How did you get into Leicas?

[summar]

When I was a teenager (a long time ago) I learned 35mm photography on my father's IIIf with the classic Elmar 50/3.5. Later, when he bought an M4-P, he gave me the IIIf. I inherited the M4-P. Both are still performing like new and I use them regularly. When you're accustomed to them, shooting with a Leica is intuitive, and the quality of the lenses and mechanics is always satisfying.
My father wouldn't think of using any camera but a Leica.

 

[Mcary]

Just wanted to see what they were like so in 2009 I took some of the money that I had saved up to buy a 5D MrkII and used it to purchase a M4-2 and Summarit 5cm lenses, Since then I've tried an M5, M6 and M8 before finally ending up with my current M8.

 

[lukitas]

I'd been playing with russians since the fall of the wall. The zorki 6 felt like a maniac exhibitionist girlfriend. It's an ok camera, but it frivolously opened it"s back on about two out of three films I put through it. She is like a girlfriend who has gone astray not once or twice, but repeatedly; there is no trust between us. The fed, with the F.E.Dzherzinski marking, was fun to use, but it had a gummy lens. A fed 3 started falling apart as soon as I used it. The zorki 2-C is a bit of a pain, small and fuzzy viewfinders, and switching from focusing to framing is a hassle.
Lately I got a fed 2, and I was rather happy with it. The viewfinder is on a par with the zorki 6, the film loading is reasonably practical, and it doesn't mind wether you change speeds before or after cocking the shutter.

But then, surfing the world wide interwebs, I discovered that, allowing for a little scraping, an old M was quite affordable. Having read multiple glowing reviews of the M3 and its' extraordinary viewfinder (one of which i found on Mr. Hicks' excellent website), I scraped, I found one I liked on fleabay, I bid for it and lost the bid at the last minute. Oh the thumping of the heart! Grand expectation, unsatisfied.
But the same seller had an M2 for sale, and I got that one.

Looking through the viewfinder of the M2 changed my life. I'm no spring puppy, most of the formative and truly surprising moments of my life have happened quite a few years ago, but looking through the M2 was just such a moment for me. That it was followed by the sweet kiss of the shutter made this into a spiritual experience. The clunks and clatters of hasselblads and nikons have long been a big part of my photographic experience, and the russian rangefinders are rather discreet, compared to slr cameras, but the leica's shutter is a kiss, a whisper that only the photographer hears.

Of course, this meant that I really had to have an M3. And I got one. And it was the right choice. The M3 sports a 50, the M2 carries a 28. I carry one, or the other, or both.

The M2 lost it's rewind button (it's an early one, with the push-button), so that has to be repaired.

Still, I'm sold. I'll be a leica fanboy for the rest of my life, I'm afraid.

 

[Carterofmars]

This is where I saw my first Leica; where I held my first Leica. I was a kid that wandered in off the streets, and was instantly mesmerized. I couldn't afford a Leica, but that didn't stop me from buying a Minolta 7s; the first camera I ever bought.

 

[maddoc]

My father gave me his Agfa-box when I was about 10 years old and later let me use his Robot Junior with the amazing Schneider-Kreuznach lens. This raised my interest into photography and I started buying and reading photo books, the most fascinating a collection of 50 years LIFE photographs, which I studied over and over. At the end of high-school I bought my first serious camera, a Nikon FM with 50/1.4 lens. Later I added an F3HP, 105/2.5, 24/2.8, and 200/4. That was my kit for about 18 years until I went to Japan.

When the D70 came out I got fascinated by the possibilities digital offered and how easy it was to get some nice pictures with only a few mouse-clicks. Some time later I replaced the D70 with a D1x and added a 17-55DX and also 70-200VR lenses. The D1x with 17-55DX became my standard kit for a couple of years but two things started bugging me. At first it was very difficult to use that camera in low-light at night (even with a 35/2.0) and second the weight and size. At that time Leica announced the M8.

