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You are rigth! Excelent camera, excelent lenses and... in the correct hands... a marvelous tool... Thank you Matt!

Looking forward to your insights on photography, life...

Heheh, the first time I loaded my MP, the film caught on the rewind mechanism (as yours did in your second repeat) and stopped the baseplate engaging - it completely freaked me out: "German junk, why did I move from my trusty Nikons" etc! Fortunately, just before I reached for the rubber mallet, I repeated the procedure and lo and behold, perfect. It's never happened again and indeed - just a case of pushing the canister in all the way first. It's a brilliant system (a wonderful camera); works as the instructions show and far quicker than an SLR.

An unboxing not showing the unboxing go figure 😂😂😂😂

Everything you say in this video i agree with and is exactly what i do. Shoot film - Leica (M6) and Nikon (F2). Scan or have the lab give me high res scans. Process them in the computer using Darktable software. Print the ones i like 8x10 on my Epson on baryta or cotton paper. For the top 25 percent of those printed images go ahead and print them 11x14. For the top 25% of those images print them 16x20. Store in archival sleeves in archival boxes. And tell the kids repeatedly these images are our life story … keep and enjoy them when we are gone. I fail to see how digital will help me make this workflow better. All it does is expose me to all kinds of computer risks. Great video man. You have just helped a lot of peopke get 10x more value from their photography.

Some users also report shutter lag on the m11 due to the new shutter curtain design. Also problems shooting at low shutter speeds due to 60mp sensor. Both of these are huge negatives for an M cmera.

The lenses are fabulous - K1000 / MX / Me Super hmm, forget the rest.

You seem to be British. Perhaps you are from the South of Britain because you speak like someone from the South of the US. I know that you are headed someplace and I am intriged enough to wait until you get there. Just an observation. Love both photos Matt.

☝️ Promo>SM

I used the Zone System for my B&W from 1971 to 1990, apprenticed and assisted Monte Zucker 1972-74 worked in the photo lab at National Geographic 1974-77, taught college classes in photo reproduction and managed offset printing as a career dealing with the transition from analog to digital methods deep into the technical weeds. Adams was a amazing photographer - I had reproduced a dozen his original prints with double-black duotone in one of the magazines we printed in the 1980s - but he made the Zone System overly complex and confusing because most think Zones = f/stop or EV values. They don’t. In the 1968 edition of The Negative and The Print I learned from Adams acknowledges the confusing in the Forward suggesting the reader mentally replace the word “Zone” with “Print Value”. The 1968 Edition also only had ten zones 0 - 9 because it hadn’t yet occurred to Adams to assign a zone to the specular highlights on white objects and that photographers would have the common sense to know that a “Zone 9” smooth white object like highlights on a white car need to be reproduced on a print as a light gray tone with the paper base reserved for reproducing the SPECULAR highlights he later described as Zone 10 Print Values because those using the Zone System were misunderstanding and blowing out the specular highlight clues to 3D shape. There are a lot of things Adams did which you will not understand unless actually reading the books and understanding how B&W film and paper respond to light intensity and color. Early Adams prints prior to 1930s were shot on orthochromatic film which does not react to red light and renders anything red much darker. The Panchromatic B&W film is overly sensitive to blue and also reacts to UV we can’t see which renders blue skies much lighter than seen by eye unless a yellow and UV filter are used which then make any yellow objects seem brighter than seen by eye. His dramatic dark skies where created at capture by using a red filter on the lens and the shots with birch trees with shimmering leaves were shot with a green filter. Because I had a 1° Honeywell / Pentax meter when I learned it I quickly figured out the Zone System is much simpler forget the grey card and Zone V metering and instead meter a Zone 2 textured shaded black object with a spot meter then adjust the ISO dial lower by 3 or so stops so when you expose your prints for Zone 0 Black in the border you get Zone 2 rendering where you metered. For example using ISO 400 Tri-X the ISO on the meter would be instead set to ISO 50, three stops lower instead of metering Zone 2 area with the meter calibrated for Zone V and doing the f/stop math in your head. The precise ISO needed is determined by always exposing prints so film base = max black with minimum exposure. If making contact sheets on #2 paper do a bracket exposure test from 1 sec to as long as it takes to get max black on the borders then always use that as your proof exposure and you’ll have a baseline for visually evaluating correct exposure in the Zone 0 - 1 - shadows and whether the film development time was correct to render the Zone 8-9-10 scene areas correctly on #2 print paper. Changing development time of negatives to always print on # 2 paper as Adams preferred isn’t practical with a roll film camera unless all the frames on the roll are captured under the same EV range between Zone 2 - 8 which is the range with texture on 3D objects in cross-lighting. So instead of using the measurement of scene range to change development of the negative you use it to know in advance what Polycontrast filtration is needed to fit the paper to the density range on negative development at a consistent time a time selected by testing so sunny cross lit scenes print perfectly with #2 filtration. Once the negative and print paper ranges are match to reproduce the full range of tone and texture from Zone 0 - 10 the rest is done with dodging and burning. Adams would make a baseline full range test print then after dodging and burning to taste create a tissue overlay map of all the + / - correction he make in different areas so he or an assistant could repeat them. Zone V = 18% became a problem for Adams when film changed from being rated by ASA number to ISO because meters which use ISO are calibrated to reproduce 12% not 18% which is way if you fill the frame of a digital camera with an 18% card the spike it creates in the histogram isn’t in the center. If you base digital exposure on centering the card spike you will blow out the Zone 9 / 10 separation and perception of 3D shape that critical transition creates in 2D reproductions. The reason Kodak still makes and sells 18% cards is because Adams lobbied Kodak executives not to change it to 12% when the ISO standard was adopted. If you buy one and read the instructions you will see them say a meter reading with a modern 12% ISO standard meter needs to be adjusted 1/3 lower to correctly expose. To adapt Adams method to roll film I spot metered with my Zone 2 adjust ISO for exposure, read a zone 8 textured white highlight and 9 smooth white highlight to know the scene constant between 2 - 9 in EV / stops, then made notes as I shot. Back in the the dark room I’d develop film to fix cross lit sunny scenes on #2 paper then adjust the paper grade with yellow / magenta filtration using the color head of my enlarger on drop in filters. The Zone System method of changing film contrast via development to match #2 paper contrast doesn’t work with color negative film because how changes in development time affect the color balance. With color and digital the ambient light contrast if equal or lower to the print / sensor range is no problem and flat overcast lighting is ideal because contrast can easily be increased by burning in or using flash in the foreground over the ambient to increase the contrast.

