一起徠呀！徠卡相機的一切 世界上第一台35mm相機——徠卡1a

Hello again everyone from Tokyo, Japan and welcome back to Japan Vintage Camera where it's an absolutely beautiful day here at Aoyama Park next to Tokyo National Art Center Yesterday it wasn't such a nice day We had a typhoon blow through the city and it was quite dark and scary looking outside with some wind and lots and lots of rain Very dark and cloudy day It passed through and made everything nice and wet And while I'm not a big fan of typhoons The one yesterday I'll kind of be thankful for Because it finally brought a change in seasons And ridiculous heat and humidity that we've been suffering from In the city this year has finally given way To a much more cooler and more pleasant weather So it's a really good day to come outside and make a video And I've got a really wonderful camera to share with you today This is a camera which I've been wanting to talk about for a long time I got this one in the mail some time ago And finally got it put together and in working condition And what I'm going to be doing is just what it says in the title of the video I'm going to be talking about the world's first 35mm camera This isn't exactly the first 35mm film camera which was made But it was the first one which was widely popular And widely marketed and sold And sold in significant numbers And this of course is the Leica 1A Which was introduced in 1926 1925 or 26 Now the man who invented this camera His name was Oskar Barnack And he was the head movie camera engineer For a company called Lights Which is in Germany obviously And Mr. Barnack was trying to produce 35mm movie cameras Because 35mm was the standard format For the movie cameras of that day And is still a standard even today So many years later The issue was that it was very difficult To test the quality of the film in those days And it was really difficult If you bought a lot of film And loaded it in your cameras And went out and shot movies And then found out a lot of the film was no good Or that it wasn't made accurately enough To get correct exposures to make a good movie So Mr. Barnack in order to make Or find reliable film for his movie camera Developed a simple device for testing movie film And what he did is he made a contraption Which looks similar to this With a lens shutter and aperture system And a simple viewfinder And what it was meant to do Was to test small batches of 35mm film To make sure that they were within The specifications necessary to be used The contraption looked very similar to this camera The operation was quite similar And looking at it I guess it was quite obvious That it was a good design for a camera Which could be used as a steel camera For shooting 35mm film And not long after that Some prototypes were made And it was determined that it was a viable design And so after a few I guess early examples were made And a little bit of improvement And modifications were done In 1925 at the Leipzig fair The Leica 1 was introduced And it was quite successful And it went into production And quite a large number of cameras were made And the Leica 1 of course became The 1A and the 1C And then the Leica 2 series and 3 series Came out after that But all 35mm cameras Sold from that time until the present Owe some of their existence Or credit for their existence to this camera Now this is a really wonderful camera My first Leica camera Was a Leica 3A Which I bought in a junk shop A long time ago And it came without a bottom cover And without a lens And so I found a used bottom cover On eBay And I got a Summitar lens for it And I had a lot of fun with the camera I loved how smooth it was And it took really good photographs But after that I moved from the 3A to M4 And after that I really didn't have much to do With the old screw mount cameras But I've had them from time to time And when this one came up a few months ago I saw it for sale I thought yeah That would be a wonderful thing Maybe when it comes to photography Less is more A lot of people are making the step From digital back to film Or they want a kind of Maybe a more artistic approach Or a more labor intensive approach Because when we value things We often value them By the amount of labor it takes To create them or produce them A camera like this for me Seemed to make a lot of sense And so when I received the camera It was in rather rough condition It was dirtier than it is now Though it doesn't look Especially clean at the moment The lens was quite foggy and hazy On the inside And the shutter barely worked If I wound the shutter and fired it It would stop about halfway And it was a little bit rough and gritty So the good thing about A simple camera is It's rather simple to work on So I took it all apart And cleaned out all the old crud And re-lubricated it And put it back together And that works smoothly and beautifully The lens was quite easy to take apart And the quality of the glass Which they used even back in The 1920s and 30s Is really marvelous This camera despite how bad The