Admittedly, it wasn’t exactly a fair trial. The camera’s mechanical condition was unknown and the lens – though wonderful in its own right – was not first party. Still, it was the first time I had tried using a Leica.

In Summer of 2021, I was handed a Leica IIIb at a local camera shop to try out. While the owner never outright said so, we had a bit of an arrangement: I would have an opportunity to play with an unfamiliar camera, and he would get film testing. At my expense, of course.

I didn’t really mind, however, since I had opportunities to use cameras I might otherwise not and, I’ll be honest, I’d be out making photos anyway. Outside of disappointment with faulty equipment, the risk felt quite low.

So, when he handed me the Leica and asked if I’d like to try it, I agreed. Unlike all of the other cameras he had handed me, I was a little apprehensive, given that I had never really seen one before, let alone held one. Some reputations just precede.

As I would often do until 2022 (when the “Wellington Street Regulars” made it their new home), I liked to take a quick walk around the Parliamentary Precinct to test things out.

When I received the scans, I was pretty disappointed! They were very very overexposed. Clearly, the shutter speeds on the Leica were way out, leaving me with some very cooked photos that most certainly did not allow for the lens’s strengths to show.

Moreover, what was supposed to be some sort of spiritual experience of Barnack’s perfected photo-making machinery was just …okay. I suppose that is unfair, but aside from being more concerned than normal, the experience using it was just so …normal.

With a whole lot of work between the scanner and Apple Photos, the results aren’t entirely without some sort of charm. At least not to my eyes! ☺️

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