I started bulk loading my 35mm film around 1960, so let me offer a few comments and tips from 60 years of experience. In 1960, you could buy almost any B&W or color film, except Kodachrome, in bulk. Most B&W is sold in bulk today, but almost no color. In 1960, there were three lengths sold: 27 feet - $12; 50 feet - $18; and 100 feet- $36. If you think those prices were huge bargains compared to today, check inflation values. Inflation adjusted prices today are actual less for non-Kodak films, some much less. On reuse of ordinary film cartridges, the video misses a major point. Almost all film cameras today use either mandatory or optional DX coding to set film speed on the camera's meter. Almost all commercial cartridges today are DX coded to a specific film speed. If you load ISO 100 speed film in a ISO 400 coded cartridge, you might end up accidentally shooting the roll two stops under exposed. So, (1) match film and cartridge speeds, (2) buy little DX coded stickers to relabel your cartridges, (3) physically modify the DX codes on cartridges to fit the film (YT videos re how to); or (4) use a camera with manual meter speed selection. On loaders, the AP shown here is the best on the market today, but at $120 US, it is quite overpriced. The old Lloyds units pinch the film through a felt gap in the loader to keep it light tight, and it can acquire enough dirt to scratch your film. The old Watson loader and its copies use a switched trap which does not drag your film through anything when loading. It is a bit hard to load the bulk film roll, but is probably the preferred design. The best used loader is the Aldens brand. They are designed after the Watson, but built of much better materials and with greater precision. New, they were quite expensive, but are of just average used cost today. So, shop for an Aldens, accept a good deal on a Watson, and skip the Lloyds, and their respective copies. Finally, when buying new reload cartridges, buy them from an established "brick and mortar" store, like Freestyle, B&H or Adorama. They have a vested interest in not retailing the cheap Chinese knock-offs sold on the internet.

The only way to know is to use the M11. Otherwise it is just b.s.

Aluminium is better for climate variations. Here up north when -30 C , brass having trouble. And aluminium is a bit lighter witch is a very good news. For the comparable price between brass and aluminium it is negligible. The most important cost in camera body is the machining from a 3d machine from a metal block sculpted. Brass , aluminium or gold if you wish, the job is the same to produce a camera body.

Since I got my M11 P, i no longer use my Hasselblad medium format system for high resolution production anymore.

😂😂😂

PS Thanks so much for the kind comments on my website! 😊

Hi from New Zealand, first time here so thankyou for taking the time to share your experience. I purchased exactly the same loader on the NZ trading site for around 10 dollars which was a steal. I'm lucky to have bought an old Ravco darkroom revolving door from a school clearing out their stuff, so anything that used to involve a bag is now redundant. I also save used cartridges for the specific DX coding info. 👍Cheers, new subsciber.

