Paradise Snake Bessa

The looks of a camera is perhaps not the most relevant thing in photography, but a pretty camera is nevertheless a pretty camera and an ugly one is just ugly. If all other things stay the same, wouldn't you rather have a pretty one? Like one with real snake skin? Yeah, eh, okay... There is perhaps no great argument to support re-covering a perfectly good camera, but I did it anyway. Here's how.

You start with a camera that has some sort of leather, rubber, vinyl, vulcanite, or plastic covering. Basically something you can easily tear off. Like my Voigtländer Bessa R2A here:



Okay, stop! Before you start tearing the covering off, you had better have some sort of a plan, right? One alternative is the hard route of DIY. Many different materials are available as sheets, or you can even get more creative and use something you already have. The options are pretty much endless. This however takes some time, some skill, and some basic tools. There is also a simpler route. Some companies and individuals offer pre-cut kits for various camera models. One example is cameraleather.com. They have a good reputation and a pretty extensive catalog of materials to choose from. Kits are available for dozens of camera models, mostly classic cameras, though. That's in fact where I got this red paradise snake kit from:



So, when your kit arrives (or when you have your tools and materials ready, should you play ball in the big league), you can proceed to tear the old covering off your camera. That should be pretty easy in most cases. However, you may be left with some glue residue that is harder to remove. You don't necessarily need to remove all of it, as the new covering will stick there anyway. You should however note that any residue that you can feel as a bump on the surface may create a visible bump after you have applied the new covering. A pretty effective way of removing all the glue (at least with the Bessa) is to tap a chunk of the already-removed glue over and over on the surface. Little by little the residue is removed.

Once you have removed the old covering and glue, you can start applying the new covering. For a simple design such as the Bessa, this is pretty straightforward. There are two more difficult points worth mentioning here. The first is making sure you introduce no skewing (meaning all corners of each piece ends up in the correct place). This is easy to get wrong even if you think you have the first two corners in corrects spots, because any error gets larger the farther you apply a piece from its original point of contact. So, make sure that the tops and bottoms line up nicely. This brings us to the second point. The adhesive on the cameraleather.com kits is very aggressive. Don't just remove the carrier sheet and stick the piece on your camera thinking you can easily adjust it after you have it on the camera. That spells trouble, since the pieces really do stick to the camera (that's what they were made for!). Instead, remove the carrier sheet ever so slightly as you progress and you should be okay.



One more tip. The holes for the strap lugs can be tricky. If you have trouble getting the strap lug through the hole, simply cut the piece in the narrow part. I didn't need to do it, but the cut should be pretty much invisible as long as you line up the piece well.

Finally, we are all done. Let me introduce you to my new, old Bessa:



The camera certainly looks different — much nicer in my opinion. Not only has the look of the camera changed, though. The overall feel and handling of the camera has changed a bit as well, because the new covering is quite thin and lacks the molded shapes of the original rubber covering. The camera just feels a bit different, not necessarily any better or worse. In addition, a small thumb rest was removed from the back of the camera. This can be a real issue to some users, and I spent some time thinking about it. Should I remove the thumb rest and risk losing some of the ergonomics or rather keep it? In the end, I decided to try the camera without the original back cover (which I believe could easily be glued back if desired) and felt comfortable with the camera that way. So, I proceeded to apply the snake skin cover on the back as well. Note that the snake skin is mostly for looks and durability. It feels good, but it doesn't provide the greatest grip. If you are looking for the best grip, you need to consider some other material.

My next re-covering project is the Epson R-D1. Check that out later!

My latest camera — my greatest camera?

I'm about to discuss something completely different, but let me first make a short post about my latest camera purchase. It's the Leica M8, which was officially announced already in 2006. That's a long time ago in the digital camera domain, but there is only so much competition in the digital rangefinder arena that all the Leica offerings continue to be of current interest. And it's a very good camera to boot, perhaps even the best I own and have used. I believe I will be discussing using this camera much more in the future, so if you share an interest in rangefinder cameras you may want to wait and see what my future blog posts have to say about it. For now, here it is pictured with a Voigtländer Color-Skopar 21/4 lens and a Voigtländer accessory viewfinder. The Leica M8 has a crop factor of 1.33, which makes this 28-mm viewfinder ideal for the 21-mm lens. By the way, you should notice a purple colour cast on the front element of the lens. That is due to an infrared cut-off filter that is needed on the Leica M8 to produce accurate colours. This camera certainly has some little quirks.

