Not My Presidents Day Protest with Presto 400 film (Oly 19)

Last Monday, May 26, 2025, the USA celebrated Memorial Day to commemorate fallen service members. Many died in action to help maintain the federal form of government that we now enjoy. We all benefit from their ultimate sacrifices.

I thought it was appropriate to show pictures from the "Not My Presidents Day" protest that was held at the Washington State Capitol on February 27, 2025. That these people can gather and express their feeling and beliefs is a key element of our form of government. Will we be able to continue protesting in the months ahead? When will the repression start? It has already begun on some university campuses.

Read the posters and signs below and consider what they are saying. The people in individual or group portraits gave me permission to take their pictures.

The Olympia State Capitol

SNAP refers to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program

Oozing into Gilead

The Handmaid's Tale is a horrifying allegory of a totalitarian state (The Republic of Gilead) where white women become breeding machines for the ruling class. "The novel explores themes of powerless women in a patriarchal society, loss of female agency and individuality, suppression of reproductive rights, and the various means by which women resist and try to gain individuality and independence." (from Wikipedia).

"It Takes All of Us to Make the USA" 

Checking out Truth (Fraud) Social?

The protesters were vocal and energetic, but largely mellow. No fire bombs or torching buildings. 

I took these phortographs on discontinued Fuji Presto 400 film, the same emulsion as Neopan 400 Professional. The camera was my little Pentax MG with a 50mm ƒ/2 Pentax-A lens. My Indiana friend, Jim Grey, sent me some boxes of this superb film. Based on limited experience, I think it resembles the classic older style of Tri-X. I will write about Presto in more detail in a later article. Thanks for the film, Jim!

This is Abandoned Films no. 14 and Oly no. 19.

Really Good Things in Small Packages: My Leica IIIG Camera

Background

The stock market behaved as every economist predicted in response to the chaotic tariff regulations. Our family assets sink with each burp of the markets. That is sure making America great again...... The popular photo blogger, Kirk Tuck, recommended folks buy any cameras they might want immediately. Hmmm.....  

I like that advice!! I suffered another bout of GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) and ordered a camera I have thought about for some years, the Leica IIIG rangefinder. A sale of Leica goodies at Tamarkin Camera in Chicago was too good to resist. The 'Bay lists tens of IIIGs for sale, mostly from Japan. But the Tamarkin price was a bit lower, and all his camera bodies have been checked, cleaned, and adjusted as needed.

The Leica IIIG

The IIIG is the last iteration of the famous Leica thread-mount camera line. Leica made this beauty from 1957 to 1960, with production of only about 40,000 units. Ernst Leitz GMBH had recovered from the war and was selling their top quality cameras and lenses around the world. Leitz had introduced their fantastic M3 camera in 1954, and the IIIG was their last and most sophisticated version of the older thread mount series. Unlike all the previous III models, the IIIG had a viewfinder with movable frame bars to show the coverage of a 50mm lens. It was a major improvement, although not nearly as sophisticated as the finder in the M cameras. 

Framing the scene that a lens will project on the 24×36 mm piece of film is always imprecise with viewfinder cameras. In the past, I have been frustrated with cameras that have a viewfinder only, such as my Vito BL, Kodak Retina IIa, and Leica IIIC. Depending on where I placed my eye, the frame shifted left or right. The projected frame bars in my Leica M2 and my Canonet cameras are a major improvement in aiming more accurately. Therefore, my new IIIG provides this improved function also (see, I just justified GAS). 

 

Leica IIIG viewfinder windows including small window to illuminate viewfinder frame bars

Like the older thread-mount cameras, the IIIG has two shutter speed controls. The dial on the front is for B (bulb) and 1 to 1/30 sec. The dial on the top controls 1/30 to 1/1000 sec. The self-timer is the lever on the front. 

Immaculate engraving and machining

The IIIG is somewhat of an anachronism today, being a mechanical camera that takes film and has no light meter. But it is more compact than my M2 camera, has a hand-crafted jewel-like precision, and has a fun factor that today's electronic cameras lack. And film has certainly enjoyed a revival compared to the early 2010s. Whether it lasts, I cannot predict. 

