What happened to your first Leica ?

[imran_ahmed]

Most of Leica lovers actually used a Leica before getting enchancted

by picture quality, and subsequently building or improving their

Leica outfits. In my case my first Leica was IIIF with summitar

which I got in USA while in College. I was a Canon A-1 user and

after a 6 months of acquiring the Leica (USD 150 Mint-) gave it a

try. I nearly gave up as could not get the film to load properly.

However when I got the test results my views changed towards

this 'pesky' camera outfit.

 

The 50 summitar results were considerably better than my Canon FD

50/1.4 lens which is also excellent. I have kept that IIIF despite

being tempted to sell it at what would now be a profit.

[robert meier]

"The 50 summitar results were considerably better than my Canon FD 50/1.4 lens"

I am amazed at such a statement. The FD 50/1.4 is an absolutely first rate lens, among the best 50/1.4's ever made. And your Summitar was considerably better? That must have been some Summitar!

[todd frederick]

My first Leica was an M3 with an Elmar 3.5 lens, and a Gossen Pilot meter, that I was given as a gift in 1959. When I went to Yale University for graduate studies I sold it for train fare. That was in 1964. I got $150 for everything.

 

Attached is a photo I took with that camera in Egypt in August of 1962 with that camera/lens combo.

 

Such a sad sale!<div></div>

[jim nichols]

My first Leica was a IIIa with a 50mm/3.5 Elmar, bought used while I served in the US Air Force in 1952. I still have the Leica and still use both it and the lens, although I prefer my IIIf and Summitar for more critical work. I was fortunate to read a good book on Leicas before I began to load the camera, and never really found the bottom loading process to be a problem. I do use a trimming template for today's film. In the 50s, the leaders were already shaped properly.

[Brad_]

<I>What happened to your first Leica ?</I><BR><P>

 

One evening I caught her messing around with a Nikon SLR behind a Taco Bell in

the backseat of a '57 Chevy. Broke my heart - dropped her like a hot potato.

[peter_evans4]

I bought a IIIc with Elmar intending to sell it a couple of weeks later for the same price, or possibly a small profit. (A friend was leaving the country in a hurry, and wanted instant cash.) A couple of weeks later, I sold it. Until three or four years ago, I very occasionally regretted having sold it. Then I got a Canon IID2, and now never regret having sold the Leica.

[alan c.]

first Leica was my father's which he bought new at Willoughby's on West 32nd Street

in the 1950s, for $475.00 or so including the 50mm collapsible summicron and at

some point a MR-4 meter. this broke maybe when i was 8 or 9 years old (1979?) and

he traded the broken Leica for a working Nikon FTN with some lenses. He went on to

add more bodies and lenses to his Nikon kit.

 

in 1988 i saw a Leica M3 DS with a 50mm summicron DR (goggles included) in the

store window of the camera store in Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA. It was $400.00.

I put down a deposit immediately and borrowed the rest of the money from my

supportive father and I still have this camera and lens, converted to SS when the

advance mechanism failed in the mid-90s.

 

2nd Leica: another M3 at a weird shop (not a camera store) on East 9th Street. 2

lenses. $475.00. camera body cannibalized for parts to keep 1st camera and 3rd

camera going.

 

3rd Leica: M2 from professor at NYU, 1991. $400. His first camera. keeps trying to

buy it back from me but i've gotten too attached top it!

 

4th Leica: M4-2 from the Russian on 30th street, 1999. $700. just had new covering

(from morgan at cameraleathers.com) installed and total makeover from Sherry

Krauter.

 

5th Leica: CL with 40mm that I picked up in Trieste, Italy, 1999, $600, and sold a

couple years later to Hungarian friend in Budapest.

 

6th Leica: M6 classic, got off this forum this year from New Hampshire/Maine. Great

camera.

 

7th Leica: A CL again! from World Trade Camera. Sherry put in new light meter and

added horizontal strap lug.

[SCL]

Bought my first Leica, an M4 which I still have and use, from a Leica rep aboard an aircraft carrier in Greece in 1969, along with a 35mm Summaron (which sadly I sold about 10 years ago). I waited 3 months for the camera's arrival, at which point I stopped using my half frame slr, an Olympus Pen FT. My recollection is that the package cost me about $230, a princely sum, which I decided to not tell my wife about until I returned to the States.<div></div>

[imran_ahmed]

Robert the statement was based on comparing prints taken at the same time and developed by same lab. The summitar was a winner. It was late serial summitar (coated) and hence may have been improved version. Sadly I cannot produce those prints of 1982 as they were lost in relocation.

[alex_lofquist]

My first Leica (IIIc) was given by my father when I was in college. It sits on a bookshelf about 8ft from me as I write this. I didn't keep the original Elmar lens but replaced it with a Summicron a few years later. (I should have kept the Elmar as it was excellent when I bench tested it.)

[r s]

Bought an M3 in June of 2004. It has ever since been my favorite carry-around camera (apart from a short love affair with a Canon VT deluxe until the rangefinder spot on that camera faded away).

