genji
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
|
I'd been shooting with a Leica MP for almost a year when, a week before my birthday in January, it suddenly occurred to me that I wished it had aperture priority AE, a feature I'd come to depend on in the four years I'd been using digital M cameras. I called my secondhand Leica dealer and asked if he had any M7s. "I have four," he replied. My research had revealed that at a certain point in the production run Leica had started fitting the M7 with the MP's viewfinder, which had restored the condenser lens that was removed for cost-cutting reasons from the M4-2 through the M6 TTL models, making those viewfinders more prone to flare. But there was considerable disagreement about the serial numbers that would identify M7s with the upgraded viewfinder. The only reliable indicator appeared to a big orange wraparound sticker on the box saying: "NEW Now with improved viewfinder". On my birthday I drove down to check out the four M7s. One of them, a gently brassed black chrome version, had the magic sticker on its box. I bought myself a birthday present.
I like everything about the M7—rewind crank instead of knob, plastic-tipped film wind lever, shutter speed dial that logically matches the over/under exposure meter arrows—apart from just one “feature”, the DX coding. Since I want my 35mm film pictures to have obvious grain I switched from TMAX 400 to TMAX P3200 before settling on Delta 3200. But, as has recently been discussed here, TMAX P3200 and Delta 3200 are actually 800 and 1000 ISO films respectively. And a small LED in the viewfinder flashes annoyingly when the ISO set on the film speed dial doesn’t match the DX code on the film canister.
Actually, as this page from the M7 manual indicates, this “lower pt.” (as it’s called) flashes a lot, though this is mainly related to exposure compensation so it doesn’t bother me as much. The DX code / film speed dial mismatch flashing gets right up my nose though. So I decided to fix it.
These two links provide a good introduction to how DX coding works:
https://shootitwithfilm.com/hack-the-dx-code-on-your-35mm-film/ (explanation of the hack using gaffer/electrical tape)
https://flynngraphics.ca/dx-codes/ (complete list of DX codes from ISO 25 to 5000 and printing DX labels to stick on reusable film canisters)
DX coding resembles Leica’s 6-bit lens coding but in this case the top row indicates the film speed, and the bottom row shows the number of exposures on the roll and the exposure latitude.
The hack involves adding or scraping off black rectangles in the upper row to produce the DX code for the film speed you desire. I tried the electrical tape method: it worked but it was fussy trimming the tape to the correct size. Then I remembered that Brother offers white text on black cartridges for their label printers including a 6mm wide tape (TZe-315) that’s close to the perfect width. Removing unwanted black rectangles is easy: soften with paint stripper then scrape off with a blade.
TMAX P 3200 was easy: add one black rectangle and ISO 3200 becomes ISO 800. Delta 3200 requires more effort: remove a black rectangle and add two new ones to get ISO 1000. (The picture above shows my first effort, pretty rough but I didn’t bother to clean it up in order to show that it doesn’t have to look perfect to work perfectly.)
Too much effort for too little return? YMMV but for me it’s well worth it.
|
