My Leica M4

This is one of the M4's that I've shot with over the past 40 years. Originally purchased from EP Levine, Boston in 1973. Camera was CLA'd by DAG in 2004.

The original vulcanite cover is in very good shape. The only damage is a very small piece that is missing on the front left corner by the post where you attach the baseplate to. It's been like this for years and has not deteriorated further. See photo below.

There are minor scratches and rub marks on the baseplate. Below is a more detailed photo of the baseplate shot at a slightly different angle to show these marks. While these marks are typical of a camera that's over 40 years old and has been used, please note that there are no dents, grooves or deep cuts that have penetrated the metal.

Below is a photo from a different angle to show in more detail the rub marks on the film rewind crank.

Camera comes with the original M4 Instructions booklet.

Other shades of rust

As typically happens once your mind locks in on a certain visual element, after taking those photos of the rusty Plymouth pick-up last weekend, for the past few days I've had a heightened awareness of all things bearing rust colors.

During my morning walk with our Cairn Terrier along the beach at San Onofre, I noticed a few other examples of rust found in nature or the result of our weather and salt air on the Pacific.

I also used my Ricoh GXR with the 28mm f/2.5 lens module for these photographs.

Photo Notes: All images shot in raw (DNG) and processed using PhotoShop CS6 and Camera Raw 7.2. You can click on any image to see a larger file.

Some cameras age better than we do

Here are a few photos of my 1969 Leica M4. I photographed these with my Pentax K-30 and the SMC-A F/1.4 50mm lens. The lighting was direct sunlight with a diffuser to soften things up a bit. I wanted to use this bright lighting to clearly show every blemish and the overall patina of this camera.

Even with this strong light, it was hard to show the scratches on the baseplate in my first image so I added another image of my holding the camera at an angle that better shows the bright marks and blemishes on the baseplate.

Another image shows the only damage to the Vulcanite cover which is right next to the post or lug used to clip the baseplate to the body before closing it.

Clear Pentax PZ-1 Camera

I've been organizing all my camera gear and came across this PZ-1 wrapped up in a felt pouch. Since it has some historical significance, I thought some of you might like to see it.

In the film days, and to a lesser extent today, manufacturers produced a very limited quantity of see-through or clear samples of a new SLR. They were used by sales and marketing folks when visiting the press and key dealers. The idea behind these samples was to show off all the new technology that was inside. These samples were typically built by hand and extremely expensive to produce and therefore limited to only a few units for each sales region.

I was given this PZ-1 sample quite a few years ago by a sales person who had used it during dealer meetings when the camera was launched in 1991. The camera works fine, but you wouldn't want to shoot film with it due to the slight fogging problem you'd encounter.

Woodie Car Show

The SoCal Woodie Club sponsored the annual Doheny Wood 2013, a woodie car show at Doheny State Beach in Dana Point CA this past Saturday. This is probably the largest collection of these classic cars anywhere. We had our typical early morning "marine layer" or fog which as I discussed with another photographer is great for taking photos...it's like you're shooting under a giant diffuser which minimizes shadows and reflections. The show gave me a nice opportunity to try my newly acquired classic Pentax SMC-A f/1.4 50mm lens which I used with the K-30. All images shot in RAW (DNG) and processed into jpegs using PhotoShop CS6.