Before printing out the full size A3 above I printed out two smaller work prints using the Epson 4R Premium Glossy Paper.  You can see that the second photo below has a more greenish tint whereas the first one is more natural which is the one I ended up enlarging.

Photo was taken with the Bessa III using Fuji Pro 400H film.

Canon 5D Mark II - 1/125 at f / 1.8, ISO 100

Leica M9 - 1/125 at f / 2.0, ISO 320

Canon 5D Mark II – 1/125 at f / 1.6, ISO 250

Leica M9 with the Summilux M 35 pre-asph gives that special Leica glow especially around the highlights and high contrast borders.  Downside is the horrible coma effect around the point light sources which are absent from the Canon lens.  Amazing what difference 20 + years of lens development makes.  Your preference?

February 7th 2012 Update: 100% Crops

Here are some 100% crops of the above images:

Leica M9 - 1/125 at f / 2.0, ISO 320

Canon 5D Mark II - 1/125 at f / 1.6, ISO 250

Several years ago my wife and I travelled to Prague and picked up an old fold up camera. We brought it as a kind of joke and took a few rolls of film with it.  Little did we know that when we developed and printed out the photos they were absolutely stunning giving much greater detail on an 8 x 10 print then 35 mm film.  Although in working condition the camera had its quirks and was very cumbersome to operate.  So I picked up a second-hand Hasselblad 500 CM which was easier to operate but challenging nonetheless due to the upside down viewfinder (I haven’t given up yet).  At the time the Bessa III which combines medium format negative + rangefinder composition + compact folding body seemed like the ideal solution.

Chemical Sensor

The Bessa III takes 120 roll film which can be set either to 6 x 7 or 6 x 6 frame ratio.  The adjustment can be made simply by turning the clearly marked dial on the right.  On my sample this dial is a bit loose and I find myself compulsively checking to make sure it is firmly set before closing the back.  The two arrows across the top simply indicate where you should place the starting strip indicator on the 120 film leader.  Just line the arrow up with the either the 6 x 7 or 6 x 6 indicator on the leader and you are good to go.

I prefer the 6 x 7 ratio on the Bessa III as it gives a wider field of view.  This is good for street shooting because you never know what interesting things can be found on the periphery.  To get some composition inspiration you can search for 6 x 7 either on google or flickr to see some good samples.

Other things of note

The two red buttons on the back do nothing more than pop the film reels off the camera. There’s a circular screw-on viewfinder protector that needs to be fastened carefully.  If you manage to lose it like I did, you can pick up a Nikon branded replacement quite easily.

Let’s say your subject is walking towards you and you want to take a photo of them when they are at least 3 meters away.  To make sure that everything is in focus from 3 meters to infinity you place the 3 meters marker on the focus dial to the center dot.  Then read off the aperture setting at the infinity mark and set the aperture to that setting.  Press the shutter button and as long as the subject is within this range they will be in focus.

This opens up all sorts of possibilities as you can then have the camera away from your eye or even body.  No longer worried about focusing on the subject new angles and perspectives can be experimented with.  And because the camera is not held up to your eye you can also take pictures very discretely.  Sometimes this enables you to move right up to the subject and take the shot.