lens looked when I got it It cleaned up quite nicely And is very clear I spent the last week Going out and taking photographs with this And once I get them developed And scanned I'll probably post them In a later video So hopefully I'll be able to do that Sometime later this month But let's go ahead And take a look at the features Controls and functions Of the Leica 1A We'll go ahead and start at the top here Here we have a Something which you've seen In most of my videos A film rewind knob Located on the top left side Yeah this is As I said this is the foundation For all later 35mm cameras And even the latest ones Being made up in the 1990s You're going to find They have something in common With this camera And the most obvious thing Is this rewind knob This is not a range finder camera This is a scale focus camera So there's no range finder system On the top So what you have to look through When you are composing a photograph Is this accessory view finder I can't say it's accessories It's built in It is replaceable In case it gets damaged Or if the camera needs to Any part to be replaced on it And from time to time I've actually seen These accessory view finders On the market Apparently lights made A number of these As spares for repairs On these cameras And as it seems Few people actually went out And broke them These spares are still floating around And sometimes you find them On eBay and other places Here we have a shoe Located on the top And in most other cameras This would be called a flash shoe But this camera has no provision For a flash And a flash was unheard of In smaller format photography Back in those days It was definitely Definitely nothing to do with flash This accessory shoe Is for mounting the range finder system When these cameras were shipped They normally included a range finder Which slid in here And stood up vertically And it's about Three or so inches tall And using a dial on the back And looking through the view finder Of the range finder You could focus And determine the range of your subject Using the split prism Like you would on Later range finder cameras With a built-in range finder And when you turn the dial on the back And the pointer lines up with the number You simply turn and focus the lens Until you select the same number On the focusing scale on the lens Which is showing on the range finder system It's very hard to find these cameras With the original range finders with them The range finders may or may not Have serial numbers on them And it seems They're kind of haphazardly Included with the cameras There were a variety of different ones Some of them are cheap Some of them are expensive And some of them are very expensive Yesterday I was bidding on A Fokin range finder Here on one of the local auctions Here in Japan An all black paint one With a black paint dial And I was surprised to see That it sold for almost a thousand dollars So I was Some of them are quite rare and expensive Whereas other ones You can get them for around A hundred dollars or so They come in silver or black And for a black paint camera Of course you want the silver one For myself I don't really Bother with the range finder It kind of makes the camera Tall and goofy looking And using the range finder And then looking at the front of the lens To set it Is a little bit difficult Or it's not difficult It's just time consuming So what I prefer to do Is just simply Focus the camera by scale And for a lot of work Just leave the camera at infinity For any kind of landscape Or stuff which is further away Than across the street As you get closer I tend to try to use it In pre-set settings Depending on what I'm trying to get If I'm trying to get Say something the size of a vehicle Or something the size of a person I'll simply pre-set the focus At that distance And of course pre-set The shutter speed and aperture And pretty much all I have to do Is wind the camera And press the shutter button and shoot It's very simple And if you're shooting out in the daytime I normally shoot with an aperture Of around F8 Which gives me The best overall performance For the lens And also gives me Enough depth of field Where I don't have to be Very precise in the focus For everything to come out Focused in the photograph So the rangefinder system If you want to buy one For these cameras You can go ahead and do it If you need to make A precise focus It's a good accessory to have But for most people In the real world It's not really a necessity Moving next We have the shutter speed dial And this is in a similar position Where you will find it In other cameras Because once again A lot of this design Was used by later cameras The cloth focal plane shutter here Which uses The cloth shutter Which rolls across the back This was the standard In so many different Camera makers over the years Only Contax was the one Who wanted to be different By making a vertical shutter But most of the cameras From the 20s and onwards Had horizontal shutters With the same basic mechanism