I had never forgotten about the Leica camera and some of the famous photographers who used this camera masterfully. The M8 was out of reach financially so I bought a new Epson R-D1s instead with a couple of CV lenses. This compact and light camera - when compared to my D1x - was much better suited for my style of photography and only a couple of month later the D1x and the zoom lenses got sold and replaced by a Leica M6 classic and a 35mm Summilux pre-ASPH. I also again started developing BW film by my own after a long break since my high-school days, which got me even more hooked. Since then many Leica cameras and lenses have come and gone, the fascination and fun when using Leicas has never deceased.

 

[Emile de Leon]

1st time I saw a Leica in the flesh..was in the mid 60's..it was my pops..my older brother had it..it was an LTM..
I thought it was the ugliest and most old fashioned cam in the world..I was 9..I wanted a Nikon slr..that was the good one..or so I thought..
Fast forward 20 years..saw an M6 reviewed in Modern Photography mag..thought it was the most beautiful thing in the world..couldn't afford it...
Fast forward 5 years..sold my Toyota Celica with over 100K on it..and bought an M3 kit w/DR from Peipuls camers shop in Holyoke Ma..I wanted the M2 that sat next to it....but he steered me away from..he said that one has problems..
the M3...was a dentists cam..and mint with case and all the fixins..
About a year later got the M6..brand new..
But the M3 was the 1st..
And the 1st Leica..is always..the best..
My last Leica though..I got a couple of years ago in a trade..an LTM..
Man..that has to be the best Leica ..ever..hahaha!

 

[Iestrada]

I have been photographing since the mid 80's. Always had a weakness for landscape photography and usually thought that a person in the shot just ruined it. I still think so but I always wonder why. So, a few years back I set out to figure out why. I hate posed pictures. Shortly after, I also stumbled upon street photography and Leica. Have not looked back. I continue to practice landscape photography but it is the only time I use my dslr and digital. I have an M2, IIIf, and a minolta CLE. Absolutely love them. I continue to work hard at getting better at street shooting.

 

[noisycheese]

I had always used Nikon cameras and lenses, and had a three year long romance with the Hasselblad V system. I became interested in Leica cameras and lenses in 2002 and when Leica introduced the MP in 2003, I took the plunge by purchasing a black paint MP 0.72 and a 50mm Summilux (non-ASPH) from Tamarkin, then located in NYC.

Over the years, Leica M cameras and lenses have slowly taken over my photographic endeavors to the point that now I hardly ever shoot with anything other than my M kit. As for that black paint MP, I traded it in on a black M240 a couple of montha ago. Not to be thrown out of the film shooting racket, I still have an M4-P to use with my M lenses.

I also shoot panoramics with my XPAN II and its 45mm f/4 lens, and occasionally put a roll of film through my Rollei 35SE to keep it from stiffening up.

 

[Doug]

It was 1967 and I'd been using Pentaxes a few years. I had a new Spotmatic and was looking for a second body for a wide lens. Olympic Camera Center in Seattle showed me a 9-year used M2, and it was sweet to handle and operate. Besides, many "hero photographers" used Leica. That M2 was $150, and they suggested a new 35mm Summicron for $164.50. I was set, and still have that gear. When the CLE came out about 1982 I got one for the AE and lens compatibility. Still have that too. In some ways I preferred to use the CLE but the M2 clearly had it on quiet precision.

 

[Bingley]

In the 1950s and '60s, a couple of uncles of mine shot Leicas. I became (dimly) aware of them at that time. Around 1970s, one of said uncles got me a Nikon F, which I used for many years. Work and family intervened, but about ten years ago I found myself in a position to resume a beloved pasttime, and I started investigating rangefinders including Leicas. At that point, it became a matter of simply biding my time until a Leica came along at a good price. One did (an M2). I've still got it. And I've picked a couple more Leicas since.

