The Mikra 1/3 - And Why You Need One Now

 

The history of science is dotted with people who have said - “ What If? “ - and in many cases have levelled entire city blocks finding out. Photographers too, have uttered those words, but generally have only managed to blow the doors off the darkroom.

I have passed by the Leica 1F in the secondhand Leica cabinet for years - the one with the MIKRA 1/3 attachment on the front of it - with never more than a passing recognition that it is a camera that has been in service for years and has never actually been used all that much.

This is a camera that has been adapted for use on the eyepiece of a standard clinical microscope. I am willing to bet it lurked in the back cupboard of some university departmental lab since the late 1950’s and was rarely taken out. To turn around an old slogan - it’s had fewer shots than you’ve had hot dinners…

 

Well, the basic camera is a screw-mount body with no slow speeds, no finder, and a variable synchronising control. It could readily be adapted to modern life with a fast black and white film, a push in finder, and a screw-mount Leica lens - a collapsible Elmar would be perfect. Add a skinny bald Frenchman and you would have the perfect street combination…

But what does the MIKRA1/3 do? I coupled it up to an M39 / Fujifilm X adapter this seek to see. After all, if it is optical, mirrorless cameras let you see it straight away.

Well, as it was built to peer down the throat of a microscope and record the beasties that the researcher has on the glass slide, it is fixed to approximately an infinity focus. I confirmed this on an X-Pro1 out in the yard. The resolution is reasonable but the focus is out to about 50 feet. field of view looks to be about the same as a 50mm lens.

This suggested another experiment. Inside to the Model car table and a Greenlight Volkswagen T2 van. These are tiny things in 1:64 scale - observe the 10¢ piece. The establishing shot is taken with the standard 35mm Tokina macro lens.

The VW logo was taken using an old Russian 50mm Industar lens reversed onto the front of the MIKRA. No mounting - I just held it on there. Older photographers will know the trick of reverse-mounting of one lens to the nose of another to give macro results. In this case the Industar is wide open and the DOF is like nothing at all.

Stopped down to f:16, the Industar actually does have DOF. The picture of the headlight’s a seriously small slice of VW, and if you were a film shooter, you could get this on the Leica 1F. You just wouldn’t know you had got it until the results came back from Fitzgerald’s Photo Labs.

Sooooo - who’s ready for some retro fun out there? Neither the body nor the MIKRA are bank-breakers and whoever uses that Leica 1F will become the undisputed Kewl King or Queen of Perth photographers. And score the envy of every old camera club shooter that sees it.

PS: The downside is that you need to know what you are doing with it.

The Fujifilm X100F Camera Under the Spotlights

Every item of equipment for sale in the photo shop is under a spotlight - and some are under enough glare to suggest a three-ring circus. This is all to the good - every camera maker and advertising department knows that every time a fuss is made about something people will focus on it, and they might concentrate long enough to reach for their wallets.

The new Fujifilm X100F examined this week IS a worth successor to the other cameras of the series - the leap in performance since the original X100 I own showed out on nearly every level. Had I elected to make larger images than just the little illustrative ones for these articles, the lead would have been wildly increased. But that is for me...would it be so for other people. And just WHO are the people who would be wise to buy this camera?

a. The one-camera family.

If you are going to have one camera to do the best job for all members of the family - mum. dad, and the kids, make it a one that delivers the goods. And delivers them simply enough so that when you haul it out and press the button, you get the picture. Better yet - the less experienced shooters in the family can also get good results.

b. The traveller.

I am thinking here of the frequent traveller who needs a record of what is seen from a normal point of view. Choose another super-tele camera to go to Africa for polar bears or Manitoba for lions. Choose this one to go to Melbourne or Madrid. The lens is wide enough and long enough for most travel shots, and if you need to expand or contract there are screw-on supplementary lenses that are excellent. I use a wide-angle one all the time for car shows.

c. The daytime flash shooter.