For operating the shutters The shutter speed dial Here on the top Is arranged In kind of the earlier ones We have instead of A quarter of a second We have a 20th of a second And a 30th of a second A 40th and then 60th You know Laker shutter speeds Are kind of odd They vary from model to model The earlier Like M3 shutters You know have 1 50th of a second The later ones The single stroke ones Have 1 60th of a second So sometimes you can determine The specific gear of a camera If you don't know The serial number Or if you're looking For parts for it You know the shutter speed dial Which was fitted to the camera This one doesn't have A large variety of shutter speeds But for general use And for most film A maximum speed of 1 500th Is completely adequate Especially when the maximum Aperture on this lens Is only F 3.5 Some cameras Feature different lenses If you come across one With a L max Or something like that That's a very valuable camera More so than this one But all these cameras Are quite valuable If you happen to come across one You can usually sell it For a fair amount of money And if you hold on to it You're certainly Not going to lose any money Moving on here We have this lever here Which releases the winding mechanism And allows you to rewind the film And of course most other Or pretty much all other Film cameras From this point on Feature some kind of rewind mechanism Sometimes on the top here With a lever like this The Nikon F or S series Had a ring around And a shutter button And of course some cameras Have a button on the bottom It's very simple to use R for release And make sure you put it back I've come across people Who have cameras like this And they say they can't get it to work The shutter doesn't work And it's simply because This lever is in the wrong position If you put it in the right spot If you have one of these old cameras It might work And here we have The shutter release button With a accessory collar Around the outside The shutter button design On these cameras vary The earlier ones have What they call a mushroom style Which is a wider one Personally I kind of like This style here It's hard to depress accidentally When I carry this camera I usually carry it in my hand like this When I'm walking around It kind of keeps the camera A little bit It's easy to hold for one thing Because it fits in my hand perfectly And I can't accidentally Depress the shutter No matter how hard I try But when I want to use it It's quite easy And if you like street shooting Or candid photography If you carry a camera like this It's kind of hard to tell What you're carrying Maybe it looks like a phone Or something in the case Or whatever But it's definitely A low profile camera Here we have the winding knob Which is Was another standard Which Leica set And we have the film counter dial On the bottom Which you have to reset manually When you load the film So when you load the film In the camera And at the end of this film Movie I'll show you how to load film Once the film is loaded Simply turn the dial to zero Like so And as you wind the shutter And wind the camera And depress the shutter button It will move up From frame to frame to frame And you can get up to 30 It looks like 39 exposures On this particular camera So perfectly fine For the modern film We have on the market On the back of the camera We have nothing But this plug on the back Which was used at the factory For making adjustments to the camera If you take the camera apart You'll see On some of these cameras It's kind of glued in Or epoxied in Or screwed in This one has a screw slot On the other side I even tried to take it out And I even tried to calibrate Or check the lens focus So far it seems OK But the problem with these old cameras Unless you have access to old tooling Or can fabricate some stuff yourself They're a little bit harder to adjust Than the more modern cameras On the front here We have this Elmar lens Which is collapsible And when it's collapsible You can easily put it in a pants pocket Put it out of the way This camera uses a 36mm lens cap I didn't have an old Leica cap But this old Minolta cap Off an old Minolta Or TO core rangefinder camera Fits perfectly The aperture ring is located on the front And we have an aperture scale Here from F3.5 to 16 But the aperture numbers Are a little bit different Than what we normally see in cameras Normally when we use apertures nowadays We say from F2.8 to 5.6 To 8 to 11 and 16 And of course you can choose A little bit in between here But here we have F4.5, F6.3 And 9 and 12.5 It's a little bit odd If you're using a more modern Light meter or whatever But you can just kind of If it says F11 Just kind of put it in between 9 and 12.5 like so And that should be good enough Operating the camera You pull out the lens And you turn it to the right And that locks it in place This metal tab here Is the infinity lock So simply push it down with your finger And you can start focusing the lens And this particular lens Has a focusing