Bill Pierce on current state of Leica in photojournalism

[red_snapper1]

<p> I know this thread is now quite old, but just thought I'd add my bit. I am a middle aged freelance photojournalist and have gone back to shooting film Leicas as years on the job has resulted in serious back and neck problems which has left me pretty much disabled. The problem with digital SLR's is that the better ones are really heavy as are the 17-35 and 80-200 f.2.8 lenses that form the standard press kit these days. <br>

I went exclusively digital back in 2003, years ago in the 1980's to mid 1990's I used F3's and an FE2 and prime lenses, as well as Leicas, which I used exclusively between about 1990-1994, then regrettably had to sell them as things were going down the pan economically, so back to the F3's until things got better the I converted to F100's and the zooms mentioned above. and used them till I sold them and bought D100's which were the most up to date at the time, they cost a fortune and wern't really up to the job, flimsy build quality, long shutter lag, lack of compatibility with manual lenses and would pack up in the rain and wouldn't survive water cannon like the F3's did. I used them until 2009 when I traded them in for D700's, they were great, especially for low light work and they worked well with my fast old AI lenses. <br>

Unfortunately all that proved far too heavy over the years and took its toll on my health, so had to substantially lighten my load so going back to Leicas seemed the ideal solution, they were always my ideal cameras and have always regretted selling them all those years ago. Of course in this day and age the recently introduced M9 would be the ideal solution in my circumstances. Unfortunately the cost of £5K for one body alone was far too much especially considering that the D700 and other DSLR's had much better low light capabilities than the M9. Which seemed odd as Leicas were THE available light camera, why didn't they use more up to date digital technology?<br>

So what was to be done? In the end I searched around and managed to find an M6 and M7 with drives and a set of lenses second hand and with the help of a bank loan I bought. I know that they are generally seen as from a bygone age but have enabled me to work again. Yes, film and processing costs do add up, but I try to minimise these by getting film from cheap sources online and just get the negs developed in a local mini lab and then scan and send the jpegs off to clients from home. Working with film again has been a truly enjoyable experience even though its more of a challenge in low light than the D700's which I still have to use when a fast turnaround is required. But the Leicas are now my main working cameras and interestingly I've also started to use my old F3 and FE2 with prime manual lenses again, I had forgotten what brilliant cameras they were, the F3 in particular I think is far more robust than the Leicas.<br>

In conclusion I wish to say that working with Leicas and film can still be done and its possible to keep costs low. Buy used cameras and lenses, find cheap sources of film and a good neg scanner.</p><div></div>

[red_snapper1]

<p>Sorry, caption above should be dated November 2010!</p>

[red_snapper1]

<p>Heres another from the day, both taken with M6, 21mm lens pretty much wide open. Film was Fuji 800Z colour neg.</p><div></div>