What have you done with your Leica?

[travis1]

<8*)>

[HarryBaker]

B. If I use a Leica it's my M8. But mostly I use a 5D. I would love to use my M6 Classic, which is quiet and

sleek, but the results of colour negative film processing are always disappointing irrespective of which firm or

lab I use.

[juan_bonet]

A. I use my M3, M4-2, M6 and the two IIIf every time. I don't like digital world. Last week, my wife gave me my first digital camera, a Leica C Lux 2.

[HarryBaker]

Following Lars. I always write with a fountain pen and I don't own a laptop!

[steven_sherwin]

I use my M7 almost everyday. Currently I live in Japan and it is still quite easy (and cheap) to buy, process and scan black and white film.

[peteradownunder]

All my Leica R and M fetish stuff has died in the line of duty or been sold off. Same for CaNikon. Apart from XPan kit - just shoot MF and LF these days film and digi.

[vincenzo_maielli]

Great Paul!!!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

I use all the time my M2 (with 15/4.5 CV) - M7 (with Summicron 35/2 goggled) - MP (with Summicron 50 DR) and M5 (with Summicron 90 dechatable head) with colour slides and negatives. With BW films, i use my M3 with Summaron 35/2.8 goggled and Nikkor 85/2 LTM. As support, i own a Nikkor 135/3.5 LTM. I own, also, a Leica CL with Summicron C 40/2 and Jupiter 9 85/2, that i use when travel with my trekking bike Olympia Condor Hi-Light.

In M39 i own and use, occasionally, a Leica IIIf with Summitar 50 and a Canon 7 with CV 35/1.7, with CV 90/3.5 as support in the medium tele shooting.

In the SLR 35 mm i own many Nikon (F, F2A chrome, FAS black, Nikkormat FT3 chrome, Nikkormat FT3 black, Nikon FM, Nikon FM2n, Nikon FM3a black, Nikon FM3a chrome and many Nikkor lenses). I own also a Nikon F100 with some AF lenses, that i use when shoot at my two lovely little nephews and at friends of mine which play in a rock and blues band.

Also i own a little Canon FL/FD system (FP, F-1n and FT-b QL) and M42 system (two Pentax Spotmatics, a Zeiss Ikon Icarex 35 STM, a Voigtländer Bessaflex TM and a Mamiya Sekor MSX) and a Rolleicord Vb as medium format camera (with waist level finder and ground glass from a Rolleiflex 2.8 F).

However, i'm not a collector but only a user (crazy, maybe). I use all of these items in the course of the year. Yet, i'm not against the digital capture, that simply consider as another way to make photography. I use only the film and mainly the mechanical cameras for a simply question of feeling: i find the film congenial with my spirit. Because, take a picture is, mainly, a need of the spirit.

 

Best light to all of you, film and sensor users.

 

Ciao.

[gerber_van_der_graaf]

A. I mainly use my M6TTL and R6.2 for colour photos and B/W. For landscape slides I use the Rollei 6008. Eventually I scan the photos and slides with a Nikon coolscan to put them on the web or send them by email. I prefer analog because of its quality and I like to do some laboratory work instead of spending even more time behind the screen for my hobby, as I am spending already too much for my profession.

[paul_neuthaler]

Touche, Jerry.

[charles_stobbs3]

I last used my Leica M2 in 2004 (I think). It is one of the heaviest, bulkiest cameras I own and when I am going out to take pictures my Retina IIa, Olympus Pen D, Olympus Trip 35, Konica C35's, etc always seem to be a better choice.

[john_r._fulton_jr.]

My answer should be accompanied with a prologue an epilogue and a number of footnotes. I just don't have time. :-) So I'll

answer A. M6 and Tri-X is always with me. Great answers. I'd like to expand on my answer at some point but it's first

day of school here in Fort Worth, Texas. (No, not first day of school for ME.......for my kids!)

[C R Utra]

"A". I would like to suggest that you summarize the answers, if that is not much trouble for you. Thanks.

[charles_hess2]

C. sold my M7 (also previously owned an M6), never saw much difference in image quality with my Contax G2 and Nikons, no question about the craftmanship. Have since returned to rangefinders with a Zeiss Ikon and am having a ball with a Rolleiflex 3.5F Planar. Film still in my life, just not with Leica at this time.

