Leica GAS attack?

Gabriel M.A.

Gabriel M.A.

My Red Dot Glows For You
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I got an M2. A beauty it is. I am mesmerized by its beauty; I have become enchanted by how it's been handcrafted, and just how it's made it through decades of use, here, in my hands, still mechanically faithful.

I have an M6 classic, so you would think what could possibly make me get a body with no light meter? Even worse, no "rapid load" spool. It was love and attraction at the same time.

Who's to blame? You'd think it was the M6, ok, maybe. The need to have a backup body? Perhaps. But the catalyst was something that was least expected: the Rolleiflex Automat.

You see, the Rolleiflex Automat has no light meter; I've been operating that baby with a rather unreliable light meter, and loaded with either Tri-X or Tj-Max 400 rated at ISO 1000 or 800 respectively, for development in Diafine (a-ha!) And that is how I became more and more confident in not relying on my automatic lightmetering e-vyl ways.

So back to the classics. Expensive? Yes. But I traded in a few pieces of equipment, and used some credit I already had, and paid the difference. So I was getting my M2 in installments, so to speak.

I saw it on Friday, and I thought and I thought over the weekend, and got it yesterday...just in time to celebrate Solstice Day! Now, can't wait for my on-call rotation (at work) to be over to go out and take some shots and post some results!

I thought photo happiness was an M6 and a Summitar. With an M2, now I can't wait for my Summarit and my Summar to come back from DAG!

So, Leica GAS attack? Or just a natural step in the course of a Leica owner's life?
 
Leica Gas

Leica Gas

gabrielma said:
I got an M2. A beauty it is. I am mesmerized by its beauty; I have become enchanted by how it's been handcrafted, and just how it's made it through decades of use, here, in my hands, still mechanically faithful.

I have an M6 classic, so you would think what could possibly make me get a body with no light meter? Even worse, no "rapid load" spool. It was love and attraction at the same time.
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I think it is just a natural extension of the gear addiction problem in general. I pretty much did the same thing, bought a classic M6 with a few lenses then just had to have the M3. Knob rewind, old style take-up spool, and no meter. Those pesky red arrows in the M6 kept me worrying too much about exposure anyway, and I was too dumb to simply remove the batteries.

Actually I still love them both, and use them both equally. The M3 with no meter has done wonders for me when using the M6, as I can now check exposures when needed and am able to ignore the red arrows when I know the exposure is OK even if the arrows are not perfectly matched in intensity, or maybe even if one is lit and the other is out.

Regards, Paul C.
 
Oh Jeez! I have not a piece of equipment in months. Right now my account can not take it.... but... I really NEED another M body. What can I do to get rid of this GAS attack?! Christ, my hands are shaking! I start eyeing my watches thinking I can sell them tomorrow and have a brand new shiny MP with Leicavit in the bag within a week. Does a cocaine addiction go in this way?
 
Nah cocaine ismuch easier than Leica M's... Cocaine addicts laugh about leicaphiles behind their backs and point at them in the street :D
 
Nothing like having crack whores make fun of ya in the streets. On some level I am sure they feel sorry for us as well.
 
sgy1962 said:
Two rangefinders is pretty normal. Now, when you get to three or more, then you have to worry.
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Ooops. I assume then a lot of people here have to worry :D
 
Congrats, I got my M3 after my M6 was stolen (my wife felt sorry for me and gave me the M3 for Xmas), I worried about the whole "no meter" problem for about 1/2 a roll. It is pretty easy to guesstimate exposure and I had experience with a handheld meter so the difference in the M6 and M3 wasn't much.
You'll dig it, good luck!

Todd
 
Modern film has tremendous latitude also and that in combination with a developer like Diafine means you have a lot of room for slippage.
 
If you have more than two that's time to worry?

I must be pretty unconscious with three M bodies.

But then, I've heard of people who own seven and twelve... with an assortment of lenses of all kinds and varieties in duplicate and triplicate.

Not there yet...

Ooops! Yes! :) I got two 50s already.
 
I have two 50's but one is a Noctilux so that doesn't count. Two bodies though. Man, I got the NEED!
 
Gee I'm starting to feel less depraved and more deprived... I have only one Leica M body, an M2 I've had for a long time, only recently adding a 50mm lens and that's a modest f/2.5 Color Skopar! I do have two 40's though; an M-Rokkor and the 43mm Pentax-L. Excessive? Or do I "need" a 40 Nokton too? Hey, I have two 28's as well, the little Color Skopar and a Summicron. Now that latter WAS probably/suitably excessive. Definitely GAS...
 
Hi Peter -- I've shot one roll of Pan-F that's not yet been developed, and one roll of Fuji NPH @250... Had to take some time just now to fiddle with the lab scans on that roll. I'm delighted; this lens has "life"! The gain might even be worth the financial pain. Here are a couple of samples...

First one is a lady at the Farmer's market selling pendants that she says she makes in the Native American way, like the one she's wearing. Chose this one partly because it has bokeh to examine...

In the second one, as I approached this delivery duo, I made some comment like "here's the Super Delivery Guys" and the FedEx guy put on a pose and said, "Yeah!" (I've seen them both around town before, so they're not exactly strangers)

Edit: I'm adding a 100% crop from the 3000x2000 pixel scan of the pendant lady... It's pretty big, over 200k filesize and measures 1024x768 pixels.
 
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Wow that is some lens Doug! Thanks for posting, great shots and the crop is just amazing!! You could make pretty big enlagements with that lens and they would look excellent. I've just read about the lens but I've never seen any results. Now I know what all the fuss is about... :)

 
Thanks Peter! I'm pretty happy with these results. To celebrate it a bit more, here are two additonal shots from the same roll...

I notice both the previous pics were in open shade. So here's one in bright sun of a lady doing some gardening in the planter box. It is NEAR a coffee drive-through, so nearly qualifies as "Camera and Coffee". :)

Second one is a semi-retired barber who has his shop open only weekday mornings. Mixed lighting; daylight from behind me and fluorescents above. And some bokeh here too!
 
They're great! You must be thrilled with that lens. :) I like the 28mm myself too, I have a really good Nikkor 28 that I bought an adapter ring for to use on my M6. No rangefinder coupling but I've got some decent pics from the combo. Is that lens of yours an f2.8?

 
It's an f/2.0, Peter; all Summicrons are f/2. :) There's also a 28mm f/2.8 Elmarit for somewhat less $$$. But the speed pushed the GAS attack all the more. There's only one other fast 28 that I know of, the CV Ultron f/1.9, and it's a lot larger than the 'cron.
 
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