Loading contemporary film in current 35mm cassettes requires some preparation. You need to trim the film leader to have a tongue about 10cm long, similar to the way film was supplied in the 1960s. You load the film from the bottom. Lacking a back film door, the body is especially rigid.

I already had three 50mm thread-mount lenses that I used with my 1949 IIIC: 

• 1949 5 cm ƒ/2 Leitz Summitar (in the photos above)
• 1962 Soviet 50 mm ƒ/2 Jupiter-8 (a Sonnar type of lens)
• 1950s 50 mm ƒ/1.8 Canon (late production model) 

So, of course, too many camera toys....   

Note: In 1999, Leica issued their 50mm ƒ/2 modern Summicron lens in a thread-mount version. Hmmm... 

Olympic Peninsula, Washington

On a sunny and cheerful April day, my wife and I set out north into the Olympic Peninsula. I mounted my 1949 5 cm ƒ/2 Summitar lens on the body and loaded a roll of Kodak Portra 160. Leitz designed this 7-element lens before the war and continued production until 1953 or 1954. My example is coated and unscratched. I measured light with my Gossen Luna Pro digital meter, set at Exposure Index 100. Here are some examples. Please click any picture to see details.

Hunter Farm, Rte 106, Union

Fix me up, Center Road, Quilcene (1/250 ƒ/5.6)

Fixer-upper house, Center Road, Quilcene

Waiting for repair with a bit of fungus, Rte 101, Quilcene

Skeleton man on patrol, Quilcene

Also waiting for repair, Rte 101, Quilcene

Rte 101 bridge over Hamma Hamma River (1/125 ƒ/8.0½)

Motel, Rte 101, Lilliwaup (1/60 ƒ/4.0½)

Country store, Rte 101, Lilliwaup

Oh, oh, no coffee here, Rte 101, Lilliwaup

Summary

OK, I am thrilled. This  IIIG certainly passes the test. The body looks great, the finder is clear and clean, film spacing is even, and exposure is uniform across the frame (meaning the shutter curtains are running smoothly). 

The old Summitar lens is contrasty on a bright sunny day. The center of the frame is high resolution. But it has serious field curvature and is not as uniform across the frame as a modern lens. On the scale of internet display, the frames look fine. The entire package is fun to use, with a mechanical watch-like precision. 

My recommendation: Buy a Leica thread-mount camera and get back to the basics of film photography! Have fun! 

Reading

One of the best reviews of the IIIG camera is by Mike Eckman. 

Appendix - Leather Case

Genuine E. Leitz case for Leica IIIG with short or collapsing lens

Tamarkin Camera included a traditional ever-ready ("never-ready") leather case. Such cases were ubiquitous pre-1975 or so, but they fell out of favor with most photographers. I had enormous bulbous leather cases for my Nikkormat and Nikon F cameras in the 1970s. 

I stopped using cases for most 35mm cameras years ago. However, the one for my Retina IIa was useful and compact, and the square one for my Rolleiflex 3.5E adds almost no bulk. Despite the criticisms, cases can be handy because you can walk around in a rain and have your camera protected. But the camera remains easily accessible. And, you can toss it into a backpack or the floor of your car, and it will be reasonably padded. 

The case above is beautifully made of molded brown leather. And this one still has good stitching. It is a compact model with short lens snout, probably intended for collapsing lenses or a small unit like the 35mm Summaron. My Summitar fits when collapsed. 

Leitz also made taller cases that, I assume, were designed to hold the camera and a mounted selenium light meter.

Would this be handy for a bicycle outing? The leather straps are old and need to be replaced for safety, and a light meter will need to be in another pouch or a pocket. Hmmm, something to consider.

