Then and Now ...

One evening while casually browsing the internets and stumbling on someone waxing poetic about film cameras, rangefinders, and the "Leica esthetic" I remembered the two M3 I owned back in the early '80's.  One had an old 50mm f/1.5 and the other a 35mm f/3.5 (if memory serves).  I wanted to see if I could find that "Leica esthetic" and, relatedly, that "Leica look" for myself.

I was always looking for the "magic."  Was it in the cameras?  Was it in the lenses?  This is why I tried so many different systems.  There was a a Canon F1 (original) with four or five lenses, and a little later I had a Pentax MX and after that a Nikon FM system.  

As for the "Leica look" and "Leica esthetic", other than the interesting rendering of the Leica 50mm f/1.5 when shot wide open I found my SLR images of the day to be very similar to the rangefinder.  It took me many decades to realize the "magic" was the nut behind the viewfinder.

Which all lead to another late evening musing.  I wondered how the sizes and weights of film camera equipment 40 years ago might compare to digital.  So I did a quick spreadsheet of sizes and weights.  Just because.  Late evening musing. Right. Here it is.

Cameras	Weight	Length	Height	Depth
Canon F1	820grams	147mm	99mm	43mm
Leica M6	575grams	137mm	77mm	40mm
Sony A7	474grams	127mm	94mm	48mm
Lenses	Weight	Length	Diameter
Canon FD
Canon 20mm f/2.8 FD SSC	345grams	75mm	58mm
Canon 24mm f/2.8 FD SSC	330grams	66mm	53mm
Canon 35mm f/3.5 FD SSC	325grams	64mm	49mm
Canon 50mm f/1.8 FD SSC	200grams	63mm	39mm
Canon 85mm f/1.8 FD SSC	425mm	67mm	57mm
Leica
Leica Super-Elmar 18 f/3.8	309grams	49mm	61mm
Leica 24mm f/3.4 Elmar	260grams	40mm	56mm
Leica Summarit 35mm f/2.5	220grams	43mm	51mm
Zeiss 35mm f/2.8	178grams	30mm	51mm
Leica 50mm f/2 Summicron	242grams	44mm	53mm
Leica 90mm f/2 Summicron	635grams	102mm	66mm
Leica 90mm f/2.8 Elmarit	395grams	76mm	55mm
Sony
Tamron 20mm f/2.8	220grams	64mm	73mm
Sigma 24mm f/3.5 DG DN	225grams	64mm	51mm
Sony 35mm f/2.8 ZA	120grams	37mm	62mm
Sony 55mm f/1.8 ZA	281grams	71mm	64mm
Sony 85mm f/1.8	371grams	78mm	82mm

Comparing the old film camera dimensions to a 10 year old Sony A7 full frame device quickly shows how shapes have evolved. The Canon F1 was a rather hefty device, even back in the day.  The Leica M-series was built rather like a brick (or so it seemed to me).  If one preferred their SLR to be light and compact, Pentax made those wonderful M-series cameras and Olympus offered the OM-1.

Leica lens dimensions remain comparatively small, with the Sony digital lenses I choose being nearly as compact.

Comparing lens weights shows a couple things.  Digital lenses can weigh less than old rangefinder optics.  SLR lenses are monsters compared with these two, but we already knew that, right? Similarly, if one wanted to save size and weight while sticking to SLR bodies, Pentax and Olympus both offered some interesting things.  I imagine there's a reason why lenses from Pentax and Olympus remain popular among the "focus peaking" crowd.

The obvious thing that has evolved over the years is capability and flexibility.  Film was a one-trick pony.  The ASA and color/monochrome selections were made when the film that was loaded into a camera.  Lenses were strictly manual focus.  How we used these old systems necessitated anticipating the needs of the situations we found ourselves in.

Come to think of it, that was really good training for moving into digital.  Anticipation and planning can be helpful.  It forces me to think through a situation in advance, rather than walking into a scenario flat-footed and having to react.  Reacting leaves me all fumble-fingered and confused.

Wrapping up my late evening musings, it's absolutely remarkable how much technology we now have available to us, even as the size and weight of things have pretty much remained constant.