 

[fuji645]

Bought my first Leica, a IIIc when a freshman in college in the late 60's. I already had an slr (Mamiya/Sekor 1000tl) but was always looking at Leica's and Contax's. One summer, I finally scraped up the $49 to by the body at one of the many camera shops that lined 32nd street in NYC back then. It took another couple of weeks before I could afford a collapsable 5l0mm 1.9 Canon Seranar for another $39. Like Roger, still have the same IIIc traded the Canon for something else-- a 35mm 3.5 Summaron I think. The rest was history

 

[coelacanth]

I started shooting when I was 12 or 13 with a beaten up SLR to document my motorcycle racing team's races.

Fast forward many years, I got a Zorki-4 by chance that introduced me to rangefinder photography. I lost the Zorki in an unfortunate circumstance, and I went back to shooting with FM3a for a few years.

Then I bumped into RFF. I was browsing for a while as a guest without registering, and I finally decided to give RF camera another try. That was M6 classic 0.85. Well that got me hooked. From there, there was no turning back. I went through M6, M4, M3, M2, MP, M4-P, CL, M8.2, M9-P, and M9. Now I'm settled with M Monochrom, and I'm about to get another M2 which I'm intending to keep indefinitely.

 

[uhoh7]

Desperation, pure and simple.

Unfortunately, for what I like to do most of the time nothing beats the M9 and a nice lens.

I tried alot of the options.

Luckily, M9s are not as expensive as they were. 🙂

For me, the romance is simply the results.

The camera itself is simple, which I like, but way too big, too heavy, and for high speed work above 35mm, it is not very easy to focus.

Not to mention you can't close focus at all.

bla bla, I love the thing, but I hope someday for compact FF M with live view and decent focus aids.

Back in the day I thought the Canon FTb was the "S" LOL

 

[Ronald M]

I had multiple Spotmatics and a dozen lenses. Problem was I simply could not make a print the same quality as the B&W paper sample books. A neighbor loaned me an M3 and without changing anything else, the prints got a certain luminosity and were quite lovely.

Digital came and I bought Nikon as Leica had nothing, but then a son of mine bought a M8 used. I bought one also and a M9p later.

 

[Charles Binns]

Ken Tootell - funny sounding name of a dapper Lancastrian who showed me to the 'clocking on station', my first day at work August 6th 1968. A week later he showed me his M2 and the fine Monochrome prints he had made, he also decided I was going to become a Photographer. The cost of a Leica seemed way beyond reach - but aspirational seeds had been sown. Early 20's I bought a Leica IIIg in fine condition, later a fellow worker brought a bag to work and asked 'is this worth anything?'
Bag contained a Leica M3, 35 Summilux with Goggles and other bits of Leica goodness - via the AP Classifieds a fair price was established and it was mine. Fiftieth birthday present from my wife - A Millenium M6, with a rare screw thread 35 F2 Summicron Aspherical giving me a 'Panda' Leica. Sixtieth birthday present from same wife? An M9.

I still own and use all these cameras as well as a good range of accessories and a Focomat 1c and IIc. The IIIg and M3 have both been overhauled by Leica. 90% of my photography though is with the M9 and the 35mm F2.0 despite owning a Nikon outfit as well.

My cup runneth over, they make me very happy to both own and use.

 

[kutitta]

In one of my regular visits to Salvos around two years ago I saw an old camera bag with a price tag of $10. I opened the bag and it was a Leica CL with Summicron-c 40/2. I paid the ten bucks with a huge smile on my face. The body was dead though. Youxin Ye told me that he can't repair it but offered another copy with a working meter . The price was fair and I then bought an Elmar-C 90/4. So my Leica days started with a $10 body and 40/2 lens!

