Tactile

I speak of it often….the value of ‘tactile’ or tactility, if a word exists. I speak of it for I live it, daily. Every day when I take my film camera’s out for a walk-about, I get all tactile inside.

Let me just take one aspect of the tactile movement as it relates to my cameras. The film advance. Taking my right thumb and moving the film advance lever is a remarkable soothing action. Pure mediation comes into my mind with that simply physical act.

The beauty is that this ‘action’…..the feel of that tactility, will vary with my cameras. For instance, when I shoot my Leica’s, oh boy…..melted butter comes to mind. My thumb movement just slides. The sound is an adorable soft mechanical blurrrrrrrr…….. Heaven comes to mind. As stated earlier, this is where my meditative process begins to sink in. Thumb action…..soft blur…….a moan

My Olympus OM’s differ depending on the OM model. The OM1 differs slightly from the OM2. Together the sound and feel is greatly different from the Leica’s. The OM’s are more stiff….audibly more mechanical by nature. Inherently they provide a deeper tactility than the Leica just because they lack that butter smooth Leica movement, a movement I am sure was carefully crafted by Leica engineers. None the less, the OM’s offer tactility but on a different plane.

I possess other cameras as well that equate with a different range of Tactility. IE…my 1915-1920 Kodak Brownie has this soft difficult knob to turn and I have to view to see how far to turn. Am I there yet? Is the film advanced? My Kodak Retina has this odd reverse sided film advance that is placed at the bottom of the camera as opposed to the top. A different finger placement is needed all-told but the meditative effect is high just the same. I have older Leica’s such as my model A. (circa 1929) where I turn the sprocket knob to advance film. The knob is metallic and has a pull to it, not preventing advancement but as a photographer, I do know I have to turn it about one complete turn of the dial as I can visually see the film number gauge move from 1 to 2 or 5 to 6 etc.

In every and all cases……I go out….shoot….viola….I am in love.

Barnack's Update one day later

I had a quick go at the Barnack’s. I loaded up a 24 roll of 400 film and managed to escape the house before the wife had me do more Xmas chores or cooking. Sometimes she just gets a bit too carried away. So a well needed break for me.

Just walked our downtown neighborhood in Philly as this is a condo we have here on the east coast. I love Philadelphia for the ‘ street shooting ops’ as I can’t get this character of a city back west. I shot 9 shots which is rather high considering I was only out shooting for 30 minutes before I made my way to the grocery to pick up stuff (never quite got away from chores).

Within that time frame of 30 minutes…my 9 shots were not of anything I would call as shots I might normally take but, I want to run thru this roll of film to see how shutter speed is, light leaks etc. I shot at around F11 although the dial goes from F9 up to F12 but there seems to be play in between and I can visually observe the opening and closing so suspect I was at F11 or just under. I was at ISO 400 and speed of 500 since it was a nice ‘cold’ but sunny day. I eventually moved down to F9 as well.

My distance calculations was set at 30 feet as I wasn’t stopping too much to talk or grab shots. Perhaps that is for tomorrow. But 30 feet was fine, and a few even at 50 feet as I took from a top of a building looking down. The distance markers on this camera start at 1.5 feet min focus and work up to 50 feet and then to infinity. My Barnack shows distance in ‘feet’ and doesn’t show meters so must have been a camera meant for America.

Impressions? Pretty easy. I have to manually advance the film and that is easy with just a complete turn. The camera provides me with a warning of sorts as the winding mechanism gets a bit ‘tight’ when it is shows 10 + over the actual number I should be at. So, if I shot 9 shots and I advance the film, as I advance the mechanism should tighten up a bit around 20, which is 10 above where it actually should be. Then just keep advancing until you get to your number.

The “F stop is a bit more difficult to adjust. It isn’t impossible but does take a bit of doing as the lever to chance on the lens is small, difficult to grasp, difficult to turn. They should have made that bigger but, hey….I am not Leitz/Leica and obviously this camera was a winner so who am I to judge.

The shutter knob is easy to use.

The optic viewfinder is clear and bright although it took some getting used to as I had to ‘think’ where to place my eye as I am used to M cameras and the placement of the viewfinder. I will get used to this I am sure. Framing in the viewfinder was no issue.

Moving the ‘distance’ to match what I want is not difficult either but one does have to be in good light to see the slotted dot where it corresponds to the distance number. In fact, I have found that I have to turn my camera to bring some light to not only that, but also the small arrow on the film advance as well. Maybe thru years of use, those became less pronounced.

Tomorrow will bring a more productive day as I will have more time to actually work with the camera and walk around more. I want to play with shorter distances and become more proficient at dialing in the F stop, and getting used to the viewfinder placement.

All in all….a positive. I love the uniqueness of it….relying upon distance for focus….the compactness of this camera, lightness….look and feel that I get from shooting it. Again, not going to replace my MA but will provide a twist upon shooting.