The Kosmonauts Hampstead Hike with my Leica M6 TTL and Leica Sofort

Back in November last year, I attended the Kosmonauts Photowalk in Hampstead which was organised by @londoncameraproject

At that time, I had recently purchased the Leica M6 TTL so was looking forward to taking it out on it’s first photowalk.

I also knew that I wanted to take some instant photos on this photowalk so also took my Leica Sofort camera since it’s a nice compact instant camera that doesn’t take up a lot of room in my bag.

I was looking forward to visiting Hampstead since I had never been there before.

It was very easy for me to get to by train from Brighton and I met everyone at the station in Hampstead.

The @londoncameraproject photowalks have become very popular with film photographers and this was no exception. A nice group of people turned up so it was great to meet new people who also had a love of film camera’s.

Considering it was November, the weather was fairly nice and Hampstead does have some really pretty streets with some nice shops. We initially started our photowalk around those where I took some photos using my Leica M6 TTL, the Leica 50mm Summicron lens and Kodak Portra 400 colour film:

I was really drawn to this OXO tin I found inside a vintage market we visited in Hampstead so took a photo of it:

There was a lovely Florist next door to the vintage market so I took a picture of some of the nice flowers for sale:

Next we went for a walk around some of the local streets and I took a couple of photos:

During the photowalk, we also visited a pub. It turns out that the pubs are extremely busy in Hampstead on a Saturday afternoon and we were a fairly large group, so we had to kind of spread ourselves out where we could in the pub we decided to stop at.

Whilst at the pub, I took some photos on my Leica Sofort of some of the group. I gave most of them away but managed to keep a couple. I also took one outside whilst walking around the streets in Hampstead:

After the pub stop, we headed to the woods but since it was November, the daylight started to fade in the late afternoon and I didn’t manage to get any shots using my Leica M6 TTL camera. I tried to take some using my Leica Sofort but they unfortunately came out took dark, even with the flash.

After the woodland walk, I had a knitting shop in London that I needed to visit for my Knitwear Designer job before it closed plus I still had the journey of heading back to Brighton ahead of me so I said farewell to the others whilst they headed off to another pub for some further drinks.

I’m so pleased I got to visit Hampstead as it really was a pretty place and I would definitely go back there another time to perhaps visit some of the beautiful shops that the town has.

Leica M6 TTL and Kodak TMax 35mm Film

The next film I decided to try in my Leica with the 50mm Summicron Lens, was the Kodak TMax 400 black and white film as I knew I had achieved nice results from that film in the past with other cameras.

I decided to take a walk with my dog to St Ann’s Wells Gardens in Hove and try out the film there.

It’s a nice, quiet place to walk in winter time and I knew I still had to get to grips with getting used to using a Rangefinder camera again and improve on my focusing skills.

Here is one of Daisy I took using the camera and film:

Here is a small selection of photos I took whilst on this walk:

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I quite like the lighting effect of the way the sunlight is shining through on this one:

Whilst I suppose the next photo I’m about to show is under exposed, there is something about it I really like. I think it’s the dark contrast of the tree/plants against the grey sky which has come out in a striped texture on this negative. To me, it looks like a really old photo taken years ago. I also think it has a tropical feel about it:

Overall, it was nice to try out a black and white film in the camera which didn’t have too much contrast compared to the JCH film. I really liked the crisp details I got from the camera.

After this film I decided I wanted to try out an Ilford black and white film. I look forward to blogging next week with the results.

Leica M6 TTL Camera and JCH StreetPan 400 Film

When I first got the Leica M6 TTL camera, I knew that I wanted to try out a black and white film in it.

It was winter time so ideally, I wanted to use an ISO 400 film. I had liked the effects of the JCH film in other cameras I had used it in and thought I would try it first.

All the photos were taken using a Leica 50mm Summicron Lens.

I went to my usual spot where I like to test out new (to me) camera’s which was my local cemetery.

I like the peace and quiet there so I can fully focus on the camera and get used to how to use it.

I must admit when I first went to use the Leica, I did struggle getting used to to using a Rangefinder again.

For a couple of years, all I had been mainly using, was SLR’s and it had been a while since I had used a rangefinder camera.

I was slightly nervous whether the light meter would work and knew until I had the film developed, I wouldn’t know.

I decided to get the film developed at my local lab instead of developing it myself.

There are a few that came out quite dark and some, blurry, whilst I got to grips with using a rangefinder again:

You may also see a black line going through some of the photos. This got me into a major panic that there was a fault with my camera.

I checked online about this fault but couldn’t see any problems with the camera that had possibly caused this.

I knew that I would have to see when I got further films developed if they would have this problem.

Since getting further films developed, I’m pleased to report that it doesn’t appear to be a camera fault and I’ve discovered this line tends to appear in my photos when I get the film processed in an hour rather than waiting a couple of days. I’m not sure why that is at my local lab? perhaps it’s to do with the quicker time of drying them?

Unfortunately I don’t quite know enough about film developing to know the answer but perhaps someone reading this blog may be able to shed some light on the reason?

Here are a couple where I was quite impressed with the detail:

Overall, I think some of the photos came out ok for my first attempt at using this camera. Although I can’t deny it, I felt somewhat deflated after seeing the black lines in some of the photos.

Also, I realised that I perhaps made the wrong film choice when trying out this camera for the first time. The JCH film is very grainy and contrasty and I don’t think the way I shot it, showed the full potential of what this camera and lens combo could do.

I look forward to blogging in the next few weeks about other films I’ve since used in the Leica and my verdict on using them.