Sat the 25th I went to the Lime Rock Park road racing circuit in NW Connecticut to be a crew member on a friends ITS Class Nissan. I of course brought cameras and decided not to bring Nikons and long lenses as any idle time I had I'd be in the pits and away from locations that would be better for the 80-200 and 300.

I had an M6 .58 loaded with Delta 100 rated at ASA50 and an M6 .72 (thanks Jack Flesher) with color neg 400 rated at 200. Laziness and timing kept me from grabbing some ASA 100 color neg. The .72 body had a motor on it. To all the lenses except to 75 Voit (can't find 43mm NDs) I added ND filters to pull 2 stops of film speed. So I had ASA 12! in one camera and ASA 50 in the other. Thinking back now I should have put the dark green filter on the 75 to loose 1.5-2 stops.

I used the NDs 'cause I wanted to try some more fill flash work and it was destined to be a full bright sunny 16 day. Using my hand +1 and the track to verify exposure I ended up with 1/50th at F8 in B&W. I added little to no fill flash with the color camera as I'd be at 1/50th and F16 at best and the Metz 54MZ3 already was huffing and puffing to get me F8 with any kind of usable recycle times at F8.

I shot mostly with a 35 ASPH 'lux and the 24 2.8 at close distances over the pit wall as the teams checked tire temps and pressures etc. In fast action there was a little "ghosting" of team members as they rushed around the cars.

The NDs and ASA 12 film meant I could also shoot the lux wide open at 1/1000 for some nice effects. The CV 75 was also nice wide open in color or B&W.

So far I have developed the B&W and it looks good but the effect of the fill flash is tough to see on the light box. I had the flash set at -1 stop for all exposures. I haven't gotten the color processed yet.

I liked the fact that a TTL body won't fire flash at speeds over 1/50th. It meant there was one less thing to remember to do when I shot at high speed/wide apertures.

I'll try to post some soon but I'll have to scan at the camera store.

Things I'd do different next time? 1. Have the same speed film in both cameras

2. It would be nice to try the HSS feature of the M7 if I had one.

3. I'd set the flash to "0" compensation for fill. I knew when I was shooting that a white or bright car would shut off flash early but I didn't make a change from -1 and in general other testing I've done in bright sun has shown that really hard shadows need more fill.

4. Stronger ND filters? It would get me to F4 at 1/50th but the flash still has to work hard to expose through a 4 stop killing filter so recyle times may not me that much better. Have to try it.

5. Maybe a motor for both bodies instead of just one. Bring my M4? It will also take a motor thanks to DAG.

I'll try to post results soon. The M's were great for the pit shots.

-- Neil Swanson (neilsphoto@yahoo.com), May 27, 2002

Answers

After reading through all of the indepth technical details of your shoot at the track I was eager to see the pics (I've never used ND filters and I am very interested in seeing the results). Surely there would be a link to the pics at the end of the technical description with references to the set-up used. But no....very frustrating. Arrrrgggg! Post soon, please.

-- Doug Ford (dford@san.rr.com), May 27, 2002.

I know sorry no images to go with the post. I have no scanner and my old Mac isn't likely to get one.

I'll get a CD burned when I get the color done and I'll take some B&W prints to get scanned on the flatbed at the store. Then all I have to do is get them up on the page. Wish me luck there.

As for the ND filters I got them both for getting the Ms to better flash sync f-stops and to use fast films i bright light.

I don't really like the look of many slow B&W films. I love tri-X and its scale and look. With NDs I can really open up and have a film I like.

Or how about keeping TMZ 3200/Delta 3200 in your camera. Both films have a special look. If you want to use 3200 in bright sun add an ND filter. You could have ASA 200 outside or ASA 3200 for when you go inside with a 4 stop ND. Or 1600 to 400 with a 2 stop ND filter. Properly processed T-max 3200 rated at 1600 has little more grain than most peoples Tri-X I've found.

And of course with the Ms you aren't trying to look through the filter which is a good thing 'cause you can't!

-- Neil Swanson (neilsphoto@yahoo.com), May 27, 2002.

A good set of ND filters is a necessity with any M except the M7.

There is a long history of Leica use in motorsports photography. Check out "Driven" and "Looking Back" by Jesse Alexander, "Track Record" by Maurice Rowe, and "Track Pass" by Geoff Goddard. Fascinating looks at European racing in the 50s and 60s, great photos. And many taken with IIIfs and M3s.

-- Carey Russ (careyruss@earthlink.net), May 27, 2002.

Many photos in the three classic books mentioned above were done with Rolleis; apparently panning with a TLR is an acquirable skill.

-- Joe Brugger (jbrugger@pcez.com), May 29, 2002.