Another dreaded ‘should I buy a Leica’ thread

Should you buy a Leica...

Should you buy a Leica...

When I bought my rangefinder I could have afforded just about anything short of an M7 or M8, sadly lenses another issue, fast Leica's out of the question.

After much research I ended up with an R3a 40mm f1.4 & 75 F2.5

Affordable M6's & M3's keep popping up all around me and each one I see I instantly think I want it. Then I hold it, look through the viewfinder, have a fiddle etc. Remember why I bought the R3a in the first place and put it back on the shelf.

Like you I come from a digital background. I also wanted something small & light with exceptional sharpness, plus some 'interest' lens rendering wise. Little things like having shutter speeds in the viewfinder, 1/125s flash sync, 1/2000s top speed, AE and a swing open back are nice too. Plus the essential aspect of compact and light, which in the 35mm rangefinder world, Leica's simply aren't.

Probably the only time when I don't wonder about buying a Leica is when I am using the Bessa. Thats enough for me to know I made the right choice.
 
Nathan I'm wondering what you use most in terms of focal length with your FSU lenses. I look at your gallery and it seems to me you don't lean to sharp, you have a definite vitage look to a lot of your pictures, which I like quite a lot BTW. 🙂 Just curious about your favorite focal lengths so I could recommend a lens or two.
 
All of the images on my site are taken with my D200 and edited to look like old film pics, they pre-date my film to digital capabilities - i LOVE my Jupiter 12 35mm lens and would like your thoughts on a 28mm and 50mm too?

here's a shot i took from the hip of my dad with my Jupiter 12 and i think it's the nicest pic i've ever taken - in this version the framing is way out but i have a cropped version that i'm very happy with

Jupiter12Sample.jpg


and thank you for your comment on my pics by the way 🙂
 
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Keep your SLRs. Buy an old M2 or M4 with a 35mm Summaron. You won't be into it for much. If you are really talented at all with a manual camera, and you can read the moon's candle power at a glance, the only camera in your life will be a Leica.
 
I use both old and new lenses, and for a 50 my personal vintage favorite is a rigid Summicron or a DR Summicron, they are optically identical. Might cost you a bit of money though. I also love the post-war Elmar, a little slow at f3.5 but a lot less expensive than the Summicrons and would get you into Leica glass at a low price. That lens has a lot of character too. There are a lot of choices, and it would be a really good idea to visit a dealer or at least a show to get a feel for what you might like - they all handle differently. No dealers in Cardiff or Newport?
 
i would do exactly as you suggested: sell whatever dslr gear you can part with, and buy a leica (m6 or m6ttl with a 35mm summicron pre-asph).
 
DLSR will quickly become old when it come as new. So sell all you have now and buy D40X or something when you need for work (imagine what it would be for D40x successor after 5 years? D400X with 20-30mpx for $500 for lowest consumer market segment 🙂. I say because I know Leica stuffs are not cheap. And I like really the pic. You deserve very good tool 🙂
 
I don't think you're getting your best advice on this forum. You ask for professional advice from a group that's 99.9% amateurs and you ask camera advice from a group of Leica fanatics living in a dream world. No offense intended but these folks are a little slanted in their view of the world and you're not going to get very good information on what you want to know.

Bad advice to sell your DSLR if you want to go ANY level of pro. The D200 is a good camera and about the bottom level of what is professionally acceptable. Keep it and buy a F100 body for film if yu feel film is important to you. Film is essentially dead in the professional world.

Bad advice to buy a Leica considering the price and considering your lack of knowledge and experience. In the real world the idea of making money with a film camera is mostly a dream. Buy a Bessa or at most a Zeiss Ikon body (IMO and in my experience it's a better choice than the M7) and a couple of CV lenses and see how you like RF and how it fits into your plans. There's no magic in Leica equipment and particularly in their current gear (especially lenses).

