Thirdly, the rangefinder and viewfinder are in separate windows. Secondly, you can only change the shutter speed once the film has been wound and the shutter cocked. First, there’s no film advance lever, but you have to use a comparatively slow knob to advance the film and cock the shutter. Shooting a Barnack camera isn’t incredibly difficult, but does require quite a few more steps than with modern cameras. The best description I’ve read is from Stephen Gandy, who says that these cameras are like “mechanical jewels.” Made of nickel, steel, brass, and chrome, the camera is solid.There is no plastic of which to speak. The top plate of the camera is reminiscent of the funnels and superstructure of an early 20th century dreadnought battleship. At the same time, a Barnack camera is cold, and practical, though in no way inelegant and un-beautiful. One can only imagine what this lens has lived through. I also have a Leitz 3.5cm Elmar lens, which, according to a serial number lookup, dates to 1939. Many lives had been lost, and many more would begin anew.
It’s quite an understatement that the world was different then: the world powers had been rearranged, and the post-war boom in the first world was just getting into swing.
My own Leica IIIc was made in 1946, in allied occupied West Germany. These cameras are steeped in history and romance. Though the youngest Leica screwmount cameras are now at least sixty years old, they remain plentiful and are inexpensive, relative to the more sought-after M-series cameras and lenses. Henri Cartier-Bresson developed his famous street photography style with one, and the mount was adopted by Canon, the Soviet Union camera makers, and a whole host of others. Three Approaches to Shooting a Classic Screwmount Leica by Khoa Tranīefore the introduction of their famous M-system of cameras and lenses in the 1950s, Leica (then Ernst Leitz DRP) produced a rangefinder system now known as the Leica threadmount, screwmount, or, simply “Barnack” cameras, after their inventor, Oskar Barnack, who developed the original Leica camera in the 20s and was one of the pioneers of 35mm photography.