On the Waterfront, Raymond, Washington (2024)

Raymond is on an estuary of the Willapa River near South Bend in Pacific County, Washington. Much of the city was built on piles on the tidelands. Like many rural Washington cities, it was originally a lumber mill town with adjacent farming in the river valley. Early in the 20th century, the city was bustling with lumber mills and freshly cut logs trains. Ocean-going ships took lumber to distant ports. Like many Pacific Northwest towns, the Great Depression devastated the local economy. The economy revived during World War II and during the post-war housing construction boom. Logging began to diminish in the 1970s, and the town fell on hard times. Today, it is part of the Evergreen Coast and has partly reformed itself as a tourist and museum town.

Willapa River (Kodak Panatomic-X film, 80mm ƒ/2.8 Planar-CB lens, dark yellow filter)

Weyerhaeuser Raymond Sawmill (250mm ƒ/5.6 Sonnar lens, yellow-green filter)

Raymond Trestle swing bridge, Willapa River (40mm ƒ/4 Distagon lens)

Detail, railroad swing bridge (100mm ƒ/3.5 Planar lens)

The Raymond trestle is another example of the impressive engineering that railroads achieved early in the 20th century. The control house was wood and has partly collapsed. The bridge is part of the Willapa Hills Trail, but the trail needs to divert through town instead of cross the river here. 

Stan Hatfield South Fork Industrial Park (50mm ƒ/4 Distagon lens)

Stan Hatfield South Fork Industrial Park

The Port of Willapa Bay runs several industrial parks with buildings rented to tenants. I do not know what this machinery once did.

Commercial Street, Raymond 

I plan to return to Raymond and look around some more. It is revitalizing, but there is old architecture and housing that I want to photograph.

The 2024 photographs are from Kodak Panatomic-X film and my Hasselblad 501CM camera. Praus Productions in Rochester, New York, developed the film in Xtol.

Inexpensive Gem: My $13.50 Canonet GIII QL17 Camera (Oly 18)

Long-term readers know that I periodically suffer from uncontrollable episodes of GAS. That is Gear Acquisition Syndrome, an ailment that most photographers suffer. 

Well-used Canonet G-III QL17 camera

Background

I have been bicycling more, and with the approach of dry spring weather, a compact bicycle camera might be handy. A logical choice is one of the compact rangefinder cameras from the 1970s and 1980s. But which model? The Japanese companies made millions of these cameras. But many have succumbed to age, fungus, moisture, corroded batteries, or gummed up lubricants. They were designed as mid-range consumer products, and it is amazing that so many are still functional 50 years later. 

The best summary of compact rangefinder cameras is on Steve Gandy's Cameraquest site. PetaPixel presented a summary of the Canonet models. 

I have experience with compact cameras:

• Some four decades ago, I used a Rollei 35S with an excellent 40mm ƒ/2.8 Sonnar lens. Why did I sell it? 
• About 20 years ago, I had a Canon Canonet QL19 camera, which took superb Kodachrome slides. But I sold it in the foolish days when I thought I would switch to digital. 
• For a few years, I used a Yashica Electro 35CC, but it failed via the infamous "pad of death." 
• My Olympus Trip 35 developed a lens alignment issue, so off it went. 
• My Voigtländer Vito BL is compact but has small fonts on the controls and has only a ƒ/3.5 lens. Optically, it is superb, but a bit too fiddly.
• Last but not least, my 1949 Leica IIIC is a compact jewel, but is also fiddly in the field. It is a deliberate tool, so maybe not quite right for a bicycle grab-and-take camera.

Being familiar with my Canonet of 20 years ago, I decided to try one again. Some of the later models cost serious $$$ from KEH and other vendors. The days of finding such a camera at a garage sale for $5 are long gone! On a whim, I bought a GIII QL17 for $13.50 plus minor shipping from the big auction site. $13.50?

Canon made a series of these fixed lens rangefinder Canonet cameras starting in 1961. They were  outstanding commercial successes. The earlier Canonets were big and heavy cameras. In 1969, the company redesigned the line to be smaller and lighter. Canon sold 1.2 million of the last version, the GIII QL17. QL meant Quick Load, a clever mechanism to make loading the film easier. And 17 represented the maximum aperture of ƒ/1.7. Canon also sold lower price 19 and 28 models. All had excellent coated lenses. The lens on the ƒ/1.7 model is a 6-element double-Gauss design, single coated.

