How did you get into Leicas?

[Roger Hicks]

Assuming of course that you ever did. Here's my story: In 1969 my girlfriend wanted a reliable, compact, good quality, not-too-expensive camera. For £20 she bought a Leica II, complete with 50mm f/3.5 Elmar. After a few weeks she kept asking for it back so I had to buy my own Leica, a IIIa, with the same sort of lens. That was £30. (from http://www.rogerandfrances.com/subscription/leicaphilia.html -- there are even pictures of both the Leica and the girl!)

So what's your story?

Cheers,

R.

 

[Sparrow]

At Art College ... if one was too late to get a Spotmatic you were stuck with a M2, and as I did bar-work to supplement my grant I was often a bit late

 

[Takkun]

I' imagining a teenage Roger with the full beard here...


I was gifted a Bessa R back in high school, and with my limited funds tied up in old Nikom gear, I never really "got" RFs until college. I upgraded to an R3a, and with my school's photojournalism program still in film then, that became my workhorse camera for reporting.

Then the program switched to digital, I had to get a new digital Nikon, and that kept me pretty occupied shooting news and sports for Boston.com and the local hospital I fell into a PR job at.
Then came layoffs, a move to Seattle, and a hack writing job for far too long when I carried a Fuji X100 on my commute. Somehow I landed in grad school for architecture, and fell in love with both photography and RFs again--the former thanks to the late architectural photographer John Stamets, and the latter because I could keep a tiny film camera in my overstuffed bag shuttling between classes. With luck I found a Yashica GSN to keep me busy while the Bessa was in the shop.
The Leica bug bit me when I was in a local camera shop and ran into RFF member Semilog, who had a Pentax K mount lens jury-rigged onto an M6. I got to play around with a few film bodies, and realized I'd missed the solidity and precision of my Nikon in a tiny camera.
So I decided to treat myself to a gently used M5, and it was everything I could hope for in a camera. All the hallmarks of the Leica system--solid build, quiet shutter, smooth mechanisms. Earlier this year I traded the Fuji for an M8 and hadn't looked back since. The Nikon collects dust.

 

[Kwesi]

Great Story and wonderful photos Roger,
Here is my story. In the mid 80's I Was a young, broke shutterbug with severe GAS. I came to the relies action that the only cure was to by a camera that was expensive enough that buying more lenses for it would be impossible. So I trade my Nikon with lenses for an M3 and a 35 with "frog eyes" aka goggles. And the love affair began. I was gifted an M4 with a DR 50 and later bought a thin tele elmarit. That was what I learned on until 2 years ago. The story continues now with my M9P.

 

[Waus]

15 years ago my father bought a complete IIIF with red elmar, filers, flash etc. on a flea market for 75 guilders-approx. €30,-...

 

[ray*j*gun]

In college (im 67now) the head of the year book dept had a IIIf and I fell in love..... took many years before I could actually afford one. Still love the Barnaks and have a cpl of M's as well.

 

[icebear]

I used a Canon T-90 and tried to photograph a Shakespeare play in a courtyard.
The camera was so loud due to the special acoustics of the location that everyone was staring at me...,
no more pics during that performance 😱.

Shortly after that I tried my first (used) M6 and never looked back.
The multi spot metering of the T-90 was perfect for difficult stage light though !

 

[leicapixie]

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=143247

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=143247

I moved from a crazed Bronica-C that never worked.
It shredded films like a CIA operative.
It probably was the original idea for shredders!
The store suggested a Leica M3, 50mm Summicron,meter.
It was exact same price!
The Hasselblad way out of reach..
A long weekend with only the M3 kit and a borrowed 90mm Elmarit,
gave me slides I had never seen, in color or sharpness.
Also a small bag to carry everything..
In one year my portfolio was all Leica.
My present Leica M3 arrived a year later 1967.
Thanks to Q.C it was finally assembled in South Africa.
That is Ziggy.
True my most serviced camera, but my favorite.
Seen birth of my daughter(i am a grandfather now),
many memorable moments, the birth of a New South Africa.
The sights of my new country, one i adore.
Here in Canada, in my now retirement, we still go on shoots..

 

[Turtle]

I picked one up.

I don't wish to sound facetious, but it was that simple. Someone showed me 'some old camera kit' and the second I picked it up, it felt more right than any other camera I have held. It holds true still.

 

[Davidhel]

My Grandfather was a keen amateur photographer taking many pics throughout the 1930's. I never met him but I remember my Gran saying how he always wanted a Leica but could never afford one - instead he used a Nagel Vollenda with an Elmar lens shooting 3 by 4 on 127 film (I don't have his actual camera but I do have his notebook and all his negs). I fell in love with the pics he took in London of the boats on the Thames... more than anything I would say they were the main inspiration in getting me interested in photography! Around the same time whilst studying photography at school I saw the early work of HCB..again that Elmar was something special to me!

I finally got my first IIIa and elmar combo in the early 90's...and ended up with my main user now, a III with 50mm elmar about 6 years back...

To some, it might not be the fastest or the easiest thing to use...but this set up is with me always and sure is a load of fun!!

 

[Harryo1962]

My father retired, and asked me if I wanted a camera that he found in his desk. It was used by the official plant photographer many moons ago. I about passed out when he came home with a pristine IIf Red Dial. Then a few years later my uncle gave me his IIIa that he had taken to Vietnam in the 60's, and his father had used in his medical practice before that. It has his SSN # electro stenciled on the top plate!