Just catching up with this one: thanks again. Have I'm ashamed to say I only watched Paris, Texas relatively recently but have fallen in love with it, and Wim Wenders more generally, completely: though don't have very much time at all at present to actually watch films of an evening without falling asleep!! Have seen Wings of Desire a couple of times (and have indeed written about it briefly, but it warrants more prolonged study) - and have now got the remastered version, which I understand is required viewing because of the complex and only now properly achievable reproduction of the mix of the film stocks in the original, especially the handling of the extensive black and white sections. Haas and Leiter I believe shot different stages of Kodachrome, with Haas doing something to the developing to achieve his distinctive colour shifts. I believe we talked about Eggleston before - totally get your view, certainly not everyone's cup of tea at all. I think what I do find interesting (and I think something Alex Soth said about him, perhaps) is the way he invites you to reconfigure what you understand to be the photographer's perspective on the world (e.g. taken as if from the perspective of a child, or something like that). I say this as a subject of interest to me because it seems somewhat akin (to me at least, and conceptually at least) to the ways certain novelists suck you in (or perhaps don't!) through their control of first-person narration. One particularly obvious example might be Kazuo Ishiguro in works like The Remains of the Day or Never Let Me Go (latter quite disturbing in its effect, indeed). Or e.g. Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky. Here's a thing: wonder what it would be like to try to imagine taking photographs in the character of the narrator of a fictional novel!!

I love all the analogue gadgets so have been thinking about doing this myself. Currently for Tri-X, which I love, it doesn't make economical sense since bulk works out at more per roll than the individual canisters, which is slightly bonkers! But clearly great as an option esp. for e.g. small projects or careful zone system work.

I made the same mistake a couple weeks ago, I loaded my first 4 rolls (thankfully I didn't loaded more rolls than this), and I had light leaks on a lot of frames and a lot of scratches on all the film. These plastic cartridge are awful, next time I will reuse factory 35mm rolls of Ilford/Kodak/Fuji.

I have always been put off bulk loading. I don't use a dark bag at all because I develop my film using an Agfa Rondinax daylight developing tank.

Great to see you attempt to bulk load film. Instructive for everyone who aspires to learn the process. Would like to hear your point of view on different focal lengths for photography especially on 35mm vs 50mm.

Your channel has indispensable in my journey with film - thank you so much! Do you have any previous coverage of ND filters and the like? It’s a topic I’ve been curious about. 🙏🏽

Nothing wrong with the m11, but your point is spot on…it is not a real innovation and if i had an m10 i wouldn’t upgrade. What would be a real good idea for Leica? How about aLeica MP Panoramic version that yields xpan negatives? See the prices people pay for used brittle electronic xpans? They would pay for a Leica mechanical panoramic. I have an m6 and i would buy a panoramic Leica.

Have you watched Jessica Lange in the remake of The Postman Always Rings Twice, with Jack Nicholson? Mesmerising performance.

Very much enjoyed the whole thing, thanks again for simply putting in the time to do these very considered and thoughtful videos. One thing I wonder about (can't recall whether you've talked about this before) is how many people actually understand how different a rangefinder camera is from an SLR. Was thinking about this when you were talking about metering and aperture: aperture->depth of field is the thing that rangefinders can't help you with in the viewfinder, which is why zone focusing is such a big deal. I actually love this about film Leicas, because it adds the extra frisson of wondering what the rendering will be for a given composition/lens when you get the film back, if you are not stopped down.

Thank you

It's nice to see someone actually doing it correctly on TH-cam. I have seen 1(!) other video where the guy does it correctly, everyone else (even guys with "Leica" in their name) apparently can't read the manual. It's pretty ironic that Leica develops the easy quickload system and decades later people on youtube complain that its hard to load... Although I have to say the success rate isn't 100% for me, I had like 2 or 3 times when the film itself got stuck in the shutter and even ripped a bit because the shutter curtain chewed into it. It may be possible I didn't completely push in the canister or did something else wrong but I wanted to say that while it's pretty great its either not fool proof or not 100% perfect.

