I've had the Leica M3 for around 6 months, and I’ve started to love this camera. It is the camera I can take anywhere, it’s almost a reason to venture to new places, you can go about your day with the camera, but the camera doesn’t control the journey. Trying to quantify why I prefer the Leica to my Nikon FM2 is hard. The differences are subtle, but the Leica is easier to focus, it’s easier to change the shutter and aperture. I find myself using it a lot more instinctively. The size and discreetness of its use just make the M3 a much more natural camera.
On a head-to-head shoot with the Nikon FM2 I found the Leica’s hit rate of focussing was much better than the Nikon. The Vogitlander 50mm of the Leica also really killed the Nikon Ai 50mm out-of-focus rendering. One of the reasons I wanted the Leica was my disappointment with older Nikon 50mm lenses.
I set myself the goal of shooting with the Leica M3 almost exclusively for a year. I want to really get to grips with it, its reputation of an instinctive camera really needs a commitment to keep practising with it. I also decided to stick to one film; I chose Ilford Fp4, a film I’ve always loved with Large format. Whilst I’m getting a little faster with the M3 and learning its quirks I am starting to question the film. It just seems a bit too slow with most shoots I like leaning towards F5.6 125 sec. Basically, I don’t have much option for a greater depth of field without going into handheld blurry risky territory.
With regards to the film choice, I am starting to think that I cannot really appreciate the film and get a good feel for it without printing it 10x8 via an enlarger. I might make it my mission for the next six months to try a sprint to print everything in the darkroom.
The unexpected realization of shooting with the Leica is a bit more soul-searching than I had anticipated. It just feels like it’s not the camera for the kind of images I used to make. This is a conundrum more relatable to film shooters than digital. The different format/ sizes of cameras seem to lend themselves better to some kinds of images than others. Coming from Large format to 35mm has been a disappointment. My images are worse, I’m less focused on creating beautiful pre-visualized images. The act of setting up the tripod on the perfect spot, focusing on the subject under a dark cloth and putting your heart and soul into the process. The 35mm doesn’t have the terrific print resolution of 5x4 and certainly doesn’t have the magic I was able to achieve with self-made gelatin dry plates. Both technically and psychologically, it’s just not a camera I am adjusting to.
What the Leica has made me think about though, is what I want to achieve with photography. It isn’t very good at what I used to do, but it does make me think about where I could go. In Large format there is a lack of the fleeting moment, shoots must be carefully planned to the exact details. There is a meditation, a stillness to Large format that reverberates onto the subject. I sometimes feel with Large format I am creating my vision over the subjects. Often Large format portraits have that ‘peering into the sole’ look but they are somewhat heavily influenced by the process and not necessarily an attempt to capture the personality of anything.
35mm is the camera that can go anywhere, it can be the film camera that’s always with you. It's discrete and effortless at capturing the fleeting moment. It would be the weapon of choice to really explore a moment with a subject where you blend into the background as the photographer. It melts away just leaving the interaction of photographer and subject, not the process. Owning the Leica has thrown me into unfamiliar waters. It’s made me question exactly what I want to capture.
The question for me is if models are now the right subject. By ‘modelling’ they’re not actually doing the thing I was hoping to capture with a rangefinder. Trying to reveal their true personality when their reason for being is to cover over it, to be a muse for beauty or other visions. Models are only briefly not models between each shot, but hoping to capture the seconds in between probably isn’t going to yield much of value. Despite my worries, there's been a few moments during a shoot with a model where something a bit more natural was captured, although I'm still learning to make such images very beautiful as well as natural.
Going forward I've decided to relax my commitment to only using the Leica. Its not the best camera for the work I make. Its a great tool and a camera I will probably use the most. However every concept I have to push the creativity of my images I feel will be better exectued with the LF camera. What the Leica can offer is another style of model / landscape photography to compliment my images. The process I love is in the printing processes, with Large format your focus is on the tones, textures, lighting and perfect compositions, the perfect match. The Leica is better honed to discreetly capturing the fleeting moments which offer up new images with another kind of beauty.
