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Saturday, 26 October 2024

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"I think every photography enthusiast should own at least one Leica of some type or other at some time or other."

Does this recommendation apply to digital Leica bodies?

[I would think it's up to the individual. I see nothing wrong with it. (Unless you have to stretch painfully to afford it, which I don't think is necessary to do for any reason.) It's the idea, the ethos, the history, the culture of it that's fun to be a part of. Digital Leicas embody and impart a lot of that. --Mike]

I am with you on the M4 but would combine it with the 35/2.8 Summaron. My M4 was purchased “non functioning” for around 700 dollars around 2019; I sent it off to my service guy and there was nothing wrong with it other than it being seized up from the lubricants having dried out entirely. Cost me another 200 and it’s like new again. Cosmetically near perfect so I imagine it was stuck in a drawer at some point decades ago and forgotten about. I also have an M3 but that one needed a lot of repair from moisture damage. Now it’s back in working order though and will probably last a few decades more.

One fascinating thing about Leica is how well the digital bodies have survived. I see M8s and M9s in active use and those are getting pretty long in the tooth at this point.

The Leica CL is often overlooked. Cheaper, smaller, and of course has a stadard M-mount. Personally I like my old M3. Mainly because of the viewfinder

Your athletic director wasn't the only one to say "yout.". There's a classic scene in "My Cousin Vinnie" where Joe Pesci's character, Vinnie, is talking about the youts in question when Judge Fred Gwynne interrupts to find out what he means by "yout." Well worth a watch if you haven't seen it.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBk3dJNSQks

Re: photografie
Mike, several english words that end with a "y", you would replace that letter with "ie" in french. Like photographie, psychologie, psychiatrie.
Cheers.

[Ugh! I'm sorry. I even had the book cover in front of my when I wrote that, and was checking to make sure of my spelling...I'm losin' it! --Mike]

Re: photografie
Mike, several english words that end with a "y", you would replace that letter with "ie" in french. Like photographie, psychologie, psychiatrie.
Cheers.

"...favorites: Günter Osterloh's Leica M: Advanced Photo School,..."

I have two of these, the first being notorious for terrible binding, making it essentially a loose leaf cover full of detached pages. Luckily, they reissued it with updates in English in 2005, which I snapped up.

This book has one of the best lessons for use of the 35mm focal length for candid/street type shooting which for me was worth the price of the book. If anyone has the book, page 134: The horizontal coverage of a 35mm lens is equal to the distance from the subject. If you are 10 feet from a wall, you'll capture 10 feet of that wall. This makes for quick framing without looking thru the finder in a candid situation. With practice you'll find yourself in the right spot for the subject... it really works.

This lesson makes me aquire a 35mm (or equivalent) lens for every system that I own, including my pre-aspheric 35mm Summicron for my M6.

I have owned quite a few Leica M cameras, which include the M2, M3, M4, M4-2, M4-P and very briefly the M5. I have tried a friend's M6 which was very nice. My favourite is the M4. I have also owned a 1930s Leica which was fiddly to operate but was very small compared to the M cameras.

My first Leica - one that I still own - is a 1967 M4. I bought two lenses for it: The 35mm f/2.8 Summaron and the collapsible 50mm Summicron.

I now also have two digital Ms, a 240 from 2012 and a 240 ME from 2019. Both are equipped with Voigtlander glass and I am completely satisfied.

Mike what do you think of Leica’s L-mount mirrorless cameras? They’ve been a pleasant surprise to me and I currently own an SL2. I use my M-mount glass on it fairly often. But I have no problem with using Panasonic and Sigma L-mount lenses.

All of my digital Leicas have been purchased used at steep discounts. But the ME and SL2 came with factory refurbishment and two-year warranties. I recommend them all.

I got a Used Q in good shape for $2,400. I started looking for one as soon as I exited the Emergency Room for the second time the end of 2022. For once I had the $, and noting how the mid 60's was literally The Kill Zone for one too many of my friends- I said now, or maybe never!

Even though my GR gives me 90% of the quality, and both are a joy to use, the EVF is nice, the build solid, and that extra bit of FF goodness does come through at times!

I have a Leica M3 and the collapsible Summicron, and I use that combination regularly! I am curious why you recommend this lens in particular?

[It's fun to use...pull it out and give it a little twist to lock it into position, then "putting it away" when its work is done. The difference in length doesn't really make any difference but it's fun to think so. --Mike]

Some years ago I bought a Leica IIIf with 5cm collapsible Elmar. Both lens and camera are older than I am but in distinctly better condition. The viewfinder is tiny but that's why the IIIf was way cheaper than the IIIg, and about half the price of the cheapest M series I could find.
Have not regretted that purchase and I reckon if I ever did want to sell it I'd get my money back and more besides.

Chiming in on the my favorite (IMHO BEST) Leica and having owned several over my 77 years, none currently. To me, I was most comfortable, satisfied, and miss greatly my early M6 and 35mm Aspherical Summicron, both black. I bought them both brand new, when I had "discretionary funds". I kept them for about 18 years along with an arsenal of Nikon MF and AF gear for various applications of a semi-pro nature.
Then along came digital. I was hesitant at first and finally succumbd to the pressure with conversion to Nikon digital gear. Even in the last years before I sold the Leica....
TRULY WISH I STILL HAD IT!
I still have my original Nikon Ftn and a 50/1.4 that my uncle handed down to me and a Kodak IIIc from another family member back in the day.
But the M6/35 still has my top place in my film shooting memory, along with the stunning Mamiya M7 and three fantastic lenses. It was the ONLY medium format camera I thoroughly appreciated.
And YES Mike, in answer to your question about articles pertaining to todays film shooting, I would enjoy that.

Having got a perfect condition M6 TTL a few years ago (replacing an unreliable and unloved new Ziess Ikon), what has surprised me is that I don’t use it. No, not that I don’t take photographs with it, but I usually don’t use either the rangefinder (focusing by scale), or the camera’s meter (just using it for confirmation).Despite a plethora of previous fully manual cameras (MX, F-1n, FM3A etc.), no other camera has persuaded me to do this on a regular basis. The Leica effect…?

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