I love all these posts by students and 19 year olds 🙂
As you may have noticed, Steve, you'll get lots of good, boring advice here. From the others, that is 😀
Now, if you have that sort of money lying around, how much fun would it be to start a pension scheme or life insurance? You'd get excellent conditions now - but would it be fun? What's the point of buying an MP when you're so old that you're half blind, hey? And if you intend ever to get married / have kids: get it before! For some inexplicable reason wives seem to think there are more important things you can do with x thousand dollars.
You had a look at an MP. But did you touch it? Hold it? Caress it? Hear the shutter? Wind it on? Which owner of a poxy digital camera can wind it on a frame? Hah! If you have done these things, the memory will not let you go, until you acquire an MP.
You will take it to bed, to breakfast and to work. Don't load any film for the first week - then you can listen to the shutter and wind on hundreds of times a day...
If you do get one, the mere act of holding it will prompt you to take better, more thoughtful pictures. You will aspire to the greatness of the Leica Gods. HCB, Capa et al. Even Ansel Adams shot a Leica a couple of times.
If you get one, you'll probably need a lens. You can do most of the above without one - but having a lens lets you take pictures too. The lens should be a good one, of course. Leica would be happy to sell you a 28/2.0 Summicron or a 28/2.8 Elmarit ASPH, but as some will tell you, the significantly cheaper Zeiss ZM Biogons are extremely good. At least the ZM 25/2.8 and ZM 35/2.0 are. I assume the ZM 28/2.8 is too. Any of these lenses will give you stunningly sharp (and contrasty) pictures - compared to an uncoated pre-war lens.
The 350D does feel a bit tacky - I let my kids use it (just turned 7). It's ideal for them: light, zoom, auto-everything and they can take 20 shots of a passing dog without annoying me. (It's also interesting to see things from their perspective, in both senses).
The 5D is surely much better. I would have got one, but the full-frame premium over the 30D just annoyed me. As you say, it's much bigger. You just don't take the same sort of pictures with a DSLR as you do with a Leica.
Regarding darkroom equipment. Yes, it should be good. But, luckily for you, everyone is throwing away their excellent equipment for nearly nothing on eBay these days. You should be able to get everything for, say, USD 500?
OK, seriously now, you could take all of the above as proper advice. I haven't lied anywhere. You *would* enjoy it. It *does* feel nice. It *is* fun. It will also hold it's value better than any digital, and it will still be the same MP in 10 years. Anyone still using their 640x480 digital camera?
But, you don't actually need an MP to do RF photography. Also, you should make sure you're not going to miss the benefits of a DSLR.
colin
