How did you get into Leicas?

[shimokita]

Was shooting a Nikon F3HP / F3P and had known about Leica since the dawn of history... walked into a well known-small-used Leica camera shop... turned around and walked back out as the staff was so full of themselves. Went down the street and purchased a IIIf from one of the most friendly "mom & pop" shops around... have been back many times. Still have the IIIf and currently shooting an MP. That friendly sales guy was to blame ; )

 

[JHutchins]

I was a teenager in San Diego in the mid eighties and loved to walk and take pictures. I was using a Mamiya C3 at the time and had started walking at Pacific Beach and continued up through La Jolla. It was getting late -- sun had set -- so I walked up into town to get a bus home and saw a camera store. The sign said open so I went in. They had an M3 under the counter and I asked to look at it because it was an M3. I held it in my hands, advanced the shutter, pressed the release and...is anything more really needed to lay the foundation for an obsession?

 

[Cyriljay]

I was living in Paris and I owned several cameras including a Bronica medium format. Then I bought a Leica R5 SLR during 1997.
While I was on a visit to London in 1998, I came across a M6 in a camera shop and I part exchanged two cameras including R5 and several lenses (All Nikon and LeicaR Prime lenses)
It was the last 35mm Negative camera I got and never needed any to replace as it was my best companion for all the time.

I am getting old but not my M6.

Now I have a M8.2up and a M9.

 

[Daryl J.]

I wound one.
Then held it up to my face.
Perfect.
The end.

 

[JohnTF]

I met a beautiful Czech woman from Moravia on the bus to Mt. St. Michel-- we corresponded for four years, I had a couple of days left in Paris, my lovely friend Mindy recommended I visit Prague, Simona answered the phone-- I went, and she had found a small collector's shop with owner Pavel in Brno.

Pavel just had this perfect Standard kit-- and it followed me back to Paris-- I shot my first Leica roll of film-- and the rest kind of follows.

Simona's birthday is June 22, her daughter is the age she was when we first met-- lovely people.

Women, Paris, and Prague have led me down this road, along with my friend Roger who is sorely missed.

I so wanted to see you in France for your advice on Wine, Women, and Leicas.

Godspeed my old friend--

j

 

[raid]

M4-MOT and then M5. I never used either one, and they were bought to be sold again.
M3 and M6: my film years.
M8 and M9: my digital years.

It just happened.

 

[steveyork]

I dabbled with photography in the late 80's and early 90's, mostly just vacation stuff, a Minolta SLR followed by a Nikon, but when I seriously got into photography in the mid-90's, my first choice, a full electronic camera, arrived straight from the dealer, unused and brand new, completely dead. Not the battery, the electronics. Dead as dead can be. That convinced me I wanted a fully mechanical, manual camera, which at the time left me limited choices -- Nikon and Contax each still had a manual SLR, but I ended up with a Leica M6, really only because my grandmother travelled extensively in the 50's, 60's and into the 70's with a Leica M3. A brother inherited the camera, raved about the build quality and optics, before selling it because he needed an SLR for a safari. Anyway, over the years the M6 eventually turned into an MP and M7, then went retro with an M4 and M5, until finally I got out of rangefinders completely. Back to SLRs for 6-7 years, and this is where I shot a boatload of film, gaining lots of experience, and I also sampled lots of other cameras -- folders, TLRs, ect.

I returned to rangefinders 3-4 years ago, because my back demanded something lighter, my ears wanted something quieter, and the simplicity of a smaller system appealed. Thinking to save $$, I started with Kiev's from the 50's, which led to pre-war Contax, tried Nikons, then I stumbled on an M3. Now I finally understood what my brother was talking about. Something about those old Leicas. Mind you, good pics can be taken with any camera and lens, from any maker, but Leica rangefinders, especially the old ones, are special. Soon my rangefinder cameras morphed into a couple M2's because I've gravitated more to the 35mm focal length over the years.

A strange journey, frustrating at times, but glad I had the opportunity to use different camera systems.

 

[Pál_K]

There was no plan of mine to own Leicas. I'd been using my first and only SLR, a Pentax SP500, for about 15 years exclusively. I had one lens, a Super Takumar 55/2. I'd also recently bought an Olympus XA2 as backup for going to Norway. This was the early 1980's.

I walked past a camera store, selling mostly low-cost consumer cameras, and was surprised to see an M3 with a 50/2 Summicron. The whole package was about $500.

Although I certainly knew about Leica M's and photographers who used them, I didn't know any details about them. As it turned out, I'd acquired a mint DS model with self timer, a preview lever, and it worked perfectly.

I still have and use it. Youxin CLA'd it a few years ago. I've since added another M3 and two M6's. Even so, I'm not a Leica fanatic - I just bought them at the time because they were nice. Not having a car or house or wife or girlfriend, or any other hobby, I had to spend money on something.

What I should have is an M5, since the larger size works better for me.