scale Which is arranged in meters Rather than feet And I find that it works quite well As I said one night before When I was talking about scale focusing I usually find three settings Which I can find quickly And if I'm out trying to get A particular kind of shot I just focus it at that distance And just leave it there And that way I don't mess up And I kind of hunt the photograph I want And the camera is ready to go Let's go ahead and take a look At the bottom of the camera And as I said It's a bottom-loading camera To load the film You have to remove The bottom plate like so And there's a take-up spool On the inside And this is where you put the film in And one thing which is difficult About these cameras Compared to other ones Is you can't just simply put in An ordinary roll of 35mm film The film leader has to be cut In a certain shape In order to load it And get it to fit Behind the film pressure plate And usually there's a sticker On the bottom here Or something which is marked Showing the distance and the shape Which you should cut it But that's not on this particular camera LEICA made a thing Which you pulled out the film And you squeezed it in You just use a pen knife Back in the days When people used to still carry pen knives To cut the film so it would fit For myself what I use Is just a pair of scissors And if I'm going to load the film I'll go ahead and load a film A roll of film here Because I plan to go out And shoot with this camera this week So this is a normal roll Of Fuji Presto 400 film Which unfortunately They don't make anymore But I've got a bunch of it at home And it's one of my favorite films So if I take the film out like so It has like something of the LEICA idea It's kind of You can see it's cut off A little bit here In the bottom But that's not enough For the LEICA camera So what I do is You have to pull it out A little bit more And what I used to do is just count So many spots Like 20 spots 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 There's 20 So anyway I pull it out about this way And if I remember right What I used to Where I cut it And what I did last time I think it was 17 of these spots here And I take scissors These are scissors on this leather band tool Which I have And what I'll do is I'll kind of cut from a lower spot here And cut at a slight angle And then I'll kind of cut Into that kind of shape And then I'll go ahead And put it in the take-up spool like so And I'll kind of twist it So it locks like that And what you do next Is you holding the film like this You kind of drop it in And make sure that it fits in the back Another bug crawling on me And just put it in like so And push it down inside And as you can see It's all the way down in the camera And if I look I can see It's kind of hard to see here But I can see the trailer of the film here And I can see the holes And I can If I wind it a little bit Let me depress the shutter I can see now That the take-up spool here Or the cog The teeth on the cog are caught In the holes on the film And that means the film is engaged In the winding mechanism And then I can simply Put the cover back on And lock it into place And I'll go ahead and And I think by this time I should have I should be wound at the beginning And I'll go ahead And turn my dial here to zero And the camera now has Film loaded in it And it's ready to use And as I said It's Fuji Presto 400 film And we have kind of An overcast day today And it's a little bit late In the afternoon So I'll go ahead I'll set this to say Roughly f.8 Which is between 6.3 and 9 on this scale And I'll go ahead And I'll move my shutter up to 1.1 hertz of a second And for everything around me right now I should be able to get a good exposure with this Now if it were sunnier Of course I would stop down the lens And I would use a faster shutter speed And if it were darker I probably wouldn't adjust The shutter speed downward Because I don't want to get any Blur or anything in the image So I would probably open up The aperture a little bit With the aperture opened up I have to be a little bit more careful With my focus settings Because the depth of field narrows But basically It's about as nuts and bolts and simple As photography gets So now that this camera is loaded I'll go ahead and Fold it up and put it on here So I can put it back in my pocket And I'll go ahead and put my Leatherman tool here Back inside my backpack Now this has a knife blade on it Which makes it kind of illegal for me To carry in my pocket here in Japan But if I carry it somewhere Deep down in my backpack That's not illegal So I'll go ahead and put that away And anyway That's it for my video About the Leica 1 I plan to develop the film I have in this camera right now As well as the film Which I've already shot And I hope to share those in a video Within a couple of weeks If you'd like to see those Please subscribe or come back If you like the video Please click the like button Thank you very much for watching And I hope you tune in again soon