Whether it is the car shows, or brides, or architecture in the Western Australian sunshine, you'll need to fill flash somewhere. If you try to do it with a conventional focal-plane shutter you'll be in a world of calculations and compromise. Some shots will be inpossible because of the failure to synch properly The leaf shutter on this camera synchs at all speeds and if you pair it with a new Fujifilm EX-500 flash unit, you can work with minimal stress.

d. The grub.

Oh, this is not a waterproof camera, but it IS a sealed one. No opening the lens mount for changes and no inrush of dust onto the sensor. The relief from worry is palpable.

f. The stylish and trendy.

 Not that you can ever be on-trend for longer than 15 seconds anyway, but this retro-style is classic, and classics keep on coming back time after time. The camera has the bits you want to twiddle in the places you expect to find them. If you are a twiddler, it is rewarding. Of course you can put the camera into Programmed Automatic and just cruise if you want to.

g. The diarist.

Like the regular traveller, the diarist wants to record it simply, but with enough detail to provide for art or science later on. 24 mega pixels will do this, and the ISO auto settings will generally help you to nail it in an instant. Even my old X100 does daily duty for advertising shots and ideas capture. It beats the silly mobile phone all hollow for resolution and dynamic range and the ergonomics of holding it out the window while driving at 90 miles per hour down St. Geo Tce - steering with your knees -  are ever so much more convenient.

h. The collector.

 Collectors are strange creatures. They amass piles of things the rest of us ignore, and the funny thing is that they like to look at other people's piles as well. Thus the catalogue shoot and internet share site.

Most collectors are not professional photographers, but the ability to produce a clear close classic of an image is more useful to them than to many people. They rarely want Instagram filters to mess up their pride and joy collection - a camera like this that can turn out clear illustration time after time without adjustment is perfect.

That may sound boring, trite, and pedestrian to artistic photographers, but no-one wants to have to spend an hour tweaking the image of a 19th century pram if you have 800 of 'em to photograph.

i. The hipster.

Naw, I'm just joking. They are still looking for 828 film for defunct Kodak folding cameras from 1940. The thought of getting a good result easily would be anathema...

Swiss Optical Puzzle - Tessina

 Until this example of the Tessina 35mm camera came into the shop in a collector's kit, I could never figure out what all the dials were on it - there were illustrations in the photo magazines in the 1960's but the thing always looked as if it had more holes and glass than there was a need for.

It took some handling and puzzling to do it, But I suspect I could operate it now. Of course one has to have the special Tessina cassettes loaded to do it - you take the film from a regular 35mm cassette or from a bulk film loader. And it is a small format camera - half frame really.

But the precision involved - really watch making work. Of course this camera is really a collector's item now, but you do have to admire the concept and the workmanship. The Swiss really do think outside the square sometimes.

Who Can You Talk To About Photography? Ten Good Ideas...

We all need to talk to someone. In my house they do it when I am in the john - no end of conversations seem to be vital to the other members of the family whilst one is sitting down. The only way I can think of breaking of this habit is to open the door but this involves some loss of dignity...

For photographers, talking to someone is essential. Around your birthday you talk to the family about how you really, really need the new 12-2500mm zoom lens that has just been announced at Photokina and how much better it will make their lives. Sometimes this works.

Of course there are different divisions of photography and it occurred to me that each one has a different form of conversation:

1. Family photographers talk to the family. Initially in soft sweet words and eventually in parade ground tones.

2. Good portrait photographers talk to their subjects. Bad portrait photographers talk to their assistants.

3. Landscape photographers talk to themselves.

4. Food photographers talk to themselves but in different voices. Sometimes the voices talk back.

5. Sports photographers talk to the St. John's Ambulance  attendants.

6. Fashion photographers talk to the models. Slowly, and with little words.

7. Leica photographers talk to the Almighty. Once, in the morning, to give orders for the day.

8. Camera collectors talk to their cameras.

9. Darkroom workers never talk.

10. Photography Art collectors talk to their brokers.

If you wish to add any to this list please pop it onto our comments section or onto the Facebook page attached to this blog.

Uncle Dick