Jun 29, 2019
one stop over
by matt
The Leica IIIf is a totally manual camera. No metering, no auto focus, nothing less than the bare minimum you need to take a photograph, and not a thing more. It’s a joy to use but it is most definitely not a point and shoot, so it’s not the right camera to use in lots of situations! I’ve really enjoyed learning how to try and read lighting conditions, and using a camera like this teaches you a lot of things. Estimating shutter and aperture combination for the ambient light in front of you is not as difficult as you might think, and black and white film lets you get away with lots of mistakes too :-) Classic photographers back in the day used this same camera to take iconic photos still seen today, and I have the utmost respect for them. For this particular photo, I wish I had under exposed by a stop to bring out the detail in the dandelion flower. But hey, it’s an organic photo without any manipulation taken on a camera and lens from the 1950’s :-)