Very recently on the Site, I uploaded a post called is the Leica m6 for you and with like what within the first 20 seconds I showcased myself speed loading the m6 because it’s such a cool thing to do the comment section let me know that I actually load film into my m6 incorrectly and this is what this video is about if you’re new to this channel what’s up my name is Chris chu I’m a photographer based out here in the bay area of California and if you are watching this video and you don’t have an m6 4 5 7 mama whatever you can still use this as a resource kind of like visualize how to load this for maybe the day that you do own one of these cameras.
and if you do own a Leica m camera film camera then um maybe you could learn like me without you know the hate that can come in the comment section not that I received any hate people were actually super nice to me here’s how to properly load the Leica m6 and I was completely wrong about it before all right before we begin to shout out to jay rose he made a youtube video on this too in a very nice comprehensive way I’m gonna try to make my own version in a very concise way.
so you have your beautiful looking m-mount film camera right here and this is the part that like most people know you just take off the bottom plate by flicking the switch pulling it off leaving it to the side shout out to aperture for making these pocket lights so that everything looks all nice and bright for you guys to see and hopefully the focus is working so you have this little diagram actually right here thank you to Leica for providing that where you insert the film canister over here and you line it up all the way through these three claws over here and you can open up the back gate to help you to do that.
so we’re gonna grab our little roll of tri-x right here and this is the part where like most people don’t mess up let’s insert it right here pull line it up with the claws over here now this is the part where I messed up and where a lot of people do as well where we kind of drop it and then we kind of like start like shoving it down and what I used to do is I shoved it down until I saw as the little silver line down here and like I would be like forcing it down like right here sometimes and you even saw it in the video but what you actually do is here.
let me pull it back actually you don’t even have to do that much, to begin with, this is also in the Leica manual so I’m not making this up you just get your roll of film to pull it all the way to the other side, of course, like put it in between the three claws and just drop it that’s it I don’t need to line it up I don’t need to like shove like anything in this bottom plate is actually designed to line up your film for you via this little wheel and the gaps in between the spokes are the things that will like to hug the claws that are in taking the film right here.
so go ahead close that back gate do just that put on the bottom plate screw it on advance once and you’re good you could probably tell that this wheel was spinning too and that is to verify that the film was caught and that is actually how you load up the m6 you don’t have to burn two frames how you usually would with other cameras Leica specifically call this the speed load system for a reason I was definitely doing it wrong some people are doing it wrong as well but now you know and.
so do I alright I guess it could be helpful to just watch it happen in real-time [Music] drop close and wind and you’re done now instead of getting your typical 36 film exposures I think you could squeeze out 38 or 39 so that’s how you properly load a Leica if you don’t have one this is a great visualization if you do have one and you didn’t know now you know thank you guys for watching make sure you guys subscribe for more film photography content like this video and comment down below on what you think about the Leica m system and loading it were you loading it correctly, to begin with, and or am I just really late to the game I will see all of you in that next post peace oh.
