LEICA MM How Revolutionary Should Your Camera Be?
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LEICALEICA MM How revolutionary should your camera be? Cover: During the sixties, a picture of the Cuban politician Ernesto ”Che” Guevara de la Serna was widely published around the world and it quickly became a symbol for revolutionary movements. On the 6th of March 1960, Cuban agricultural worker Alberto Diaz Gutierrez Korda used a Leica M2 with a 90 mm lens to make this famous photograph of ”Che” in Havana, Cuba. Oskar Barnack was not a man plated. With that in mind, Ernst guided by conventional possibilities. Leitz II secured the most important Revolution begins 5 He created his own. And one day patents for Barnack’s small camera this led him to an ingeniously sim- during a trip to America early in in the mind. ple idea with wide-ranging conse- 1914. Of course it was also impor- quences. tant to make the camera user- Actually, Oskar Barnack had been friendly for untrained persons. Use- working at the Ernst Leitz company ful features such as a viewfinder, a in Wetzlar, Germany, since 1911 in rangefinder, a shutter for adjustable the capacity of manager of the re- exposure times and a cassette for search department for micro- daylight film loading still had to be scopes. It was said of him that he developed. was able to sense even the very Building on the Ur-Leica’s innova- finest tolerances with his fingertips. tion, details of the new camera This headstrong stickler for preci- were lovingly refined, and a few sion had a hobby that was rather years later it was ready to be intro- exotic at that time: cinematography, duced to the market as the Leica I or in more familiar terms, movie (or Leica A in America). The daring making. At the beginning of the decision to produce this camera 20th century, its technology was and to offer it to the public heralded still in its infancy. To be able to a regular boom in photography and make reliable exposure tests, Bar- paved the way for modern photo- nack needed something like a journalism. small, handy testing instrument Small negatives - large pictures. that used a fixed shutter speed of All the small format cameras that 1/40 of a second to expose short were to follow later were based on lengths of the film material used in this simple formula. The LEICA large motion picture cameras. Since camera was the pioneer that suc- The legendary portrait of Che Guevara was Oskar Barnack working at his desk in a comparable device was not avail- ceeded. It evolved from the proud made with a Leica M2 and a 90 mm lens. Wetzlar, Germany.This is the place where the able, the master simply built his attitude of not accepting every tech- revolution in 35 mm photography was start- own personal instrument to suit his nical boundary. ed. needs. In doing so, he more or less by chance made an interesting dis- covery: the relatively coarse-grained film material of that era produced just about acceptable results even when enlarged to postcard size. Barnack simply doubled the standard 18x24 mm motion picture film for- mat - thus arriving at the 24x36 mm negative size that was to become a world standard. With that, his old dream became feasible: a camera that fits in one’s pocket. However, a number of obstacles still had to be overcome before se- ries production could be contem- 6 80of years evolution There are very diverse methods of developing a miniature camera. Some of them seem to evolve in between. And always when there is something new and exciting. With others it is more a question of su- perlatives. When enough of them come together, the time is ripe for a successor. And regrettably for the predecessor as well. And then there is a camera whose strategists and technicians take into account a very special development factor: life. Life with photography and with the unrelenting desire to make better pictures. The Leica M is a cam- era whose design was influenced significantly by the work and the feed-back by outstanding photographers. The LEICA M6 is the current culmination of this evolution. Basically still an M-camera, up-to-date in technology and couched in 80 years of pictorial experience. for a camera? 123 456 7 8 9 See picture reference on page 58. 