 

[ruby.monkey]

It's all Nikon's fault. 🙂

Once upon a time I was the happy owner of a Nikon F80, so when I finally succumbed to Digital's siren song I decided that the upcoming D200 would be just the thing. And I waited for it to hit the shelves. And I waited. And waited. And... and one day while I was scouring the classifieds for a sniff of a D200, I spotted an ad for a second-hand FM3A. And, on a whim, I bought it.

I loved it.

A compact, simple, elegant camera that was nonetheless extremely capable, that gave me just enough automation when I wanted it and full manual control when I needed it; what's not to love? It gave me a taste for manually-operated film cameras that pushed back the purchase of my first digicam by a couple of years, and when I did finally pick a dSLR it was a little Pentax K100D - the Nikon I'd lusted after now felt like a brick in my hands.

And so I carried the little Nikon with me everywhere, and looked harder at the film world, and as I did so I ran across an American website showing this weird-looking Japanese rangefinder from a company I'd never heard of and with a name I'd believed had died a century ago at least; and I thought, "I fancy giving that a go." And that's how the R3A/40mm Nokton was my introduction to r/f cameras.

So, of course, GAS kicked in.

I picked up a few lenses here, and a few accessories there, and maybe one or two more cameras along the way; and one day I happened upon an advert from the London Camera Exchange for a single-stroke M3 with 50mm rigid Summicron, tidy and working and all for the princely sum of £600. Well, what's a body to do?

And Lord! did that Leica feel good in the hands. It didn't take over immediately but as the months went by - and as I became more interested in medium-format photography - small-format work usually meant walking the M3. My FM3A may have been traded away for a Pentax 645N, and the Voigtlander helped pay for a Mamiya RZ67 Pro II, and a fair number of other cameras have come and gone; but that M3 keeps rattling along by my side, and it's picked up a few siblings over the years.

So yeah - all your fault, Nikon, for being so slow with your damned D200.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

Nothing special for me.
FED-2, Bessa R, Iif and, finally M4-2.

How did I get into Leica, which I called as mine?

FSU is great, but no frames and parallax correction. Bessas are single use cameras, no support here. IIf same as FSU, plus little VF.
M4-2 is Canadian as I'm and service is available.

 

[john_s]

I wanted a quiet camera that I could focus in poor light. I also liked the elegant simplicity (lack of unnecessary features) very much. I bought a well used M6 that's been faultless and focus remains perfect (except for a well-known lens with serious focus shift which I owned for a few weeks).

 

[segedi]

It was through this very forum where I caught the disease and after a few months succumbed to an eBay purchase, a Leica MP. That, and a few others, have passed through my camera bag. A Leica M7 a la carte and Monochrom remain.

 

[mfogiel]

I wanted to see if a 0.85x M7 would be better for a 50mm lens than my Zeiss Ikon.
It was, but not without removing the 75mm frame and upgrading the VF.

 

[Mackinaw]

Back in my college days (early 1970’s), my roommate was editor-in-chief of the college newspaper. I had an interest in photojournalism back then and my roommate invited me to be a “stringer” for the school newspaper. He had me stop by their photo department for an orientation so I showed up with my then-new Canon FTb. The chief photographer of the paper was there and gave a talk about the kind of photography he was looking for. During his talk, he whipped out his Leica M4 and put it down next to me. I’ve heard about Leica’s but had never seen or used one in person. After his talk, I asked if I could handle his Leica. That was it. As good as the Canon was, the M4 had a quality that I had never experienced before. I also discovered I that I really liked rangefinder cameras. I couldn’t afford a Leica during my college days, but when I got my first job and finally had some money, I bought a used M3. I’ve owned Leica’s of one sort or the other for the last 40 years. I currently have a MP and M3.

Jim B.

 

[burancap]

Via the suggestion of my local shop owner. I was looking for something smaller than my Hasselblads.

 

[robbeiflex]

I started with a Nikon digital SLR, and after learning a bit about photography, read an article about FSU cameras and bought a Zorki 4. It got me really into rangefinders but it didn't last long, so when it broke I replaced it with the Bessa-based Rollei 35RF. I was happy with the 35RF and J-8 for a while, but eventually got the bug to experiment further and bought a Lubitel to try medium format. I kept the two for about a year.

Then on a trip back home to Canada, my stepfather saw these cameras, we got talking photography, and (to make a long story short) he offered me his Rolleiflex 2.8C. It's a fantastic camera, and yet he mentioned that my uncle always told him he should have bought a Leica instead.

The Rollei 35RF was excellent, but somehow had less of a tactile pleasure in its use compared to the Rollei. Also, the Rollei opened my eyes to the amazing qualities of Zeiss lenses. I eventually upgraded my 35mm kit to a ZI and 50mm Planar. It was a great camera that I enjoyed a lot, but by now I had handled a Leica M in the local shop and was certain that I could live without the AE of the ZI.

When a decent condition M6 came along for the right price, I bought it and liked it so much that after a few months I sold the ZI. Since then I have used the M6 to document the arrival, every day life, and travels of my two little girls, and in the process I have become very comfortable and proficient in using it, not to mention emotionally attached to it, so I plan to hold onto it.

Cheers,
Rob

 

[dogberryjr]

I read an essay about Leicas in an anthology and said to myself, "Oh, yes." Off to KEH I did go. Here's the essay in its original form:

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/09/24/070924fa_fact_lane?currentPage=all