 

[JohnTF]

Hey, Raid--

Certainly a lot of other things could have "just happened" -

I recall when you bought the M8-- I did as well-- I keep it as I figure the market value is below my value-- and I still think I will replace my broken IR cut filter-- have you shot any IR?

Best Regards, John

 

[raid]

Hi John,

I used for a while Kodak color infrared film with many different filters. That was a lot of fun then. You have to study the season and the surroundings to identify IR emissions, and then the fun starts with guessing the exposure. I did this in the 1980's. I have not yet used my M8 for IR photography. I also have never used an IR cut filter on my M8. I have such filters, but I am happy with the images from my M8 without any filters being used.

 

[dfdann]

Kodak Brownie >>Petri rangefinder>>Nikon FE>>Leica Digilux 1>>Leica M7>>M8>>>
Leica C>>Leica CL. CL with autofocus lens And manual M and Nikon lens have replaced most in use but all of them still work. Except Petri which died.
Cheers, Dan

 

[Deleted member 65559]

M4-MOT and then M5. I never used either one, and they were bought to be sold again.
It just happened.

Raid, you seem to be a nice person, & you contribute a lot to this forum....but not using an M4-MOT ?? That's just wrong :bang:

 

[Pál_K]

This thread is so fascinating to read - I just read the entire thing - it's fascinating not so much because of Leicas, but because of people's stories. Some are sad, some make me feel very good about people - I'm amazed at little things that happened that have made a difference in people's lives.

Truly a remarkable thread.

 

[DLox]

About 1950 my father told me of a photographic studio in Halifax which displayed in its large shop window a camera. It was on a pedestal on a burgundy cloth, it was a LEICA. It was, he told ,the finest one could get. He could not afford one. But we could catch a 'bus and go and look at it. We did. I was interested in all things mechanical and this looked very interesting. At the time it was 127 Box Brownie. This developed through an Argus 'brick' (very quickly) until one day in 1960, when we were shopping in Huddersfield, there it was. A Leica 3f. with Elmar on a glass shelf and nicely lit. A month later we went back and father bought it. I still use the camera but do not have the lens. When my father died I bought a second 3f. so I now have the two which I use. A colleague, at work, lent me an M2 with rigid Summicron for a few weeks. He offered it for sale, I declined on cash grounds!!!!!!!!(idiot):bang:. Still clicking. 🙂

 

[raid]

Raid, you seem to be a nice person, & you contribute a lot to this forum....but not using an M4-MOT ?? That's just wrong :bang:

I had never used a Leica before, and someone came to my home to offer to sell me his M4-MOT. I did not know what a Leica M was about. I sold it to KEH, I think. Shutterbug was the only source I had on used cameras selling/buying. :angel:

 

[Michael Markey]

I used Leica binoculars for birding since the early eighties and liked the glass.
I was using a Pentax ME on and off around that time .
The comic Bill Odie featured in the birding mags and he used Leica slr`s as well as binos .
I found this forum at the time when Raid was doing a review of 50mm lenses which interested me so here I am.

 

[Erik van Straten]

In 1971 I entered the Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. In the photography department there was, somewhere in a cupboard, stuck away between all sorts of cameras (Linhof, Cambo and Hasselblad) an old chrome Leica M2. Nobody was interested in that camera. In the minds of the people there was only one camera: the Nikon F.

I took the camera from the cupboard, and after asking the amunuensis I took it home. The same day I made this shot with it.

Erik.

 

[thirtyfivefifty]

Never was interested in photography until I started learning after graduating uni. It was around this time that I came across a photo that blew my mind. Underneath the photo were some technical notes: Leica M6 and Noctilux 50mm f/1.0.

From then on photography was life. My early influences were Japanese Leica M analogue shooters and Canon EOS analogue war photographers, so it came to no surprise that after trying out different cameras and formats, I settled with the Canon system.

Still, in the back of my mind, I always had thoughts of Leica. At the same time, I always tried to reason with myself out of Leica, borrowed and tested new gear to find alternatives, and even read material against buying a Leica.

It took 15 years for me to finally buy a Leica M analogue. It pretty much came down to being sick and tired of the technological arms race, and just being honest with myself.

 

[Bill Blackwell]

My school newspaper/yearbook instructor in Jr. Hi - Walter E. Nash (in around 1972) - taught me photography on his personal Leica M3. It was all over after that!

 

[Rayt]

I learned photography with F, and FM2 Nikons. I switched to AF in the 90’s and the technology back then wasn’t great and the Nikon AF hunting drove me nuts. I then bought a Contax G2 and loved the size and metal construction. The Zeiss lenses were the best I have ever used. Still the AF had to be locked on before the shutter could fire and I didn’t like that. In 1998 when I got a better job I held a silver chrome M6 with 35mm Summicron in my hands and really admired the quality the way the advance lever felt like silk. The metering and the two arrows on the viewfinder reminded me of the FM2 so it was an easy choice. I saved up, sold the G2 and bought it months later.