How old were you when you got your first Leica?

I bought my M4-P when I was 28 & my M8 when I was 29, after my brother introduced me to rangefinders with an old Zorki-4 & Jupiter-8.

Now, my DSLR kit barely gets used, unless it's a lowlowlow light event or I'm using strobes (for some reason the M8 has problems with the flash triggers I use, otherwise I'd use it for all of those shoots as well!)
 
PatrickCheung said:
It sounds silly but... I'm curious as if I'm... "too young" to fully appreciate a Leica. There's only one other Leica owner in my school, and he's a 24-year-old masters student.

When did you get your first Leica, what was it, and what made you want it?
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Do you appreciate it? If so, then you're not too young. I guess if you don't then you're not.

Coincidentally, I am not far off 24 and I have a master's. Not in photography or any other fine arts though, but rather a very mundane social science.

I picked my M2 up a few months ago after getting some part time work. Sold an OM 40/2 to get a ZM planar and now it's my favorite camera, although not the one I would walk out of the house with in a fire if I could only save one.

Why did I want a Leica? Well what film shooter doesn't know what it is? I tried a rangefinder and found it immediately better than any SLR in terms of how often I was able to properly focus it. Well, that broke, and I wanted a Leica.

I thought then, and I still think now, that it's very difficult to get a better film camera than a Leica. And it's harder to find better glass. Despite being a full decade earlier to the party than the OM-1 (my favorite SLR) I think it's a much slicker experience. Maybe it's because there is no meter, but I find that my M2 is just so simply in it's operation that I rarely get hung up on it.

I could probably live with an S3 or an SP.
 
When 42 years old. Before that, about 25 years Nikon SLR (FM & F3HP) and some DSLR in between (D70 & D1x)....
 
I was 28 (let year) when i bought a Leica M8 and 35mm Summicron pre asph. Sold off my DSLR gear which covered half of it, and saved for the rest.
 
I was 57, very recent. Have had 5 in that time and still have 2. No digital, film only.

Actually mistake, I remember I had a Leica IIIc with a 50 back when I was about 28 and foolishly sold it to a guy from Japan who took it out of country.
 
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19, I was working my way through college as a PJ making excellent money. By the time I was 20 I had 2 m2's, 1 m3, 21 SA 3.4, 35 1.4, 50 f2, 65 3.5, 90 2.8, 135 4.5, 200 4, visoflex 2 and bellows. Nice set that I used till mid 70's and traded it for a Linhof kit. I soon added another M2 and M4 with another set of lenses. There have been only a couple of short periods since 1968 that I e been without a M system.
 
I was maybe 32 years old when I bought a Leica M4-MOT locally. I quickly sold it since it scared my socks off to own an expensice Leica.
 
31. Just before my son was born, got it back from a must needed shutter servicing in time to take photos of his 2nd day in the world...

An M3 and collapsible 'cron.
It was a gateway purchase though... there's now a 21,35, LOTS of 50's, 2 90's and a 135 in the mix, and a IIIG, CL, and M6TTL.
(It's been a busy few years, in more ways than one...:))

-Brian
 
I was 36. I'd wanted a Leica for many years and in the late nineties they introduced the original Tri-Elmar lens. With its three focal lengths, I naively thought that it would be " the one Leica lens that I would ever be able to afford". I paired it with an M6 TTL.

Little did I know how slippery the slope for trying new lenses might become!
 
I was 19. From Leicaphilia on my site http://www.rogerandfrances.com/subscription/leicaphilia.html

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.

There's a picture of the girlfriend, too.

My first M was about 1974 (when I was 24) but by that time I'd tried several screw-mount models.

Cheers,

R.
 
29, got a Leica IIIa on July 2007 from KEH. With an dirty 50mm Elmar.

I had some Russian copies before then, but they were all in bad shape..
 
Twenty three.

An M3 bought from Foto Bachschmid in Augsburg, Germany. I used it for the division newspaper even though the editors said they would not accept prints made from 35mm.

They never knew.
 
Leica? Got it when I was 24 and have been using it for the past 7mo.

M? Got it when I was 24 and have been using it for the past 4mo. Hohohoho.
 
I was 19 when I got my first Leica. Not sure why I decided to go for a Leica... I guess because it was different than what I had been using. However, once I used one, I knew it was the right camera for me. SLRs have never felt the same since. I got a lot of crap too for owning a Leica at a young age. However at that time you could get a Leica M4-2 or M2 for $500 and a summicron lens for $400...

I used to go into camera shops and the sales clerks were nasty when I asked to see Leica stuff... like I could never afford such things. One time I got so sick of the treatment, I pulled out my cash and told the guy that it could have been his. His tone changed, but it was too late.
 
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