[david j.lee]

-A- black and white only.

[alastair_anderson]

B, I traded in one body (m4) and some lenses as a trade in for a D3. But I'll get back to film once I've sorted out a dark room. I'm also waiting for a better digital m.

[tim gray]

A. I use my film M's 80% of the time. Just got and M7 (my second M) about 2 months ago. The other 10% of the time is

either a Canon 1V, a Stylus Epic, or a few $5 35mm P&S's. I've used my DSLR maybe twice since I got the M6/1V combo

about two and a half years ago.

[Troll]

None of the above.<P>I shot film in my Leicas for over 50 years (until 2004), and I'd like to point out that they still represent to me the greatest non-human item for FONDLING in existance. A day seldom goes by when I don't pick up one (my current favorite is a Leica II), focus it, and wind and click it a few times while composing a picture through its squinty little viewfinder. I don't know why it gives me such tactile and emotional pleasure, but it does.

[gadge]

A is my answer.

 

I also use other film compact or slr cameras for smaller size or more reach.

 

I always have a CD made when developing film though. I don't take enough pictures to save much by going fully to digital so I don't own a DSLR yet, only a £25 kodak compact brick which I bought for taking cheap, convenient ebay pics and there is a camera built in my mobile phone which I rarely use.

[beau 1664876222]

A. Still using the M6 all the time. I have a DSLR as a fam-cam, but when I manage to get a good shot with it, I always wish it had been on film. I can't warm up to that "video still" look that almost all digital images have.

[ray .]

Beau, I've warmed up to the look of digital; I think it does color wonderfully, and I've finally figured out how to photoshop it

to get great black and white. Has a look all its own, just different, not better or worse than film. Film is just another thing,

another sound. But I can't find any camera with a viewfinder I can quite warm up to like a Leica M's..

[beau 1664876222]

Ray, I agree it's all just "different sounds" and not better or worse, but I'm cursed/blessed with an eye that's particularly inflexible about certain things. In fact it can't stand 98% of films, either, and insists on specific developers also, so it's not a film/digital thing so much as requiring a very specific look.

 

I know a lot of people are happy with their digital B&W conversions, but I haven't seen any yet that make me want to trade in my process.

 

As I said on an earlier thread, I've seen color images from the D3/D700 that appear different to my eye than other digital files I've seen -- a cleaner, richer, more nuanced look that is not like film but is nevertheless appealing. Digital is definitely making progress, and I'll always be open to trying new things if I like what it does...

[dankapsner]

E. I keep selling them, and then buying other ones because I miss them. (Currently using a Fed 2 with a 50 LTM

Summicron for my personal camera.)

[akochanowski]

Ray and Beau,<p>It's a funny thing that film. I shot thousands of images with a couple of DSLR's and yet... I tried out the new formulation of Kodak Portra 160 this spring. I'm in the minority, I think, in thinking that it's actually easier to shoot and process B&W digitally than to emulate color film, especially if what you are after is contrasty prints. Color gradation in current DSLR mode depends a lot on native contrast at the time the photo is taken, and of course it is easier to blow out the highlights.<p>I've shot about 50 rolls of Portra since the spring and am very pleased with it. It really does look good in prints, and has a look that I have a hard time matching with my D300. <p>Been even thinking I shouldn't have sold the M7. But I do get a kick out of shooting with an $85 body with a $40 35/2.8 lens (Oly OM4).

[didier]

Answer A). as an amateur.

 

I use my M6 in the mountains (not battery dependant) and my M3 for B&W. Because I ENJOY it.

 

Very little use of digital.

My only problem is about having enough time to scan the negs / slides...

[randy_partridge]

A) -- however my kit includes a Leicaflex SL2 (black), purchased in 1976 and a Leica R5 (black) purchased about

1988 or 1989. My Leica lens include Super-Angulon–R:21 mm; Summicron–R:50 mm; Elmarit–R:28 mm; Elmarit–

R:35 mm; Elmarit–R:135 mm; Vario-Elmar–R:35-70 mm; Vario-Elmar–R:80-200 mm; Macro-Elmar–R:100 mm; and

Telyt–R:350 mm.

 

I use both of these bodies and most of these lens on a regular basis. I love my Leica gear and love

the images they provide.