Good advice would be to take your DSLR or film body and make the best prints you can and register for a portfolio review whenever they come up. Several places in NY, Miami, Santa Fe and other locations have respected professionals come in for a few days and review portfolios with the artist. They advise the artist on how to improve and where to go with what they want to do. No matter how much experience you have it's always helpful to get a second and third set of creative eyes to look at your work and give their thoughts. IMO it's a better investment than a new lens or camera body. Your friends and family will always rave about your work but a totally independent set of eyes will view your work different. These reviewers will have a more worldly view of the art and a base of professional experience to draw from that your friends and family don't have.

The next thing you have to have the personal motivation and drive to make it happen. I don't mean a passing "I want to be a photographer" attitude. You want it you have to give it everything and be willing to starve if needed. Matter of fact you need to stand in front of a mirror and practice these lines " Would you like to biggie size those fries?" because you most likely will need them before you make it in photography. I'm not trying to be a smart ass here but I'm experienced in the industry and have seen many times the number fail vs the number who ever make a very small career out of photography. Be realistic about where your work stands in the world of photography not where you are in you circle of family and friends.

Photography is NOT ABOUT EQUIPMENT and the equipment does not make an artist. Save your money, learn the equipment you have and add a film body for your existing lenses if you want to shoot film. Put together your best work and get it reviewed. Listen to the people who have worked in the industry and made a successful career in it not people that like to sit at their computers and talk expensive equipment. Look at images from respected people doing what you are interested in and learn from them.
 
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Some good advice here, especially from some of those who work as pro photographers and tell you to hang onto your DLSR kit.

I'm also a working photographer and I use DSLR for the majority of my work, Press, Photojournalism and more and more Documentary. I do, however, still use my M6 cameras and my new M8 for quite a bit of my work ( clearly it depends on the nature of the work and deadlines etc etc.) There is a place for both and neither should be ruled out completely if there is a chance of needing the benefits of one of them at some point.

When I bought my first M6 body I decided soon after that I needed another body to have a second lens on allowing me to change focal length quickly without struggling to find the lens I wanted , change them and get the shot before the moment disappeared. As such I decided to go for an R2a. In all honesty it didn't live upto expectations simply because I was comparing it to my Leica and its hushed little click on releasing the shutter so I eventually replaced it with another M6 when I could afford it. I 'bought into' Leica on its reputation, never having held or used one before, thankfully I am very happy with them and they work for me in the same way my DSLR stuff works for me.

I have only used 'Classic' M6 Leica cameras so have no real experience of other bodies. I highly recommend the M6, though this is based solely on my working practices. I find the meter to be bang on the money but love the fact that I can still use the camera without the meter if...and when, the batteries die.

With all this in mind my advice, for what its worth, would be; save up for a Leica body of your choice. Use the time in which you're saving to find and play with some so you know what to expect and use my R2a as a stop gap.

Please keep the DSLR stuff, you may well find you need it and regret selling it for less than its worth (to you.) The R2a is a very good camera, some will say equal to a Leica when you take account of the price difference and the only problem I had with it was the more metallic click of the shutter release.

So if you think its worth holding onto your digi gear, saving for and trying out a Leica before you buy, just PM me and you can have my old R2a for the cost of the postage.
 
x-ray said:
I don't think you're getting your best advice on this forum. ....................Photography is NOT ABOUT EQUIPMENT and the equipment does not make an artist. ............. Listen to the people who have worked in the industry and made a successful career in it not people that like to sit at their computers and talk expensive equipment. Look at images from respected people doing what you are interested in and learn from them.
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If you look at my profile and posts, you will see that I have no qualifications to comment here, but I have looked at x-ray's and he is qualified. Take heart as it is only through suffering and sacrifice that one finds true happiness. If you really want to be a photographer and you have talent and you have the stick-to-it-ness, you might make it. Look at history and most of the great artists (of what ever field) died unknown paupers, but they live on as immortals because of their work!

Your life, your choice, I messed up mine badly enough, but even at that I am happy with they way it has turned out.

Life is uncertain. Eat dessert first.
 
