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Wednesday, September 30, 2020

UNDERWATER HOUSING FOR LEICA M CAMERAS

 



With  the Leica X-U Leica offered a camera that can be used even under water with a rated depth of 15m (50 ft) for 60 minutes.  But what if you need more and what if you want to use a Leica M instead?

Leica used to make an underwater housing for the Leica M4 years ago.  But virtually no examples are available any longer, with only a few on display in Leica collections and one in the Leica museum in Wetzlar.

    
The M4 Underwater Housing at the Wetzlar Leica Museum

But there is help.  The Austrian company of Subal from Vienna is making an underwater housing for the Leica M cameras.  It is an intriguing design that goes far beyond conventional underwater housings.  While most of them are usually quite bulky, the Subal design has the unmistakable shape of a Leica M camera. 
Subal believes that you should not have to give up any of the camera functions just because it is in an underwater housing.   Their housing offers a larger than average number of operations. This means the technical and creative possibilities of the Leica M cameras are fully accessible.  Wherever possible, the operating controls are optimized to be close to hand or in the camera position that you are used to.  Subal’s high-tech production is based on their second Skin principle which results in the smallest possible dimension and weight.

big rushmore 

big rushmore 

SUBAL housings are milled from a solid block of aluminum. This prevents unwanted air pockets and ensures absolute tightness. All housing parts and accessories are made of this same alloy, which is characterized by a high degree of seawater resistance. Additional heat treatment increases strength and hardness by about 30 percent and reduces the inevitable underwater deformations due to depth.  Shafts, screws, and many other parts are made of high-alloy nickel-chromium coated steel.  Only high-quality engineering plastics are used for the best durability and longevity.

Front ports especially depend on hardness and dimensional stability. Therefore most SUBAL ports are made of polyacetal resin. With the larger dome ports a seawater-resistant light metal alloy is used and are then subject to the hard-coating process. The quality of underwater photos depends on the material of the “windscreen”, which is why all SUBAL flat and dome lenses, unlike with many other underwater housings, are made of perfect optical quality glass, which is also coated internally for optimum light transmission and better contrast performance.

SUBAL Frontports 
SUBAL Frontports 

The Subal port bayonet allows the use of flat ports for lenses with a narrower angle like macro lenses, for instance.  For wider angles dome ports are available.  In addition Subal offers an adapter to allow the use of Nikonos lenses directly on the housing without any additional ports.

For flash operation the Leica M housing uses the Nikonos 5 plug.  By request it can also be delivered with a fiber optic connection.  This allows the use of virtually all underwater flash systems.

The Subal Leica M housing is rated for a depth of 80 meters (260 feet) or with the Tec Version up to 120 meters (395 feet)

Width             16.5 cm - 6.5 inch
Height            12.5 cm - 5.0 inch
Depth               8.0 cm - 3.2 inch
Weight           1 kg – 2.2 lbs
Price               Appr. $6,000 at current exchange rate

Subal also offers underwater housings for other Leica cameras at www.subal.com.


For other articles on this blog please click on Blog Archive in the column to the right

To comment or to read comments please scroll past the ads below.

All ads present items of interest to Leica owners.

_______________________________________________________________________

Woman wears brown elk-leather camera strap around her shoulders.
      www.eddycam.com        

      


Buy vintage Leica cameras from 
America's premier Leica specialist 
www.tamarkin.com

 http://www.tamarkin.com/leicagallery/upcoming-show



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Monday, September 28, 2020

ES MUSS NICHT IMMER LEICA SEIN - (IT DOESN'T NEED TO BE LEICA ALL THE TIME)



I am a firm believer that owning a Leica is more than just owning a camera, it is the investment in a camera system.  One of the main reasons to own a Leica are the Leica lenses.  To me, their unsurpassed performance makes a Leica more desirable than anything else on the camera market.

However, that is a very costly proposition.  The Leica and Leica lens quality and performance come at considerable cost.  Short of a huge photography budget, compromise might be in order from time to time.  For instance, I like super wide angle lenses, but use them only occasionally in my work.  For that reason I compromised on a Voigtländer 15mm f/4.5 Super Wide Heliar instead on its Leica counterpart.

I also replaced the standard Leica neck strap with one of the elk leather straps from Eddycam.  I consider it one of the best neck straps currently available and it is of a quality that compares with Leica in any respect.

I had a couple of odd camera adapters lying around.  I don’t even recall how I got them.  They sat on my desk collecting dust.  But in the back of my mind there was also the quiet thought of putting them to use.  That turned into a two day project of which I am not at all sure if it is really useful.  Time will tell.


The two adapters mounted together

One of the adapters has a Leica M mount on one end.  The thought occurred to me that, if mounted to the bottom of my camera, it could hold a lens which then could function as a hand grip and, more importantly, allow me to carry an extra lens.

Attaching the adapter to the bottom plate of my Leica was no major problem.  But I soon realized that it wouldn’t offer enough clearance for lenses protruding past the lens mount.

Even though their mounts are not a match, I found that with some tinkering, this adapter could be attached to the other odd adapter piece, a Nikon piece of equipment.  This combination offered enough depth to allow attaching it to the bottom plate of my Leica, still having enough clearance for all of my lenses.


But how to attach it?  After considering various venues, I decided to attach a metal plate to the end of the adapter.  A ¼ inch hole in the center is now holding a fastening screw from an old tripod.  Finally a piece of soft leather functions as a protector over the metal plate.




Obviously this is nothing new.  The Benser base plate a while back offered the same possibility and held even two lenses, and other, similar accessories have been available as well.  But this I made myself and, unlike most everything else in my camera outfit, it hardly cost anything at all.  That is a rare claim to make for a Leica owner.


For other articles on this blog please click on Blog Archive in the column to the right

To comment or to read comments please scroll past the ads below.

All ads present items of interest to Leica owners.

_______________________________________________________________________

Woman wears brown elk-leather camera strap around her shoulders.
      www.eddycam.com        

      


Buy vintage Leica cameras from 
America's premier Leica specialist 
www.tamarkin.com

 http://www.tamarkin.com/leicagallery/upcoming-show



Click on image to enlar
Please make payment via PayPal to GMP Photography

Click on image to enlarge
Please make payment via PayPal to GMP Photography
Click on image to enlarge
Please make payment via PayPal to GMP Photography



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