8 Making a good photograph As time goes by, those who like to take pictures and do it often, discover more and more fine points and differences. A special charac- teristic of a LEICA M6 is that it draws its owner’s attention to details that would normally go unnoticed. To work with this camera is a learning process with lots of gratifying results that ignite our motiva- tion and enhance our enjoyment of photography. In the long run, it quite automatically leads us to study our subjects more intently, which in turn leads to extraordinary results. Eventually, it is no longer an art for the owner of a Leica M camera to make a good photograph. And yet, his or her pictures will increasingly reflect artistic tenden- cies. is not an art. Or is it? The LEICA M6 is a mechanical The fields covered by LEICA M Sometimes art is a matter rangefinder camera that concen- lenses are outlined by bright-line 1 trates on the essentials of photog- frames that appear in the viewfind- raphy: composition, distance, expo- er - always in pairs - for focal of technology. sure. Its center for creative com- lengths of 28* and 90 mm, 35 and position is the combined range- and 135 mm, and 50 and 75 mm. As a viewfinder that consists of more lens is attached to the camera, it 1 than 100 precision parts, assem- automatically activates the appropri- bled with scrupulous precision. The ate bright-line frame in the LEICA M6 is available with 0.72x or viewfinder. Any pair of frames can 0.85x viewfinder magnification. also be activated manually. This The Leica viewfinder features an unique viewfinder design makes it extraordinarily bright and contrasty possible to determine, before mak- image of unchanging size and it also ing the exposure, which focal serves for the exact control of focus length covers the subject to its best and exposure settings. Its combined advantage. split-image and coincidence range- A LEICA M thus demonstrates finder enables you to focus quickly that art is a matter of creativity and and accurately, even in poor light. skill. But it is also a matter of tech- The light balance at the bottom of nology. Viewfinder image of the LEICA M6 (with Viewfinder image of the LEICA M6: bright- the viewfinder image allows you to 0.72x viewfinder magnification).Top: bright- line frames for 50 and 75 mm lenses. line frames for 35 and 135 mm lenses. set the correct aperture and shutter * only with 0.72x speed combination. L Left: bright-line frames for 28 and 90 mm lenses. 12 How emot * are 840of glass,grams brass If one were asked to describe the LEICA M6 in just a few words, the term ‘cult object’ would inevitably come to mind. To regard this camera in a strictly rational manner is virtually impossible. The Leica M camera is the tool of choice of the world’s very best photographers. It is the photojournalist’s camera that has been capturing historical moments on film for four generations. And by virtue of its own evolu- tion, it is enveloped in an aura of perfection. A Leica M is not merely a camera - it has a fascinating mystique all its own. Who would want to ignore that? * LEICA M6 TTL with 50 mm f/2 Summicron (black anodized) and steel? tional It was not a whim of chance that Tool and cult object. brought LEICA M cameras their worldwide reputation. It was the re- sult of the perfect interplay of years of research, an intelligent concept and meticulous selection of materi- als and fabrication methods. A LEICA M camera consists of up to 1348 individual parts. For each one of these parts, painstaking care was taken to determine exactly the 15 right material. The top plate is an 0.8 mm thick zinc diecasting, for special models it is drawn from 0.8 mm thick sheet brass, as are all the baseplates. High-precision function- al parts are made of steel, brass or aluminum, and all of them receive specialized surface treatments. Highly sophisticated surface treat- ment of optical surfaces, developed by Leica engineers, ensure protec- Chrome: wear-proof, durable protection for tion against the elements and all exterior parts. against scratches. Even in the man- ufacture of LEICA M lenses, many of the spe- cial glasses are made to formula- tions developed at Leica. Naturally, the results of such car- ing fabrication elicits emotions. For many renowned photographers, the LEICA M is both a dependable tool Glass: melts made with a complex process and a cult object. especially for Leica lenses. Brass: Latch for the baseplate of a LEICA M6. 16 May family pictures For some, it barely takes a year, for others it may take five years or even longer. But there comes a day for everyone when it is time for the great review. The sorting of hundreds of accumulated prints, neg- atives and slides. A part of life passes before one’s inner eyes. A bit of pride may swell in your chest, about this or that brilliantly captured situation, about a single fleeting expression that describes someone’s personality better than a hundred other pictures, or about a very special portrait of a child that tugs at your heartstrings.