You own almost every Leica ever made and you can't afford C/Y Zeiss lens?
Well, hardly. IIIa-M2-M4P-MP-M8-M9. I've had A, II, III, IIIb, IIIc, IIIf, IIIg and M3 as well, but they're all long gone.
We had an Aria and an AX on a long-ish loan from the UK importers for review, with 35/1.4, 35/2.8 shift and 100/2.8 Makro. That was maybe 15 years ago when I still had a mortgage, etc. Remember what the new prices were like!
Now, bear in mind that at the same time I had a Nikon system (most of which I still have) with half a dozen bodies and 28-35-50-90-135-200-300-600 (not all Nikon, but some focal lengths were doubled up). Yes, the 35 shift was better than the Nikkor; the 100/2.8 was better than the 90/2.5 Vivitar Series 1 (and that's saying something!); and the only other 35/1.4 I had was on my Leicas, which is a better place for a 35/1.4 than an SLR as far as I am concerned. I also had, for the Leicas, 15-21-28-35-50-65-90-135.
Obviously I was offered a significant discount when the time came to return the gear, but even at that, it didn't strike me as a brilliant idea to buy into a third, non-compatible system, so I didn't. If we'd been able to get it for even less, Frances was considering it for her own system. As it was, we decided we couldn't afford it, and besides, it would then have meant travelling with
three 35mm systems, none of them mutually compatible. As most of our photography is done while travelling, you'll see why we turned it down.
In 35mm, Frances now uses mostly Leica, Voigtländer and Zeiss Ikon. Her favourite lenses are mostly different from mine so with (say) 3 lenses each we have 5 focal lengths, 18-35-50-75-135, though I sometimes carry the 15 anyway (why not, it's so small) and she sometimes picks up a 90 for an 18-50-90 outfit.
Cheers,
R.
