A lot of us used to own a lot of similar, if not identical, camera bodies. There were the shooting bodies, the standby bodies in case of theft or breakage on the road and, since this was the day of mechanical film cameras, a bunch of bodies in the shop getting cleaned, lubricated and adjusted. I used an assortment of Leicas from M3’s through M7’s. That’s a range of bodies introduced from 1954 to 2002, a spread of almost 50 years. But, even over that stretch of time, the design and the basics of all the models were very similar. Indeed, when two M6’s were stolen during a walk up to the Olympics, I replaced them with two used M3’s. Folks who used other brand of 35mm film cameras were in similar situations.
The Fuji X-Pro, a digital camera whose design is such that is being embraced by a lot of folks who were Leica enthusiasts, was introduced in March of 2012. Since then Fuji has introduced three more cameras suitable for advanced amateurs and professionals. If Leica had introduced a new model every 5 or 6 months during the time they introduced M film cameras, we would have approximately 110 different models.
Truth is, unless you really adored TTL metering, there wasn’t a great deal of difference in the Leicas introduced over half a century. There are significant differences and improvements in the Fuji cameras introduced over a period of less than two years.
What does this mean? Should we throw away our digital cameras and get new ones every year or so or whenever a camera breaks or needs service? That could be expensive. Does it mean we should just buy cheap cameras? Does it mean that a Leica, built to last forever in a time of changing technology is silly? Does it mean we are dwelling too much on gear and we are silly? What does it mean?
