Q&A: How Do I Shoot Landscapes With a Barnack Leica and a 135mm Lens?

by Johnny Martyr

Yesterday in the Leica III Users group on Facebook, someone asked:

“I just got my camera back and am wanting to put my 135mm Elmar to use. Does anybody know of a good video or guide on how to use the lens? Am I just overthinking it? The Summitar 50mm is pretty intuitive, but I’m (maybe unnecessarily) intimidated by the Elmar). Any other considerations with it? Was just watching a video and the guy was talking about the lens being cali rated to the camera, no clue what that even means. I’m primarily wanting to use this lens for landscape photography.”

My response:

I wouldn’t say you’re over thinking it, it’s certainly good to read/research equipment before using it. But I wonder what questions you have specifically about shooting landscapes with a telephoto lens.

Shooting a 135mm lens on a Leica III is similar to shooting a 135mm lens on any other type of camera, but because this is older equipment, there are some additional considerations as well as basic principles that still apply.

You will need not only your 135mm lens but a 135mm viewfinder. The Leica III only has a built-in viewfinder for 50mm. There are numerous types of viewfinders but bright-line finders like the SHOOC are popular. Whichever viewfinder you choose, it will have a parallax correction control on it.

One thing I can tell you though is whatever video you were watching did not apply to taking landscapes. Rangefinder cameras and lenses need to be calibrated in order to ensure that what is in focus in the finder is what is actually in focus by the lens. But for landscapes you will simply set your lens and accessory viewfinder to infinity. There is no need to focus. or worry about calibration. Landscapes are shot at infinity. That’s it.

Your shutter speed needs to be as fast as your lens is long if you are handholding the camera. So if your lens is 135mm, the slowest available shutter speed would be 200 (unless you have a newer Leica). If you set your shutter to 100 and shoot your 135mm lens handheld, your photos will likely be blurry from camera shake.

Your aperture should be stopped down pretty far, around f8 is how most people shoot landscapes on 35mm. This will provide alot of depth of field. Some people shoot at f16 but this can cause defraction (softening) of the image.

You will want to use as slow of a film with as fine of a grain as you can for the type of light you’re shooting in. This will give you the most detail and resolution in combination with your closed down aperture.

On a sunny day, your settings will be ISO 100 at 1/200th of a second at f11 or ISO 100 at 1/500th of a second at f8, for example.

The correct lens hood for the 13.5 Elmar (FIKUS) will reduce flare if the sun is in front or to the side of your camera.

Be sure not to point any Leica rangefinder at direct sunlight with the lens at wider apertures and focused to infinity as you will burn a hole in the shutter cloth.

Happy shooting!

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