A problem with all of these 1960s and 1970s cameras is they depended on 1.35 volt mercury batteries to power the light meters. The mercury battery had a steady voltage output until the cell was close to exhaustion. As a replacement, many people now use a Wein Cell, which is 1.4 volts. Hearing aide batteries, which are inexpensive, also work. 

Clean design with settings visible from above

Film path with Quick Load panel on the right. I removed the old foam light seals.

My camera was dirty, but some alcohol wipes cleaned it. The foam light seal strips had deteriorated into a sticky tar. Alcohol on Q-Tips and some toothpicks cleaned most of the glop. Although the viewfinder was a bit hazy, the rangefinder was accurate horizontally and aligned vertically. Best of all, this body did not suffer from the common sticky Canon shutter blade syndrome. The shutter speeds from 1/4 to 1/500 sounded reasonable, especially after some exercise. Even the self-timer was reliable.

Trouble: the light meter was comatose. I cleaned the contacts in the battery compartment, but there was no electrical activity of any kind. Instead, I can temporarily use my Reflx Lab light meter, a compact unit that slides into the flash shoe. At least ten Chinese companies have recently introduced small shoe-mount light meters with various types of displays and button configurations. I assume many of these meters share a sensing unit and integrated electronic package. 

Olympia

One early morning in March, after breakfast at Bread Peddler and while waiting for a car repair, I walked around 4th avenue and Capital Way. The light was soft. I loaded a roll of Kodak Ektar 100 in the Canonet. (Click any picture to expand it to 2400 pixels wide)

The parking lot located off Capitol Way at the alley that runs between State and 4th Avenues is usually dirty and trashed. But the graffiti is colorful. 

116 State Avenue

Capital Way view south

Capital Way power box

Conclusions

The 40mm ƒ/1.7 lens on this little Canonet is terrific! It is high resolution and shows little or no distortion. No complaints here. However, Canon used a filter mount of 48mm, which was semi-unique to Canon products. I ordered a 48mm vented hood from one of the Chinese vendors.

The Ektar 100 film was a pleasant surprise. In the past, I had trouble with the Ektar colors in bright sunny conditions. But in overcast, the contrast and bright colors are just right. I scanned these negatives on my Nikon Coolscan 5000 film scanner, while with previous rolls, I used a Plustek 7600. Possibly, the Nikon does some internal data processing in a different way, more suited to the Ektar color palette. Regardless, I'm pleased and will use Ektar 100 again.  

  

HANDS OFF! in Olympia, Washington (Oly 17)

Blog Note:  I just posted an article about my Volkswagen Squareback car. I will withdraw it and repost it in the future because I want to share some pictures from the April 5 Hands Off protest.

The Hands Off protest gathered in front of the Washington State Capitol on the afternoon of April 5, 2025. This mirrored hundreds of similar protest around the country and even internationally. People here and around the country were protesting the loss of medical research, funding for agencies, the gutting of scientific staff at federal research agencies, a chaotic tariff program, and potential threats to social security and medicaid enacted by Elon Musk and the felon traitor in the White House. I cannot predict if the protests will have any effect at all, but real American patriots are angry and are speaking out. 

View of the Capitol steps

The speakers were on the north steps of the Capitol. It was a bit hard to understand what they were saying. My wife and I walked around and admired the signs. The crowd was in a good mood - no Molotov cocktails, burning effegies, or tear gas.

Here is a sampling of the signs, many quite clever.

A bit further north, sculpture and some handsome mature trees.

It was a sunny hot afternoon, almost a hint of summer. The crowd was peaceful and not too noisy. Several people commented to me that the current president made Richard Nixon and George Bush II look good. I did not hear anyone compliment Ronald Reagan. Hmmm.......

I took these photographs with my Fuji X-E1 digital camera with the compact 27mm ƒ/2.8 Fujinon lens. I set the jpeg output to be black and white but later realized that color was much more effective on this glarey sunny day. The pictures above are from the RAW files as opened with XNView MP software.