Experimenting with the Bug

Last time I wrote about getting two soft releases for my rangefinder cameras. I have now run some Bug experiments. This means using the Bug soft release on my Epson R-D1 in my everyday photography. I haven't really done any low-light shooting and therefore haven't faced slow shutter speeds. So, the added stability is still a bit of a mystery. The overall feel of the camera and the control of the point of releasing the shutter is improved, though. That alone is worth the price, should I find there is no other benefit in the end. Well, there actually is at least one other benefit. Shooting with gloves was never this easy! It will be a couple of months before I will consider wearing gloves, but I just had to quickly try on a pair when the idea came to me. Wearing gloves in July obviously isn't too comfortable!

I browsed through some of my photographs looking for ones that show the kind of motion blur I'm trying to fight with the Bug. There were some so-so ones. I think I have culled most of those that don't work with a bit of camera shake thrown in. Here's anyway one shot I came across. Not a good example of anything I have discussed so far really, but a nice shot demonstrating another source of shakiness: a moment that is a bit too fast or otherwise takes you by surprise forcing you to trigger the shutter while in motion.

Woman in Hamburg, 2009 - Epson R-D1, 1/100, ISO 400

This shot doesn't appear too soft at this size, but there is some motion blur in it. I was standing there by the Hamburg Philharmonic Hall Pavilion all by myself, facing the other way. As I turned around to look for a shot, this lady who had just appeared from somewhere without me noticing her was stepping to the horn. I barely had time to check my pre-focus for this shot. As she leant in to listen to the sounds from the horn, I quickly brought the camera to my eye and saw the expression I had anticipated. Preferring the moment over the technical merit of the shot, I took it without steadying my camera. She noticed me only the very moment I had my camera to my eye and made the photograph, which shows through as faint surprise mixed with curiousness in her expression.

Shot at 1/100 this photo is far from a slow shutter speed image where the soft release should help the most. Based on my experience over these couple of days, I think it could however help a bit with shots like these as well. Even if only by making one more confident with one's camera.

First things first

What better way to start a week than receiving something cool in the mail. And what better way to start enjoying what you just received than starting a blog about it. Well, this blog isn't really about a soft release, or even two of them. That's just what I happened to receive today. However, they are the topic of this first blog post for that very reason. Let's first discuss what soft releases are, what they are supposed to do, and then take a look at the ones I now have.

A soft release is a little button you can screw into the shutter release on many cameras. It basically makes the shutter release a bit easier to reach (by making it bigger and providing a different shape) and a bit easier to trigger (hence the term, soft release). The idea behind this is to reduce effects of camera shake on your pictures by eliminating some of the shake from the photographer pushing the shutter button. Not all cameras can fit a soft release. For example, a Canon DSLR will not have place for one, while a Leica M will. While some SLRs can fit a soft release, I would expect rangefinders and other mirrorless cameras to benefit more from using them. This is because the mirror slap of an SLR camera also introduces some shake and this cannot be removed with such a simple accessory. Better handholding technique is of course beneficial in both cases, and I guess some may even think a soft release is just an attempt to take a shortcut there. As I have not tried one before this day, I cannot yet really comment on that point.

Here are my two ladybugs with threads on their bottoms:

They are made by match Technical Services, who specialize in photographic accessories for the Leica M rangefinder cameras. Among other things, they make several types of soft releases. The ones with the ladybug paint job are called Bugs. Now, in addition to looking cool (or not like your typical camera accessories anyway) these things are actually very well made. They are CNC machined out of solid brass, and my first impression when putting one on my Epson R-D1 digital rangefinder camera was very positive. They fit the thread perfectly and require just the right amount of force to take off. You will not lose these things easily by accidentally dropping one off the camera, they won't break nor should they get stuck on your camera. Nice.

As I received two Bugs (red and white), I was able to compare their quality, finish, and functionality. I'm very pleased with them both and there are no differences between them except for one thing. You will notice in the image below that the ladybugs are not facing the same way when attached on the camera. Oh the horror! This is due to both the Bugs themselves as well as the camera. Firstly, the Bugs are obviously unique. It would perhaps be possible to align the soft releases better for the painting. However, the threads on the cameras differ as well and the maker of the soft releases has zero control over that, so there would be very little point to do so. For example, my Voigtländer Bessa rangefinder camera had the Bugs facing in yet another directions. No biggie, but someone may care. If this would bother you and you want to try a soft release, get a design that you feel comfortable having any which way on your camera.

So, are all my photos now shake-free and can I suddenly handhold shots a stop slower? No, and I don't know. I need to experiment more. I do believe it should be possible to use at least slightly longer shutter speeds now, since firing off shots only requires a fairly gentle tap with the soft release. The difference is noticeable. And the ladybugs are simply pretty cute. While the white one looks good on the R-D1, I'm not picking any favourites yet.

This concludes my first post. More will follow. This is my soft release into blogging.