Is anyone making a living from their Leica M?

[terry_rory]

Anyone here paid a utility bill or a school fee or bought the months

groceries from the proceeds of work made with their Leica M lately?

 

I really mean just from the Leica M.(Not from the Hassy or the Nikons

or the digital stuff or even the Leica R or from your Lomo!)

 

Did the client or the subject express suprise at the shoot being done

with such a (comparetively) small, retro looking camera?

 

I have no intention of becoming a pro-photographer (its not THAT sort

of question) I am just interested.

 

Forgive me if this has been asked lately. (I cant recall seeing it)

 

Thanks.

[beau 1664876222]

Trevor, I assume you've read this?

 

http://www.photo.net/leica/m6

 

That article's getting a little old, maybe, but I imagine he's not alone.

 

Needless to say, tons of "fine art" types use Leicas -- but I gather you're wondering more about the "working pros" ...

[m_.]

Don't know about making a living but do sell a few photos here and there and do wedding for friends from time to time to pay for films and processing. Never be a working pro and never want to work to be one, really. I am a working pro to myself though. :-)

[johnmarkpainter]

I have (I am a part time pro). Problem is I just buy more photo gear :)

 

I am a Full-time musician/producer and the M is great for quiet stealthy recording studio

shots. I is also great for informal location shots. I have also used it with Studio lighting

though I prefer SLR for that type of stuff.

 

Clients LOVE old cameras (mine do anyway). Mine is real beater and they like that even

better.

 

jmp

[lmishkar]

Sure! Half of the images on my website are with the M and maybe 2 or three lenses. They are widely published in the archaeology circles, specifically industrial archaeology. A good deal of the non-archaeology imagery is mailed over to one of my stock agents: what machine one uses to make images is never questioned.

 

The surprises come from the folks I travel with: one says he didn't know Leica was still in business; the other couldn't believe such a small camera could funtion. They do stare a lot, and many don't understand how to focus the beast. One commented that she didn't think a grad student should be able to afford a Leica.

 

I've shot with M for some time now, and pay a lot of bills with images made with it. I can't make a complete living with it, since some of my work demands autofocus and very long glass. But for most of the work, the M is a fine machine.

 

Larry

[ellis_vener_photography]

David Alan Harvey, Ralph Gibson & Nan Goldin make their living shooting with Leica

M cameras.

 

I have paid rent a couple of times on proceeds of stock photo licensing fees from

images made with a Leica M4-2 I used to own.

[andrew n.bra hrefhttp]

About half of my business income depends on the QTVR images I shoot with (motorised)

Leica Ms.

 

Generally speaking, clients don't care that much about the kind of camera you use. Those

who notice however tend to be impressed at how quiet and compact the Ms can be,

especially compared to everyone else's washing-machine sized DSLRs :?)

[frank_meeker]

Trevor,

I am an advertising and editorial shooter. I use the M for portraits of chefs and gardeners in kitchens and greenhouses. An example of my work can be seen in the upcoming May issue of the BBC magazine,"Gardens Illustrated". Approximately 35% of the shoot was done with an M and a 50 f2. The shoot is of a renewable resource farm in Loveland Colorado, USA. The larger square images and close-ups were done with an F5 Nikon and a Hasselblad. Anything else used was with the M combo.

 

Best regards,

 

Frank Meeker

[paul hart]

I paid for a holiday by selling a Leica M - does that count?

[paul_neuthaler]

I let others make a living by selling me Leica M (and Leicaflex) equipment.

[steve_barnett2]

I make enough to cover the ongoing costs of a Leica M, but only for the love of the equipment. An SLR/DSLR is far more profitable.

[john_perkins2]

I've never made more than a few thousand with a single story shot on an M. Then again,

I've never made that much with a single digital story either. At the high end, you can shoot

with what the hell you like. It's establishing yourself as an "artist" that's hard. If you're just

doing this and that for whoever, the M isn't so useful.

[brambor]

I run a hockey league and a website for that league. I also run several other websites. I use my images for the web content as well as to sell league merchandise like team and individual prints, tshirts, mugs etc... Until now I used canon DSLR and konica T1 with Hexanon Lenses..it is going to change now. I plan on using my Leica instead of the Konica to document a high school hockey season for a specific hockey team.

[perry]

As a pan handler I have found my Leica M of great value. Folks look at me with little reaction but then when they notice the camera sympathy takes hold and they readily reach for thier change.

[working camera]

Trevor,

 

Yeah, I�m a nut who is forced to pay the rent with Leica Ms primarily. But I

should qualify this.

 

I got out of my Canon F1s in the mid 1980s when it looked as though they

were going to change their lens mount and the FD lens range would become

redundant. I wanted a 35mm format system that had a philosophical history of

camera lens compatibility. At the time, it wasn�t clear which way Nikon would

go, plus I was doing a lot of theatre work and wilderness photography, so the

leica M seemed logical, quiet operation, manual non battery dependant

cameras. So for years it was an M3 and M5 with lenses from 35 to 135.

 

I currently work as a �Corporate / Industrial� photographer. It is only last year

that I again picked up an SLR, primarily for in the field close-up work (4x5 is

not always practical for this), ultra-wide angle and longer lenses. My Ms now

cover a focal length range from 28mm through to 90mm and the Rs

everything below and above this. I�ve gone new-fangled with AE and M7 and

hope to get an MP in the near future so that my M3 can be semi retired from

active service.

 

I hope this is the sort of info you are interested in.

 

 

Regards Craig<div></div>

[working camera]

Oh, and on the question of do clients express surprise at me using such little

cameras-yes quite often. I have had trouble convincing people that they are

serious cameras capable of doing a good job.

 

Now, when I meet clients I tend to have an R9 complete with bl�dy great

zoom lens over my shoulder. Sometimes, I take one the R9s along to jobs

knowing I�m not going to use it. After years of Ms I�ve found clients find the R9

an impressive looking camera and react quite positively to it. I have been

know to tell a few that it is �a piece of expensive junk� and present an M to

demonstrate what a real camera looks like.

 

Regards Craig

[frank_meeker]

Tooting my own horn:

I've been trying to get into one of my favorite magazines, BBC's "Gardens Illustrated" for quite some time and was successful this month(May Issue). The magazine is available worldwide but most easily to those in the U.K. and USA.

The point of this post is that seven of the images used in the story were taken with an M6ttl, a 35mm f2 and 50mm f2. Thanks to the high value of the British pound and my residence in the US, I was well paid for my effort. It was also a lot of fun to work with the gardeners on that farm.

 

Best regards,

 

Frank M.

[andrewlamb]

Frank,

 

I would second your comments about Gardens illustrated. It's a really great

publication. I used to buy it just to look at the photos. I HATE gardening.

Anyway, congrats on getting in and I will take a careful look at the May issue.

 

To get back to the thread, I am a professional photographer. I think the M3 is

the best 35mm camera ever, I've owned several M6s and M7s but couldn't get

on with them. I've used the M3 once professionally. However, it's my camera

of choice for personal work.

 

I know that Jocelyn Bain Hogg, a really talented photo journalist, uses Ms a

great deal. He also told me just how unrealiable the R8/9 series of cameras

were. He has got through 15, or thereabouts, in the last 18 months.

 

Andrew

[joel_matherson]

"Anyone here paid a utility bill or a school fee or bought the months groceries from the proceeds of work made with their Leica M lately?"

 

Yes I paid my university fees one year with the proceeds from the sale of one of my leica M's. Oh did you mean photo's from your M?