Ilford HP5+ - a photo on Flickriver

Ilford HP5+

On December 24, 2024, I picked up my venerable Leica M3 year 1956 (see below for details) for a photowalk in Lyon city, France. I went to Fourvière, enjoying a not too cold (6°C) and clear sunny weather.

My Leica was loaded with a 36-exposure Ilford HP5+ film. I equipped the Summicron 2/5cm lens with a Hoya HMC AUV screw-on 39mm protective filter plus the Leitz shade hood for all indoor scenes, and outdoor I mounted a push-on 42mm FOCA (France) Yellow x2.5 filter and a generic cylindrical stainless steel hood that, unfortunately, induced some vignette if not perfectly aligned, that should be corrected during the processing). I should find a 39mm screw-on filter more safe to use with my Summicron 2/5cm,

Expositions were determined for the indicated 400 ISO (28 DIN) using an Autometer III Minolta light meter fitted with a 10° finder for selective measurements privileging the shadow areas and erected for the filter absorption if any.

The outside temperature was about 6°C with a bright sunny weather in the afternoon. Typically exposures outdoor were made at 1/250s with apertures ranging from f/8 to 11 and 1/50s or 1/25s at full aperture f/2 or f/2.8 indoor.

Esplanade de Fourvière, December 24, 2024
69005 Lyon
France

After exposure, the film was processed in Adox Adonal (Agfa Rodinal) developper at dilution 1+25 and 20°C for 6 min. The film was then digitized using a Sony A7 body fitted to a Minolta Slide Duplicator installed on a Minolta Auto Bellows III with a lens Minolta Bellow Macro Rokkor 50mm f/3.5. The RAW files obtained were processed without intermediate files in LR and edited to the final jpeg pictures. All views of the film are presented in the dedicated album either in the printed framed versions and unframed full-size jpeg accompanied by some documentary smartphone Vivio Y76 color pictures.

About the camera and the lens :

This Leica M3 circa 1956 (Ref. Leitz ISUMO), double stroke, was sold to me with a Leitz Wetzlar Summicron collapsible normal lens 1:2 f=5cm of the same period equipped with a 39mm screw-on protective filter, a 42mm push-on Leica lens cap and an original Leitz shade hood (Ref. Leitz IROOA).

The camera was serviced in Paris, France, in 2018 by Gérard Métrot at Photo-Suffren, (a Leica boutique) who worked on the maintenance of camera's of famous French photographers as Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Doisneau. The camera was inspected by Odéon-Photo, Paris, another historic Leica place in Paris, in April 2024.

I sourced at the same time in Germany a stunning Leitz Leica leather bag (Ref; Leitz IDCOO) of the same model that appeared on the back cover page go the Leica brochure year 1954. This bag can accommodate the camera and a mounted Leica-Meter type M. The interior in covered with a carmin velvet in perfect condition.

The Leica M3 is one of the most iconic range-finder 35mm camera of the 50's and the 60's. It was produced in Wetzlar, Germany, in different versions at 226178 exemplars, between 1954 (n° 700000) and 1966 (n° 1164865, www.summilux.net/materiel/Leica-M3) . The Leica M3 was the result of the study of a "super-Leica" that was started before WWII and only achieved in the 50'S.

The greater improvement of the M3 compared the classical Leica's was in a magnificent and very complex range-finder combined to the view finder permitting the framing with the two eyes open, integrating the frame in the real and normal vision. The shutter integrates too the normal and the slow speeds in the same barillet. The film advance of this version of Leica M3 is also the typical "double-stroke" advance that was exclusive to the Leica M3 first versions.

The camera was transported to me from Paris to Lyon, France on April 26, 2024 and the bag arrived the day after.

Taken on: December 26, 2024

Tags:

Lyon

France

69005

Leica

year

1956

Ernst

Leitz

Wetzlar

Summicron

1:2

f=5cm

collapsable

lens

Ilford

HP5+

Analog

Photography

film

Adox

Adonal

Agfa

Rodinal

Developper

1+25

Sony

Digitizing

Minolta

Auto

Bellow

Slide

Duplication

Macro

Rokkor

50mm « less

Sets appears in: • Waiting for Christmas 2024 • My Very First SLR Camera

Groups appears in: • Ilford

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