How do all of you finance your future/present M9 purchase?

[aniMal]

I suppose if I had any real ambition to get one the easiest way would be by selling rights to some of my old photographs to area colleges, businesses, governmental bodies, etc., where I've photographed. I ran into a women today at the the N.M. Chamber of Comerce from Barry University in nearby Miami Shores. She works in the Development Office and got all excited when she found out that I'd been the school's public relations photographer on a contract basis from the late sixties until about 1990, and that I still had all the negatives and contact sheets, as well as some color slides.

I guess she'll be spending days with a loupe and a note pad! She'd like to put together some exhibits of large prints showing various aspects of the school over the years. Keep your fingers crossed for me guys!

That sounds like the ideal solution, your old work pays off for a brand new M that you can continue to use for creating more work. And it goes to someone who will appreciate it as well!

 

[cosmonaut]

I just wonder will an M8 or M9 hold it's resale value like the film Leicas. I also wonder about there life span. At one time I had a Leica IIIa that worked better than some other film cameras that I owned. Digital cameras depreciate way to much for me.

" Love the one your with "

 

[Jarle Aasland]

I just wonder will an M8 or M9 hold it's resale value like the film Leicas.

No, it won't. That being said, I'm sure that both will hold value better than most digital cameras, especially the M9. Life span? Impossible to say. Depends on future models, prices, etc.

Speaking of old models, here's the M9 alongside the first digital camera with a Kodak sensor. The 1.3 megapixel Kodak DCS kit sold for $20.000-25.000 when it was introduced in 1991 (it's useless today, but I still won't trade mine for a M9):

Jarle

 

[Spoks]

Reading RRF these days, particularly this string, I get the impression that rangefinder photography is about to die out. Except for a few film hardliners, mostly Americans (they, most often, are far more knowledgeable on film development and the old chem lab, than Europeans and others), the digital RF camera seems to die out with the excessively expensive Leica M9.

Photography today is 'digital'. It's a lot of advantages with that. Not the least cost. But M9 makes digital RF photography for most of us 'impossible'.

 

[bwcolor]

no plans right now, since 2010 seems like it's going to be the coming out year for aps-c compacts.

My thoughts...exactly.

I just spent 10K+ on film equipment over the last few months. I think that I made the right decision. I'm stumbling along with films/rangefinder technique/developers, but I'm having fun. I've been down the digital path and I might just return with a small, high quality large sensor mirrorless design.

By the time the M10 comes out, we will either be in a depression, in which case I will be looking for my next meal, or I will look to buying it.

 

[Pickett Wilson]

Cameras like the GF-1 are a real threat to both film RF's and the M9. It's going to be an interesting year.

 

[rangefound]

Cameras like the GF-1 are a real threat to both film RF's and the M9. It's going to be an interesting year.

very valid statement, especially for those who are looking for m glass without the price of a M body, it almost seems like it will become the "digital bessa", after all camera bodies are just a light box.

If i were going to buy an M9 i would probably first get hired at a finance company, enage in some insider trading, make billions. Move to Arizona, get arrested, buy the prison where i got arrested. Get out of prison. Buy the M9.2 and a couple M lenses and a house in every corner of the world. Retire at 26 and be happy shooting.

Its a work in progress, and to think that my ten year plan was going to college and get a degree.

 

[Dave Wilkinson]

very valid statement, especially for those who are looking for m glass without the price of a M body, it almost seems like it will become the "digital bessa", after all camera bodies are just a light box.

If i were going to buy an M9 i would probably first get hired at a finance company, enage in some insider trading, make billions. Move to Arizona, get arrested, buy the prison where i got arrested. Get out of prison. Buy the M9.2 and a couple M lenses and a house in every corner of the world. Retire at 26 and be happy shooting.

Its a work in progress, and to think that my ten year plan was going to college and get a degree.

but you really must stop smoking those leaves!😱

 

[mike_j]

Hey - I just bought an M8. Got to wait for a similar drop in M9 prices after the M10 comes out before I consider one.

 

[maggieo]

Senior portraits and knocking over liquor stores, of course!

 

[Nando]

I suppose if I had any real ambition to get one the easiest way would be by selling rights to some of my old photographs to area colleges, businesses, governmental bodies, etc., where I've photographed. I ran into a women today at the the N.M. Chamber of Comerce from Barry University in nearby Miami Shores. She works in the Development Office and got all excited when she found out that I'd been the school's public relations photographer on a contract basis from the late sixties until about 1990, and that I still had all the negatives and contact sheets, as well as some color slides.

I guess she'll be spending days with a loupe and a note pad! She'd like to put together some exhibits of large prints showing various aspects of the school over the years. Keep your fingers crossed for me guys!

Good luck on the first date Al. 😀

 

[Al Kaplan]

Nando, I hate to admit it but I've reached the point where the Director of Development looks like a young chick.

That chance meeting got me to digging through old contact sheets and I started posting some of those 1970's Barry College images on http://thepriceofsilver.blogspot.com All those cute co-eds are now closing in on 60 and I'm still shooting with pretty much the same Leica M's and lenses that I was using then.