Us old people can’t hear very well,wish you would talk loader or get a better microphone

My thoughts on colour film developing at home, having done it myself now for 8 years. Depends on developer for B&W, but C41 colour is pretty quick and often faster than B&W. The newer Bellini chemistry kits available here in the UK are not too expensive and are superb, so would think vastly cheaper and quicker to do C41 DIY than send to lab. E6 takes longer and requires a few more bottles but again very doable and obvs much cheaper than labs. But E6 film (basically now Ektachrome E100 only) is now vastly expensive per roll, sadly. For colour dev all you really need to gain confidence with is a good way of keeping the waterbath at an overall temperature of 38ºC across the first development time especially (NB doesn't have to be at 38ºC all the way through: you can start hotter and allow it to cool.). Various ways of doing this, from very cheap to very expensive!

what do you think about 28mm focal length I wonder ? Since you are a 50 master 🤔

There is no chance to load it wrong if you spend at liest 2 min with manual. I have m4 and this is idioten camera. Load/shoor/next roll.

Hey Matt! Still love your videos, a very helpful lone again!! One small thing, could you maybe slightly increase the audio of the video? Compared to other content and videos, this is always quite a lot quieter. Leading me to absolute death scares when I watch another video after and my audio is still maxed out :) Maybe comparing the audio to another talking video on the platform to check if its balanced might be something to look for?

They don’t call it ‘qick load’ for nothing.

Thanks Matt for putting it to the clear procedure. After closing, one cocking, then slight fingers rewind for a tension, shutter release, then 2nd cocking will show already rthe ewind knob turning. After 2nd cocking you have already usable frame to shoot right?

The frustration in your voice with "once and for all"! 😅

I can’t help cringing when I see people poking their fingers in the shutter curtains.

Enjoying your videos even though I don’t have a Leica yet. Impressive less than a minute to load film.

Matt, Don’t forget you are probably comparing it to Leica glass and mechanical perfection MP body. I would be interested in your reactions and thoughts on how it impacted your process, ie much more like zone focusing approach vs rangefinder patch exact focus technique, 40 mm perspective vs 50 mm for framing and composition, less awareness of monitoring light levels with auto exposure, less control over dof and the artistic effect possibility. A sense of almost loss of control of the process and how you react to this ,limiting or liberating? I myself am shooting mostly digital now and recently picked up a very tiny Ricoh GR3X , apsc size sensor 24 MP ,40 mm equivalent fov . LCD only no viewfinder, and I am quite frankly astounded at how enamoured I am by this little beast of a camera. The digital files and color and b&w profiles are gorgeous, lens is sharp as a tack edge to edge, I find the way I use it and the total change in my process to see ,frame and take an image has really surprised me. I have very bad GAS so have very many cameras medium format digital, 8x10 film etc etc and I find myself almost exclusively reaching for this little point and shoot. thanks for your video and thoughts.

Interesting overview of your thoughts on this iconic camera. After a lengthy search, I've managed to pick up one. I guess it is what it is, a 1960s designed camera for the consumer who knows little about photography but wants to capture those holiday and day trips out memories. It's definitely a step up from the kodak instamatic camera my families memories were captured on.😊 I've added your channel, it's always good to connect with other photography creators.

Thank you Matt for sharing your inspiring angle of view. Sorry for asking, refering to your older vlog on M11, which I found very sensable. That time you owned M10 or M10-P. Didn't you go well with M10? Or bw outcome was not to your taste? I found M240 more suitable for bw output with customizable colour chanels(say colour filtering).

Listening to this while bulk loading a tin of hp5 perfect cheers Matt 🎉

Thank you, really enjoyed the episode

Great stuff as usual. Just to ket you know prices of Kodak films have gone down significantly. Tri-X 36 shots is now about 9 dollars in the US. Same as HP5.

Thanks 🎉🎉

Thank you for this great video and you personal thoughts. I really enjoyed it and am full of joy now to buy a super a too. I already have a me super and love it too. I read, the super a has a bright viewfinder even with f2.8 glas. The me super has a really bright viewfinder only with glas faster as f2.8. And with the auto modes I can give the super a to my girlfriend.

Exactly! People go through these convoluted loading procedures and it is all toally unnecessary!

I have a black paint MP and a q2 monochrom. I love both but I keep going back to film. I always feel like it’s ok for a film photo not to be perfectly sharp but if the DNG files aren’t perfect the photo is nowhere near as aesthetically pleasing.

I use an M11 Monochrom and develop the photographs through Silver Efex which applies film specific grain like Ilford HP5 to the photographs. You can't tell the difference.

Film grain is the evidence of the media's technology and therefore organic to the process of film photography. Grain is the equivalent of the painters brush stroke, it humanizes an image. Grain helps to reduce the importance of details in favor of shapes and composition; digital images are much to sharp and lose the underlying meaning of a photo by emphasizing details.