If you started over...

[jamesdfloyd]

If you started over again with your camera choice, knowing what you know today, what would it be and why?

 

[DNG]

I'd buy 3 cameras,

Leica M9
Leica M7, for the AE/Manual exposure
Panasonic GH2, for Adapted M lens use and rare video use.

Lenses:
28mm Summicron
50mm Summilux (M9 version)
50mm ZM f/1.5 C-Sonnar T*
90mm Leitz Macro
75mm f/1.8 VM
20mm f/1.7 Panasonic G
25mm f/.95 Voigtlander m4/3
Canon 135mm f2 FD (270 f/2 fov on GH2)
M>m4/3 adapter
FD>m4/3 adapter

Why...
Being 57, this would give the most versatility with Digital and Film cameras being able to pick what Format and lens to use... FF or 2x crop.
I love macro, so the new Leitz Macro 90mm is a god send, and I can use a 180mm fov Macro on the GH2 for a better working distance when needed.

Now, where is that winning lotto ticket :bang:

 

[35mmdelux]

Leica M9, M7.
50mm Summilux ASPH
35mm Summilux [fast/compact]

PS: I have no desire for lots of gear that will sit unused...

 

[tlitody]

If I did it all over again I wouldn't move to medium format and then to large format and then to medium and all the way back to 35mm. I'd just stay with 35mm as it suits me better than the larger formats. Still happy with my contax slr system but I would have got to rangefinders much much sooner.

 

[andredossantos]

For many years I was intrigued by medium format yet stuck with 35mm, then moved to digital, etc etc.

The first time I looked down into a square WLF (a Brownie Hawkeye no less, that I found in my parent's basement) it was love at first sight and I was never so sure that from that day forward I had found my perfect format (the square). I was so into it I didn't even notice the image in the ground glass was reversed for several months.

Anyway, I went onto a Hassie which was awesome but cumbersome, then to a Yashicamat which was also noisy but a bit frail (it broke), then to a Mamiya 330 which was also too big.

I eventually found a Rollei MX-EVS and knew the Rolleiflex was my perfect camera. If I were to start over, I would've gotten my hands on a Rollei, any Rollei, and gone from there.

 

[splitimageview]

I'm always starting over.

 

[jpa66]

I eventually found a Rollei MX-EVS and knew the Rolleiflex was my perfect camera. If I were to start over, I would've gotten my hands on a Rollei, any Rollei, and gone from there.

I would do nearly the same thing: I would have bought a Rolleiflex years ago and never looked back. A Canon P rangefinder with a Canon 35 and maybe a Summitar ( don't like the bottom loading of the Leicas, and when I started in photography, there were no Bessa R's! ). And some kind of small manual slr ( who knows, I may have ended up with an Oly OM, despite the fact that I hate the shutter speed dial not being on the top! ).

 

[Darshan]

I would have skipped the Leica and the GA645, would have gone straight to Mamiya 6 with 50 and 75 lenses. Love those big negatives.

 

[FrankS]

I'm where I want to be.

See here: http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=99955

 

[PatrickONeill]

in 2002, I almost sold my canon stuff off to buy an M2 and 50 cron at a camera show. but at the time, a leica was not my style.

if I were to start ofver, i'd end up with nearly the same equipment as I do already. maybe add an R6.2 and some R-Glass if possible.

but im happy with what i got. =)

 

[gavinlg]

5d mk2 + 50mm f1.2L

 

[Luna]

5d mk2 + 50mm f1.2L

For the win!

 

[John Lawrence]

I'd go for a Leica M mount as I've found over the years that I always keep coming back to them and that I can use them for virtually everything I've wanted (or needed) to do.

John

 

[Roger Hicks]

For a basic camera, for fun? M9 or MP (hard to tell because of 40+ years history, but probably, being honest, and today, M9). Lenses: 35+75, others as necessary.

Forty years of using Leicas has persuaded me that there's nothing I like better. This is just as well, as I have 5 M-series bodies and well over a dozen lenses (shared with my wife, who has a ZI and a couple of Bessas of her own).

I feel sorry for people who don't know what cameras they like and can use, because it gets in the way of taking pictures, which for me is what photography is about. I know: I've been there.

This is not to say that Leicas are perfect for everyone, or for all purposes. If I shot sports professionally, I'd buy a DSLR (one of the better Nikons). For most advertising, I'd probably buy/hire a Hasseblad or S2, or possibly an Alpa. For still life (= many kinds of advertising), maybe a scanning back on a Technikardan. And so forth.

Cheers,

R.

 

[oftheherd]

I bought a Yashica TL Super in 1971, and didn't much use it until 1974. I had looked at other systems but didn't want to pay so much. Sometimes I think it might have been good to have purchased a Nikon. But actually, the Yashica led me to the Fujica ST 901. I still have and use it, and enjoy it as well as the superb Fujinon lenses. That is my only regret, that I didn't deny myself other things and get every Fujinon lens available.

I could wish the same with the Mamiya Super Press 23, as well as getting it sooner. I now have 5 lenses for it. Sure wish I had done that early on, but that would have been much more expensive.

All the other cameras I have, with the exception of the Contax, are fun to have and use from time to time. but I would give up all before the Fujica and the Mamiya. I have no regrets having gotten those two and lenses. Everyone else can and should enjoy theirs.

 

[Pickett Wilson]

I really can't think of anything I would have done differently. I've owned and used a lot of great cameras. Used Nikons professionally for many years, then switched to Canons which I've used for many years. Would do it all over the same way, really.

 

[thegman]

I think I'd stick with what I have (ZI, Hasselblad, Klasse, LC-A) but I'd maybe not have bought my two scanners (Canon FS4000 and V700) and instead got an Imacon off eBay, maybe recoup some of the cost by charging a small amount to others to use it.

 

[paulfish4570]

if i started over - KNOWING WHAT I HAVE LEARNED OVER THE PAST YEAR - i'd have kept my M3 DS and collapsible Elmar 50/2.8, bought 35 and 50 Summicrons lenses and another M body, plus a 6x6 eye-level camera and couple of lenses, and compact but flexible darkroom kit. also, knowing that my eyes would turn on me, i'd have gotten into Nikon SLRs and lenses because of the correctable diopter eyepieces ...

 

[al1966]

If starting over I would go for a Canon 5dmk2 with a 50mm,85mm and a 35mm then a Mamiya 7 with a standard and wide lens. I use a 5d mk1 for portraits for income, I am happy with 50mm and 35mm for 99.9999% of my art work but prefer the colour I get from film. I could mess around in photoshop but I would rather not. I would be tempted by the new Pentax 645 and I would keep my Oly digi pen for wandering around

 

[back alley]

I'm always starting over.

feels that way for me too!

but then, i doubt that i would do it again much differently as i have enjoyed the ride and played with a ton of gear.
i don't think it has made me a better photographer but i now know what i like.