Photography is NOT ABOUT EQUIPMENT
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Not a popular sentiment at the home of the "GAS" attack. 😀

The advice to buy modern Leica lenses - including the pre-asph 35 Summicron - is sheer foolishness if money is at ALL a factor. They're so wildly over-priced relative to whatever performance benefit they may or may not have. And worse, they put your mind in the absolutely wrong place to begin with: thinking that a particular piece of gear is a solution to some imagined problem.
 
If I read your post correctly, I don't assume you intend to take on another career as a professional photographer. I assume you'd like to shoot casually and try to sell some of your images as fine art pieces online or at exhibitions, etc.

If I am reading you incorrectly, then I side more with xray's remarks.

But if I understand your intentions, then I recommend what Roland suggested: keep the dSLR stuff and save and obtain a M2 and an older Summicron 35/2 or Summaron 35/2,8 and a handheld meter. That is a fun kit to build around, and not too expensive.
 
kevin m said:
Not a popular sentiment at the home of the "GAS" attack. 😀

The advice to buy modern Leica lenses - including the pre-asph 35 Summicron - is sheer foolishness if money is at ALL a factor. They're so wildly over-priced relative to whatever performance benefit they may or may not have. And worse, they put your mind in the absolutely wrong place to begin with: thinking that a particular piece of gear is a solution to some imagined problem.
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A truism if I ever read one! Even though I have succumbed to a GAS attack and recently purchased a Kiev to force me to "think" about my pictures before I take them. My G1 could have served just as well, if I would have just used it on manual instead of being lazy, but then why have an AF & AE capable camera if you never use the functions?

Enough jibberish, I envy someone that is young enough to have these life choices to make. Something about knowing the pain and anguish that they will suffer through before all of this becomes clear as mud. In other words, hindsight is sometimes 20-20, but foresight is always myopic, at best!

Life is uncertain. Eat dessert first.
 
thomasw_ said:
If I read your post correctly, I don't assume you intend to take on another career as a professional photographer. I assume you'd like to shoot casually and try to sell some of your images as fine art pieces online or at exhibitions, etc.

If I am reading you incorrectly, then I side more with xray's remarks.

But if I understand your intentions, then I recommend what Roland suggested: keep the dSLR stuff and save and obtain a M2 and an older Summicron 35/2 or Summaron 35/2,8 and a handheld meter. That is a fun kit to build around, and not too expensive.
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Thomas, you've read my post correctly 🙂 as i said in my original post and have said a number of times since - i'm not planning on selling my DSLR! just selling some of my kit to fund an advance into rangefinder photography.
 
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NathanJD said:
I intend on continuing to produce photographs that satisfy me, while offering some for sale as art when i feel i have produced something fulfilling of that classificaton.
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guys, he's not looking to "go pro". if he was, buying a leica would be crazy. but he's not.
 
Thanks Si, not at all! all advise is good advise and there's a lot of sense in what you and all of the other guys say from a budget standpoint anyway, plus it's great knowledge to have! and thank you all again for sharing! i really appreciate my DSLR kit, especially the D200 - my style of photography tends not to venture into the telephoto realms and i have some long lenses that i don't feel i 'need', but the accessibility of digital added to the great clarity of the Nikon system lends it's self really well to producing images of a quality ideal for selling on.

The D200 is great to take out on a specific photography outing but on the occasion where i ask myself 'should i take a camera?' and when contemplating what kit to take abroad (on the rare occasions when i can afford to go) i often find myself leaving the D200 at home.

having something i can take with me to catch moments as they happen is not the ideal use of a D200, although if i see something worth coming back with the DSLR for then that's all part of the excitement 🙂
 
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I'm not looking for better photos and i'm a good advocate for the D200, i love it and to be honest - i wouldn't sell it for the world.

But as i have mentioned - i would like to compliment it with a good rangefinder, i feel a lot less conspicuous carrying my FED around with an Industar 26 on it but it's just not a reliable camera. The Leica line tickles my fancy for obvious reasons, but as i have now been presented with the chance to get to know a Bessa R2a that may be subject to change... we'll see though 😉
 
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