Third time around ...

<p>This is not a question. It is statement that some of you may laugh at (for various different reasons), some may nod in wise agreement, some may feel pity, and some may find it useful.</p>

<p>In the early 1990's I was curious about this Leica thing. What was so special about them.</p>

<p>So I bought a used M6 and a 35mm Summicron. Later I added a 75mm f/1.4. I used them for many years, took them all over the world, and all my best pictures seemed to be made with them.</p>

<p>In 2003 I "went digital" and sold all my film gear, which included a Mamiya 7 II with 43mm and 80mm lenses, a Leicaflex SL2 with 180mm Apo, and several Nikon SLRs with an array of fine lenses.</p>

<p>In 2006 I realized that I missed my Leica M (I never missed the Leica SLR, Nikons or the Mamiya), so I bought another M6, another 35mm Summicron, another 75mm f/1.4 and a back-up body - a nice M4-2 which came with a 50mm f/2 attached.</p>

<p>In 2008 I was buying a house in Holland. To help raise money towards the exorbitant taxes and official fees I sold my second Leica outfit. How stupid can you be.? I missed the M6 almost from the day I parted with it.</p>

<p>I then dithered around looking at and borrowing various Nikon digital bodies and lenses, wondering which would best suit me. But then I looked over my old pictures and without exception those taken with the M6 and 35mm Summicron (version 4) stood out as by far the best. </p>

<p>Something about using a rangefinder helps me find and compose better shots, film looks better than digital to me (even though digital shots are cleaner and working digitally is quicker and easier), and that lens just gives everything a special look that I just don't see in Nikon or Canon (or even other Leica lenses).</p>

<p>So last week I started bidding on eBay. It was appalling. 35mm Summicron v4 lenses were selling for double what I'd sold mine for just a couple of years earlier (and I had sold mine for a lot more than I paid for it). Perhaps it is the advent of the full-frrame M9 that has revivied interest in it. For the M8 a 21mm or 24mm was a better general purpose lens.</p>

<p>Which is why, when a nice M6 complete with exactly the lens I wanted appeared on the UK eBay site, I vowed that I would not be outbid, and I bought it.</p>

<p>So now I have my third Leica M outfit, and the third example of my very favourite lens. [i can manage without a 75mm f/1.4]. And this one I am going to keep for as long as I can still buy film for it.</p>

 

<p>Welcome back, and I feel your pain. I've done similar things over the years vowing to not sell any camera gear in the future. Somehow.... Just glad you came back into the fold, now enjoy your gear.</p>

I have only sold one Leica item... and still regret it. It was a very nice Tele-Elmarit 90mm f2.8 that came along with my M4-2. There was nothing wrong with it, except for paint loss in the ring around the front element of the lens, but I was in a hurry to sell it, arguing with myself that I didn't need another 90mm because I already had a Summicron 90.

 

But I sold it... and some time later I began to regret it and even plan to buy it back! Problem: I sold it through eBay, and I cannot recall the buyer's name and didn't keep the e-mails we exchanged.

 

So, I understand you perfectly. Best of luck keeping this third outfit!

<p>A great story. If getting another 75/1.4 is a pain, try the new Voigtlander 75/1.8. </p>

<p>Thanks for sharing your story, Tom. I am glad to hear I am not alone, although perhaps for somewhat different reasons than yours. Over more than 20 years, I have known some tighter financial times which explains part of the desire to relinquish equipment, but mainly it was because I have occasionally flirted with the ideas that either an SLR or a medium format camera would allow additional needed photographic scope. To finance those ventures or to react to financial situations, I have successively owned and sold an M4-2, an M6, an M3, and finally an M6, before buying an M4-P. I regret selling the 35mm f2 (version 4) lens and the M6, but the M4-P now makes a very good B&W film partner for the M8, which I use mainly for colour. I have a tendency also to trade lenses, feeling that one will be more useful to me than another. The crop factor of the M8 led to some compromises in that regard. Maybe the propensity for change of lenses is also because the Leica mainly uses fixed focal length lenses rather than zooms, and we may sometimes think that "if only I had a 90mm rather than a 50mm", or an analogous comparison, I would be able to do more (false reasoning to some degree, as HC-B and other masters used only one or two lenses).</p>

<p>Rarely does one lose financially in selling Leica cameras or lenses, although the march of time and inflation makes it sometimes difficult to re-purchase as advantageously. On the other hand, by waiting for opportunities it is often possible to find a lens or camera body that someone is quite happy to sell for what they paid for 5 or so years prior, rather than at the current market price. This graced my purchases of very clean 50 Elmar-M and 135 Tele-Elmar lenses, probably because their owners wanted to exchange them for something else.</p>

<p>The uniqueness of the Leica rangefinder camera and its lenses (the distinction of highest quality lenses is perhaps disappearing, especially in the digital field) is one thing that brings many of us back to the system. I prefer my modest MF equipment for the ability to make larger prints, and a simple SLR with a macro lens gives me that possibility, but for most shooting the Leica M is perfect and I also doubt I will relinquish that, having learned my lesson through former attrition.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Been there, done that, got the T-shirt!</p>

<p>I will never sell off my M3. Never!</p>

<p>BTW, if anyone ever comes across an M3 with "LT Oresteen" engraved on the back, let me know. I want it back!</p>

<p>What is that old adage? "Never sell a Leica."</p>

<p>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Mh_1r66L-8</p>

<p>your post reminded me of this song ;)</p>

<p>Hey Tom, I've read many times to never sell your Leica. I think it may be a Wolfe thing, you really never can go home again.</p>

<p>Here's to you feeling at home. (But if I could sell some cameras and cop a house in Holland, oh yea I'm there, me and my Trek 520 and doggies to. I'll suffer with a C IIIa.)</p>

<p>You sell a Leica and it will haunt you forever ;)</p>

Such love, such loss.

Thanks for sharing your story.

I haven't gone digital at all yet, still shooting film with my Ms. I find it increasingly harder to resist buying a digital M, but

such stories and the joy of using my cameras and watching slides keep me in the analog worldwide for now...

 

 

Didier

<p>I will never part with my beloved R8, M6 TTL, and numerous R and M lenses as well as various films I love using. I also will never part with my outstanding darkroom and related equipment. All of these tangible realities in my life have created wonderful joy!</p>

<p>Those that have a Leica - keep it. I have no rational reason to justify it, but I regret selling my two M6 classics and the fabulous lenses. Digital has its wonders but . . .</p>

<p>Great story. How is your relationship with your 3rd Leica going now?</p>

<p>Just my experience:<br /> I have bought and sold 4 Leica Ms and 2 Hexar RFs and currently don't own one. Every time, it haunted me... and still does! Still lurk at this forum. I think, way down the road when I'm much older and 35mm film is even more scarce, I may pick another one up...<br /> But...<br /> I've since got a Pentax K5 and while it ergonomically is far from a film M, I have generally never looked back (my indicator: no matter how much I might lurk at a forum like this, I haven't gone back to eBay for months, to actually check into M prices... and... find a bargain one... and........ buy!). Lightroom's workflow has made processing my pics so quick and easy, which was what was getting in the way of doing anything else with my 35mm negs after getting them printed at the local photo store... and that Sony sensor's ability to get detail out of shadows is great.<br /> I'll never forget Leica, but must acknowledge how much of my ego, vs. photography, was being satisfied.<br>

Maybe I'll save up to buy the next M digital incarnation used after it has been on the market for a long time (like the M8 now)...</p>