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 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.

Leica M6 TTL Camera

Towards the end of last year, I treated myself to a Leica M6 TTL camera.

I had been toying with purchasing a Leica M analogue camera for a while but kept talking myself out of it, especially after I purchased my Hasselblad.

However, after using such beautiful quality camera’s such as the Hasselblad and the Olympus Pen FT, it kept drawing me back to wanting to own a Leica M for my 35mm photography.

After lots of research I decided I would like to own a Leica M6 TTL version. The main reason I wanted to own an M6 model was because it has the built in light meter.

I had originally thought I would like an M6 but in the end, I preferred the larger dial on the TTL and also the way it syncs with the flash when using one. Plus, it also has a circle in the light meter reading to show when the exposure is correct.

I also felt the way the dial turns with the light meter reading was more intuitive than the Leica M6 which, is the opposite way to the arrows in the viewfinder.

Lastly the TTL has an ‘off’ dial which is handy for the battery and I also wanted a newer Leica M6 so knew the TTL would have been the most recent of that series prior to the release of the M7.

The other great thing about the M6 TTL is that there are 3 x different viewfinders (.58, .72, .85) which links to the magnification you require in the viewfinder since it’s a rangefinder so you won’t actually be focusing the whole image, just the little square in the middle of the viewfinder.

I had tried out the .72 rangefinder in a friends leica so I was able to gauge what would work for me and decided on the .85 magnification since I mainly wanted to use a 50mm lens with this camera.

The different types of magnification work better for different lenses and I had read the .85 isn’t particularly great with 28mm lenses since you lose those lines in the viewfinder but I hadn’t planned on using that size lens anyway since I tend to use my Hasselblad (and soon my Intrepid 4×5) cameras for more serious landscape photography.

Deciding that I wanted both the classic chrome body along with the .85 magnification proved somewhat difficult to find. There seemed to be lots of black models for sale with this magnification but not chrome.

After several months of trawling through various vintage camera dealers and looking on eBay and gumtree etc, I finally found a camera dealer in France who had just what I was after.

I had read good reviews online (in french!) about this camera dealer so took the plunge and purchased the camera.

I was very excited and I certainly wasn’t disappointed when it arrived in the post. It was exactly as I expected so I was really pleased.

After toying with getting a cheaper 50mm lens which I know are quite good, in the end I decided if I’m purchasing a Leica M Camera, I may as well also get a Leica lens. I plan on making large prints in my darkroom so hope the picture quality/detail will still be good when printed to a larger size. In the end I decided on a 50mm Summicron lens and the main reason I decided on the Summicron version was because I had seen some great shots taken by other photographers on instagram using this particular lens and also, it was within my budget. I ended up getting a version with a built in hood since I figured that would be more suitable for me as I do find it a bit of a pain with my other camera’s when I have to keep adding on and physically removing the lens hood.

Since using this lens, I am certainly pleased I purchased one with the built in lens hood as it has been really convenient when taking photos.

I look forward to updating you all over the next few weeks with what films I’ve tried out in the camera so far.

It’s certainly been a very exciting few months for me using this camera!