Jim Simon photography


Film Photography and some other stuff, you'll see


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Leica M2



A vehicle for the best lens I'll ever own; a 35mm f2.8 Leitz Summaron. In all honesty the f2.8 Zuikos on my Trips are almost the Summaron's equal, but don't tell anyone.

At the time when I began to have more time again in my life for photography we were in North Devon, and I've always liked the relative wilderness north of the moor and south of the coast-influenced busy bits - and certainly as far away from Clovelly as one can imagine! This is a largely forgotten area in which one can happily contrive to get lost and which I've come to call the Holsworthy Triangle. South of Great Torrington, and across and down to Holsworthy, then Hatherleigh, maybe crossing the Torridge to South Molton - it's all perfect. I digress. We came across the Beaford Arts Centre (not entirely sure of the name but the clue's in the name so it's not going to be far out) and there fell into an exhibition of photographs of James Ravilious. This was rather before his life and work became more widely known, and the nice man who showed us in just left us in a room with some of his prints and we found ourselves in this marvelous world. He came back and gave me a couple of folders - "You're a photographer, I can tell. I thought you might like to see these" and in the folders were, as we all have, pages and pages of James' negs. Now that was interesting to me; to see the densities, the bracketing, the film type and so on. Completely reckless of the bloke in charge, of course, and it wouldn't happen now that Ravilious' work is, rightly, coveted, but it was just so nice to be trusted strangers, deep in the fragile landscape that we liked so much, and getting a further insight into it.

So; Ravilious, Leica, old lenses, and I realised I had just such equipment myself! My Stepfather had, some years, previously, given me his old Leica and on the front of it was a 50mm Elmar.



This was surely the right thing? An uncoated Leitz, dating from sometime in the 1930's is my best guess (I'm probably going to be told this is way off by someone who actually knows what they're talking about); this was going to sort me out. The negatives I had seen were on Kodak Tri-X, so I bought a few rolls (this was long before Kodak whipped up the price) and headed for the hills. Needless to say my own efforts were underwhelming, but I was pleased. It just felt right.



Into the light and so on, so this is really all about the lens because the exposure was down to my meter not the camera - as it doesn't have a meter... But it's sharp, it's cool, it's all good.

Leica 1/Tri-X HC-110



More of the same... Was I tempted to drop my film off here? No.

Leica 1/Tri-X/HC-110



But there were issues. The Leica 1 has a fixed 50mm lens and I really wanted to get out to at least a focal length of 35mm. So there had to be a change. I bought an old uncoated screw-mount Elmar 35mm for not much at all - a few pounds, which was fine, but I needed a camera to put it on. Cheapest Leica? An M2.

Now we're talking!



Just the thing. Leica M2 | Elmar 35mm | Tri-X | HC-110



North Devon again - the right camera and the right lens.

Leica M2 | Elmar 35mm | Tri-X | HC-110



Worcester Cathedral.

Leica M2 | Elmar 35mm |Tri-X | HC-110



But... the Elmar was fiddle. Nominally an f3.5 lens which I could probably live with, but the lens got so much better at f6.3 that that's where I wanted to place the exposure which is quite a narrow starting place. Also I was keen to avoid flare with the Elmar, so I made up a lens hood which worked well, but the f-stop adjustment is on the face of the lens and I had to remove the hood to alter the f-stop. Also the whole front of the lens rotates when you focus, and this rotated the lens hood with my squared-off bodge, and this needed realigning each time I focused. Not so good, though the images were great when I'd done all the work.

So, I bought an f 2.8 35mm Summaron and this is where I am now. I have a very very light green/yellow filter on the front, found the right weird-name lens hood and this makes a pretty outstanding bit of equipment.



Good into the light, sharp and lovely. Leica M2 | Summaron 35mm f2.8 | Tri-X | HC-110



Hand held at low shutter speeds is no problem - I frequently use the M2 at 1/15th and son't even take two shots.

Leica M2 | Summaron 35mm f2.8 | HP5 | Perceptol



Leica M2 | Summaron 35mm f2.8 | Tri-X | HC-110



Can't fault the sharpness. Ever. The rest is down to me.

Leica M2 | Summaron 35mm f2.8 | HP5 | Neat Perceptol



A little colour to brighten life up a bit. 5 a.m. in Urbino, foggy up in the hills!

Leica M2 | Summaron 35mm f2.8 | Portra 160​



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