The $15,000 Question: what would you get?

I’ve never had a fund. I don’t save. Many of our pictures and even our wonderful curved TV were bought precisely when we lacked the funds. I wondered about the brilliant (viewfinder) Leica MA: but I already have it, only better, the M2. I need nothing more.
 
FrozenInTime said:
I often wish I'd never bought any digital cameras; imaging instead spending $15k on retaining the services of a world class darkroom B&W print maker.
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This one I can certainly get behind.

I know this thread is really just for fun but reading your posts has gotten me to thinking about what I really want for my photography over the next year or so.

I have undoubtedly already spent far more than $15,000 on my photography and gear so what do I want to do with the money I have already spent! I think that my next project is not to TAKE pictures but to spend the next year in a darkroom selecting and printing the negatives I have already exposed.

I will have to clean out my old darkroom, set up my enlarger and sort through hundreds and hundreds of negatives in various formats so I won't be printing anything real soon. But I have all summer to get those things done and I should be able to get started this fall.

I may not come out with anything earth shattering but at least I should become a decent printer after a year. They say that practice makes perfect so we'll see if they know what they are talking about. :D
 
Part of the fun of the exercise is to take financial constraint off the table when thinking about one's immediate photographic future. But I would posit that for many of us, the thing that is keeping us from doing the thing that we'd like to do is not as big an obstacle as we think. In my case, I'd have to raise about $15K to buy the Hassie of my dreams. But if I put my mind to it I could make a list of current gear that in the aggregate could net me that amount -- particularly true if you expand the list of "stuff" that's excess to requirements to include musical instruments, fountain pens, bicycles or the like.

The 25x25 portrait studio would be a bit of a stretch to fund with old Leicas and the odd Rollei. But then that fantasy is probably outside the bounds of the $15K hypothetical. :)
 
ecowarrior said:
What sort of A3 printer could I buy for $15000?

Oh alright, call it $6000, and I'll throw in an M11 body to make up the difference.
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The reality is that the printer itself is probably within reach, even though it may be a stretch for most of us. What we do not always think of is what it takes to keep that printer running and the time, practice and supplies it takes to become good really good with it.
 
Pioneer said:
The reality is that the printer itself is probably within reach, even though it may be a stretch for most of us. What we do not always think of is what it takes to keep that printer running and the time, practice and supplies it takes to become good really good with it.
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Yep. Ink and paper will be an expense. I do want one (a printer) though. I do want to start printing some of my images now that I have at least some competency with photography! (apparently)
 
I think I could stretch that out to cover...
1) A CLA'd Widelux F7,
2} A light weight 5X7 field camera with a good semi-wide lens
3) A Kodak Professional 8X10 contact printer (for above)
4) A thorough CLA on my Leica I
5} A fully working Alpa 9D with 50 Macro-Switar - just for the hell of it
All the remainder for film - as I'd now be shooting 5X7.
 
ddutchison2 said:
I think I could stretch that out to cover...
1) A CLA'd Widelux F7,
2} A light weight 5X7 field camera with a good semi-wide lens
3) A Kodak Professional 8X10 contact printer (for above)
4) A thorough CLA on my Leica I
5} A fully working Alpa 9D with 50 Macro-Switar - just for the hell of it
All the remainder for film - as I'd now be shooting 5X7.
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Ahh, the Alpa! I think I'll add that to my list, for exactly the same reason!
 
Richard G said:
I’ve never had a fund. I don’t save. Many of our pictures and even our wonderful curved TV were bought precisely when we lacked the funds. I wondered about the brilliant (viewfinder) Leica MA: but I already have it, only better, the M2. I need nothing more.
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M2 is the finest Leica M film camera for a 35mm lens ever, IMHO. One certainly doesn’t need anything more ….

Unless $15k landed in your lap and you could be frivolously indulgent with it 😏
 
Dear Board,

If I had $ 15,000 to spare, I'd get my truck prepared for an extended trip and buy a smaller used camper trailer and hit the road. I'd fish and photograph along the way using the gear I already own. I've got plenty of fishing rods and plenty of cameras and lenses.

There are so many places in the USA that I haven't visited that I would like to visit.

My wife is even onboard with my idea. Our ultimate retirement "dream" is to sell the house and buy a small Sprinter style RV and just go away until we can't go anymore.

Regards,

Tim Murphy

Harrisburg PA ;)
 
It is RFF, still I hope. :)
The only RF cameras to purchase new are LCAG made.
Film one is around 6K, digital is, I don't care anymore... 10K?
So, 15K is just above bare minimum. Because even if you'll spend 6K on camera, you'll need $$$ on film and such if you don't want to purchase shelf queen.
And if you want a LCAG made M lens in addition to M camera, 15K are just nothing.

Do I personally want to spend 15K on else? Like SonyCanikon plastics with cheappo EVFs? Not worth of 15K, IMHO.

If not LCAG M camera and lens, I'd rather kill 15K with digital Hassie.
 
If I HAD to spend it, I would track down my old M2 and TA Rapidwinder #003, then put the rest towards building a simple darkroom plus consumables.
Realistically, I would want to buy "time" to make the photos. That is, pay all the bills, not work for a couple months and then go make photos while riding my bicycle.
Phil
 
Benjamin Marks said:
I have always been a bit of a gear head. And if there is any saving grace to middle age it is that I am now pretty comfortable with that fact. My thin rationalization is that different kinds of cameras and lenses have encouraged me to see differently. So I just frame things differently with, say, a 4x5 camera on a tripod then I do with a Barnack.

This morning's musing: suppose you were suddenly gifted with $15,000 US that you had to spend on photographic "stuff"? Yeah, it is the first-iest of first first-world problems. How would you spend it RFF if the wealthy, eccentric uncle who left it to you stipulated that it had to be spent on something photographic?

I know some of you wouldn't buy a single piece of gear, but would buy an airplane ticket to somewhere you've always wanted to photograph.
Others would buy a collector's Leica that has always been just out of reach.
Still others might hire a professional model and rent a studio for a day.
Others might purchase an entire new camera system.
Others might purchase 15 $1,000 cameras and distribute them to promising kids.
Or take a class, or purchase a Sebastiao Salgado print, or augment their library of photo books.

Personally, and being comfortably the gear-head I maintain I am, I would plump for one of the digi-Hasselblads.

Feel free to critique the question too. Maybe I am fantasizing on two small a scale. Make it $50,000 and take a year off. Or make it $100,000 and build the portrait studio you always wanted. I think a modest 25x25 skylit structure with nice large northern exposure would suit me just fine.

So whaddaya think RFF?
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hmm. Lessee: $15K is a Leica M11 and two Leica lenses, one if you pick one of the more expensive Leica lenses, purchased new. Not a huge boondoggle ... I'm sure lots of people on RFF have a new Leica M and a couple of new Leica lenses in their camera bags.

My Hasselblad 907x/CFVII 50c 50th Anniversary, XCD 45P, and XCD 21mm lenses cost more than $15,000 too... I'd have enjoyed the gift if someone had handed me the money to buy them. :D

G
 
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