<br>

<br>

I love the M3 and can't think what could be improved upon as far as un-metered rangefinder bodies goes.<br>Richard, <a href="http://silfver.blogspot.com">blog</a href>

[al_kaplan1]

I started out with a Canon IIs and a 50/1.8 Canon lens about 1962 because it was cheaper than a used Leica. A year or two later I bought a grey paint Leica III-CK for $40.00 and a 50/2.5 uncoated Hektor for $20.00. A few years later when the M4 was introduced I unloaded some of my screw mount equipment to a collector at a good profit. I more than doubled my money on that III-CK/Hektor combo. I think I got $150 for it. It was far from pristine.

[Sanford]

A beautiful IIIf red dial with 50mm Summitar in truely collectors condition and an M case thrown for $125.00 total. Several years later I traded it straight accoss for a black Rollie 35 and thought I made a hell of a deal. This was the 1960's.

[jerry_lehrer]

Imran-- My first Leica was a IIIa (called a G) that was bought from

the father of a schoolmate in 1946. He had purchased it while he was

a visitor to the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Elmar lens. I traded it to Kurt Olden toward a used IIIf with Summicron lens. I was chuffed that the

MOOLY would not fit the longer camera!

[richard s.]

A Leica II with Elmar 50mm f3,5 lens (uncoated) bought in London in April 2004 and fully

renovated by Mr. Yasuda here in Tokyo. Works like a charm, a venerable mechanical jewel.

Never looked back. Since then acquired a VC 50mm external finder, a color-skopar 50mm

f2,5 (which produces the most amazing dreamy/buttery B&W images) and a Heliar 50mm

f3,5 for excellent color.

 

My second Leica may well be an M4, but then again, have yet to be convinced of the

benefits over my Barnack ... (just like the design of the M4 - can't actually find any merit

over my Barnack)

[steve_bauer2]

I SO still have my first Leica. I bought an M6 Classic in 1992 -- there was no TTL yet. I can't

imagine anything other than abject poverty forcing me to part with it.

[working camera]

My first Leica, was a user double stroke M3, named Oskar. I bought it from a

little Leica dealer in Macquarie Street, Hobart Tas. twenty years ago now and

for around $600 Australian. Oskar also came with a ratty and cheep

collapsible 50 cron. The shop threw in a 1959 90mm Elmar for free. I still have

that lens. A couple of years later I traded in Oskar for Oskar_b. a single stroke

M3, which I still use.

 

Oskar returned to the display shelf and one night the shop window was

smashed and he was kidnapped. The police later recovered him with some of

the other stolen leica equipment, as it got dumped in the Hobart Rivulet. In the

course of the crime Oskar was murderred and a total write-off.

[mike-images]

Hi Craig,

 

that little shop in Macquarie Street wouldn't be Walch Optical would it? They still sell second hand Leica gear.

 

Regards

 

Mike

[working camera]

Yes Mike,

 

The shop has move up the street a tad and has changed now. Great people!

 

John Walch and later Robert are largely responsible for me being really poor. I?ve got

a really really heavy camera bag but

 

Regards C.

[wai_leong_lee]

My first Leica, an M4, was with DAG just last week and is on its way back right now... My second Leica, an M3, has been re-clad in Indian Goatskin and is loaded with Velvia 50, ready to shoot.

 

My first Leica lens is a 50 DR, bought from Harry's Proshop. I've gone on to accummulate many other lenses, incl. a 135/4 Elmar which is on its way to me from Canada...

 

I got a Focomat V35 two months ago and am busy setting up the darkroom now. Hopefully I'll be churning out my own wet prints before christmas.

 

Wai Leong

[Jeffrey L.T. von Glück]

My first Leica was an M3 with 35/2, 50/2 & 90/2 'crons that I inherited from my camera bug grandfather in the 1970s. The M3 is long gone, but those three 'crons still get used along with a bevy of other lenses and M bodies. My grandfather had all the original boxes and sales receipts (from an American PX in Bavaria) which my grandmother promptly trashed before giving me the camera and lenses! I inherited over 20 Hummels, also without the boxes and receipts which my mother trashed after Grandma died!

[ulrich_messmer]

IIIg with 50mm Summicron, bought by my father in 1960 or so. Used by my mother and grandfather from 1961 to 1977 when I got it. I still use it, although not as often as the M Leicas that I now have.

[stuart_richardson]

I hope nothing has happened to it! I just took it out of my bag and put in on the kitchen table

downstairs...

[nee_sung]

M4 + Summicron 50, back in 1981. Traded-it in for an M6 in 1986.

 

Added and deducted an M3 between 1981 and 1986. I didn't know at that time why I kept grabbing it instead of the M4 (now I know, it's the view finder). But I had to sell it to finance a lens.

 

Last year I finally got back an M3, a DS.

[roger_hicks1]

My first was a 1936 Leica IIIa bought in about 1969 when my girlfriend wanted her Leica II back. Still have the camera; got engaged to the girl but never married her.

 

Trouble is, the IIIa doesn't work any more and has defeated several repairers: it doesn't always fire properly (shutter hangs up), but it's an intermittent fault, the worst kind.

 

Since then (not in this order) A-I-II-III-IIIa-IIIb-IIIc (including Luftwaffe)-IIIf-IIIg, M2-M3-M4P-MP. Also Feds, Zorkiis, Yashica/Nicca, Canon 7 and Bessa L-R-T-R2-R2S-R3A. Currently 2x M2, M4P, MP, Bessas & a Zorkii.

 

Cheers,

 

Roger