the new RF cameras.....Regards!

My 1970 Leicanut friend told me the same story. I'm sorry, but for mobile subjects at all magnifications an SLR with a lens that stops down automatically when the exposure is taken is a much better tool than a rangefinder camera with a reflex housing. External diaphragm automation (Alpa, Exakta, ...) or internal (all those obnoxious heretical unfit for use, according to my 1970 Leicanut friend, Japanese and German SLRs), both work well.

I intended to shoot unconstrained live fish in aquariums. For that job an RF camera -- Canon, Contax and clones, Leica and clones -- with reflex housing is a giant waste of film.

 

[NB23]

I'm a Leica nut. I won't go into my collection here.

And although I own the exotic stuff, I still think it's all Bullshti. The fun is all in the fiddling, not in the supposed optical magic.

 

[btaylor]

NB23, a voice of reason. Why not indulge in whatever aspect of your hobby you can afford and holds your interest? I do.
Just don't confuse or justify it with some magical qualities that are suspect, to say the least.
There you are, trolling chip j, I finally got sucked into one of your inane "discussions."

 

[georg16nik]

Um, Bill, if I'm not mistaken the Xenon's design was licensed from TTH.

Yes, the design was by Horace Lee, TTH.
The coated version was sold as Summarit - great lens, imho.

 

[chip j]

NB23, a voice of reason. Why not indulge in whatever aspect of your hobby you can afford and holds your interest? I do.
Just don't confuse or justify it with some magical qualities that are suspect, to say the least.
There you are, trolling chip j, I finally got sucked into one of your inane "discussions."

Thank you, btaylor. I've been waiting for you. My Leica & Zeiss 5X loupes have "sunshine" whereas my otherwise fine Nikon 4X loupe does not.

 

[btaylor]

Ha! Well played, my friend. Kind of like kicking a beehive.

 

[tessar]

When I first heard about Leica "sunshine," I wondered if that sunshine were calculated according to the light at lat. 50 deg. N. Love my Leica lenses anyway, sunny or overcast.