 

[misterb]

My first introduction to photography was through my dad who took all the family photos with a Yashica-Mat. I was then taught the science of photography and the art of the darkroom by a friend when we were 12 years old using a Diana-like plastic camera and the venerable Spotmatic F and projected the negatives through a very serviceable Meopta enlarger. One more camera along the way was another of my dad's acquisitions, a Nikomat with very various Nikon lenses (of which the 50mm f1.4 and 105mm f2.5 were my favorites). My best photographic tutorials was the family subscription to Life Magazine (I was noticing that my favorite photographers used Leica's) and a weekly trip to the public library to load up on any photography books I could find. By my first year in university, I acquired my first M3 with a 50mm f2.8 Elmar and within months I had given that to my girlfriend at the time who was doing photography in her art program. After getting another M3 with a goggled 35mm Summicron, I had a photographic experience of a lifetime! I met a retired Life Magazine photographer, Michael Rougier, who lived just on the outskirts of town where I lived and I bought from him one of his M4's! He offered me a second M4, but the viewfinder window was cracked and being on a student budget, I just didn't have money to get this one and get it fixed. Years later that M4, the M3, and my whole kit of various lenses, viewfinders, etc. were stolen. That was nearly 3 decades ago, and I've been using a non-button M2, a late M4-2, an early M4-P, and a classic M6 since...
I just looked and I see that M. Rougier is still listed in the phone book.

 

[kubilai]

Around 2004, reluctant to jump to digital, disatisfied by recent and declining film SLR, I felt I had a problem.

In the past, some rangefinder experience : a Minolta Cle a long time ago, casually used a nice small Olympus, and had a Linhof 4"x5" I used at times hand-held.

Less needed long or special lenses (evolution in a seasoning amateur life), to the point that I realized that I simple Konica Hexar AF made much of my photo.

When an M7 met me, I took it and didn't looked back since.

 

[PrexaDotCom]

I had ridden the bus up to Chicago to shoot on the streets with my Rollei. It was winter and I’d been out all day working in the cold when I ended up in front of Central Camera. I’ll just go in to warm up while I look at the used cameras, I thought. Turned out it was Demo Day; reps from all the major brands were there. Big crowd at the Leica rep. I knew about the Leica M series, of course; a lot of photographers whose work has always inspired me shot with them. But even used ones cost so much that I had never seriously considered it. I’d never even handled one. And there also seemed to be a sort of snob or perfectionist factor attached to them that turned me off.

I’d used rangefinders before: the Olympus XA and a Fuji GS645S, but I’d never really bonded with either of them. I decided to play with the Leicas to convince myself that I didn’t want one, so I wouldn’t have to wonder about it any more. After waiting in line I finally got to handle an MP with a 28mm lens. Wow, the finder was amazingly bright. The viewfinder patch was worlds away from the Olympus and Fuji, with crisp edges that you could use like the split screen in my Nikon FM. The controls felt satisfyingly precise, you could move the shutter speed dial with one finger, and the shutter itself was really quiet. The viewfinder offered a different way of seeing than an SLR prism or a waist level ground glass — one I wasn’t used to, but I started thinking maybe I could work with this camera.

I handed it back to the rep, but really couldn’t ask him any questions; he was besieged by others asking if there would ever be a digital M (This was before the M8… he was non-committal, but they kept pressing him.) I turned to a rep seated beside him, telling him about how I had tried it out to convince myself it wasn’t the right camera for me and it was having the opposite effect. “It’s a Leica; what’s not to like?” he said. He told me how he used to own one, sold it and regretted it. And this guy was a rep for a different brand.

A while later I found a place that rented me an M7 for a week, and that led to me buying a used M6 with a 35mm f2 from the same era as the body. It’s become my favorite camera, the one that makes me happiest to use and the one I want to take everywhere.

 

[Pioneer]

How did I start with Leica?

I really don't know. I think it was a mistake.

I was shooting an SRT102, a K1000 and a Contax II. I thought I was pretty happy with that.

I wanted to shoot digital but every dSLR I tried left me completely unsatisfied.

The M9 was the closest to mechanical I could find while still being digital. So I bought one.

It was an eye opening experience. I loved it. I thought to myself; "If Leica can do this good with digital, what were their film cameras like?"

It has been downhill ever since. 🙂

I still have the other 3 and shoot them regularly, but now I shoot a lot of Leicas as well, including that M9.