Bill Smith's Photography

 I had to go downtown back in April to handle some lingering business with mom's estate with the bank, I packed one camera, one lens combo, this time around the Canon 7 with the Canon LTM 36 F1.8 lens. A nice combination for shooting south of St. Clair. For those who can't swing the Leica M mount system, I highly recommend taking a long hard look at the Canon rangefinder system. Some ways the bodies were nicer then Leica M mounts with titanium shutters and an ease of loading like an SLR as opposed to going through the bottom like Leica.  The Canon Leica Thread Mount (M39) 35 F1.8 is a fun little lens. It pre-dates the LTM 35 F2 lens from the 1960s so it pre dates the 7 rangefinder and is a companion to the P and the VT Deluxe, but I'm a user of the Canon rangefinder system and nowhere an expert, while I have a copy of Canon Rangefinder Cameras 1933-1968 by Peter Dechert it's about the cameras much less about the lenses.  With this roll I also wanted to try Eastman Doubl...

  I went out solo this past August and went down to Ossington and Beaconsfield Village for a wander. Again it was a one camera and lens adventure, this time with my Leica M3 DS and with a 20 year old Voigtlander 50 F1.5 Nokton lens.  The film of choice was Eastman Double X which seems to be made for the M series Leicas without TTL metering, for this outing I used a Doomo clip on meter that rode on the cold shoe, its a clone of the old Voigtlander clip on meter. It does the job. Shooting with the Leica M3 brings me closer to my late Dad, this was his camera. The viewfinder is made for 50mm lenses, and I wanted to play with some modern glass for this walk instead of the type one 50 F2 Collapsible Summicron which came with the camera. For a camera made in the mid 1950s, the M3 is still super smooth and works flawlessly.  Camera: Leica M3 DS, Voigtlander 50 F1.5 Nokton Lens.  Film: Eastman Double X, Ilfotec HC 1+49.  ...