Leica in India

[Sean Moran]

Hello folks,

I'm in Agra at the moment, and my M2 plus Summicron 50mm, Elmar 90mm f/4 and 35mm Goggled Summaron (recently bought from Onno - cheers Onno) are proving to be the ideal travelling gear. A pale yellow and orange filter and lots of HP5+ complete the kit.

However, my beloved's Leica M3 (recently serviced - I'll disclose the firm if they don't put it right) jammed on her very first film. Stuck for a camera (and not wanting to let a Delhi firm attempt a repair - no offence to Delhiites), we resorted to buying a rough rough rough Minolta SRT101 for not too much. Did I mention it was rough? The slow speeds don't work, the screen is filthy, everything grinds and the bottom is held on with elastic. However, it came with a lovely 58mm f/1.4 lens, so it should do her until we return. So today it was pointed at the Taj Mahal, various street characters and so on, hoping that 1/250 is within a stop or two of correct - good enough for colour snaps. Back to Delhi tomorrow. I don't think we can be bothered getting the vendor to repair the slow speeds - we are treating it as a disposable camera. This would be shameful, except we noticed that the camera of choice for the photographers at the Taj Mahal is the Minolta SRT101. So ours has probably spent 30+ years doing sterling service photographing visitors day after day. If it limps through Delhi, Agra, Amritsar and Kashmir over the next few weeks, it deserves an honourable retirement.

Cheers,

Sean.

 

[Ben Z]

Sean, I feel your pain buddy. As a world traveller who's also a photo bug, having a piece of equipment jam up on a trip is a major bummer. As good as Leicas are, as much as I enjoy them, they can and do misbehave despite the best servicing by the best people. Finding a replacement on location is usually not possible and never practical, and you can go totally OCD trying to figure out how many backups is enough 😀 As many times as I've read people scared to use battery-driven SLRs because supposedly the Leicas are more reliable, in point of fact if your EOS 3 or 1V breaks down, almost anywhere you can find a Rebel-something for not too much money that'll take the same lenses and deliver the same photos. Insert "Nikon" if that's your preference. It's a cruel paradox for us Leica fans.

 

[RML]

That's a shame, Sean! I fear something like that will happen to me one day too. It's the reason I usually bring 3 (!) bodies: the Bessa R, the M2 and the Bessa L. I guess nowadays one of those will be replaced by the R-D1, but still I'll be bringing 3 bodies. 🙂 The Bessa and Leica bodies are so flat and small that I can easily pack 2 in the space of 1 Canon Eos. I hope the Minolta lasts the whole trip. And give a good retirement afterwards!

 

[Avotius]

oh what a bummer, I as out on a trip with my Mamiya 6 and it blew up in my hands, quite a pain in the ass, had to "resort" to using my 20D, not quite the same, nothing sucks as much as having a main camera die on you out in the feild

 

[Pherdinand]

that's a shame, expecially for the fame of the LEica regarding ruggedness and reliability...
However the cheap (nowadays) Minolta SRT's are very very robust with good lenses, the 58/1.4 is within the best so i'm sure the results will be more than satisfactory😉

 

[Bryan Lee]

You should be able to get any Leica repaired in India and repaired correctly if you look around, There is a huge amount of 2nd hand cameras their also. On the 7th through the 10th January 2006 they have what is billed as the 3rd largest photography show in the world in Mumbai. If you are anywhere close to that you should check it out. I wanted to go but cant leave Thailand right now.

 

[RML]

You should be able to get any Leica repaired in India and repaired correctly if you look around, There is a huge amount of 2nd hand cameras their also.

Having spent nearly 6 months in Hyderabad, I haven't been able to find a single decent shop where they were selling anything but digital cameras. The few places where I found one or two non-digital cameras, the prices were of extortion rates. Lenses were quite well available: Canon, Nikon, Minolta, etc.

Second-hand cameras I haven't found anywhere. To me it seemed hardly anyone liked second-hand items anymore in India if they could get a new , cheapo digital camera.

To be fair, I didn't go there to look for bargains so perhaps I just missed out on all the good stuff. 🙂

 

[Bryan Lee]

Having spent nearly 6 months in Hyderabad, I haven't been able to find a single decent shop where they were selling anything but digital cameras. The few places where I found one or two non-digital cameras, the prices were of extortion rates. Lenses were quite well available: Canon, Nikon, Minolta, etc.

Second-hand cameras I haven't found anywhere. To me it seemed hardly anyone liked second-hand items anymore in India if they could get a new , cheapo digital camera.

To be fair, I didn't go there to look for bargains so perhaps I just missed out on all the good stuff. 🙂

Its not the kind of thing you will find on a normal shopping trip. Just remember India is very advanced in the movie industry and commercial photography also. I know some guys who have recently been bringing some realy nice gear from there for resale in Thailand. Just like Singapore and Hong Kong there is a huge English influence on the country and that means cameras. I was told there is one area with over 300 camera shops alone, I believe it is Mumbai. Ill see if I can get some more detailed information and post it.

 

[Sean Moran]

Thanks for your sympathy folks.

I should make it clear that my Leica M2 is working fine, it's my beloved's camera (an M3) that jammed. It's a double wind model and I wonder if it's the wind-on that's failed. She seems happy enough with the Minolta - in fact the more scorn I pour on it, the more she seems to like it. I must admit, it's a relief not to have to watch discreetly how she is throwing her bag around: I don't think anything she can do to it could make the Minolta any more battered than it is already. Maybe I'll buy her a better SRT101 body on our return to the UK and use the M3 as a back-up/extra body/different-speed-film machine for myself. She's never really appreciated the Leica I bought her. Or, if the pictures are good, make the rough SRT101 a standard part of our travel kitand not even bother with replacing it. The M3 can act as back-up for the Minolta then!

By the way, I'm just about overcoming the shell-shock caused by my being in India for the first time. If I don't get a few decent B&W street images, I ought to be ashamed of myself.

Happy New Year.

Sean.

 

[Little Prince]

As a western tourist (or you may not be a tourist, I don't know) there ought to be great potential for B&W street images in India. I can see that you might find a lot of scenes interesting as a photog, but being from there myself, can't quite see it in the same way.

You must be enjoying the thought of snagging an M3 in exchange for a SRT101 😎. Good luck.

 

[Sean Moran]

That's an interesting point you make, Little Prince. As you imply it is the 'otherness' of the street scenes in India that appeal to me.

If you visited my usual abode - Belfast - on July 12 you would similarly see remarkable things going on (men in Bowler hats carrying swords, accompanied by fife-and-drum bands) which the locals would not regard as anything unusual.

Right now (back in Delhi after a trip to Shimla) I still find the frantic mix of pedestrians in a variety of garb, autorickshaws, cycle-rickshaws, motorbikes and other vehicles and animals all sharing very restricted road-space absolutely fascinating to watch and photograph. I've avoided cliches such as beggars and other unfortunates, but even with these self-imposed restrictions, there is so much of personal interest and photographic interest on the streets here. The challenge is to time the shot to frame an interesting conjunction - say ambling cow and policeman wielding a big stick in the foreground with a beturbanned street vendor plying his trade in the background - but to do so before someone or something else blocks the picture.

This is my first visit to your country, Little Prince, and I love it. Today in Shimla, I was full of admiration for the bearers - carrying very heavy loads on their backs(eg five or six cast-iron drain covers or several sacks of rice) up steep paths in the snow, apparently effortlessly. They seemed to be proud of their work and had no problem being photographed. (Like the exotic Orangemen and Republicans of Belfast)

Cheers,

Sean.

 

[Little Prince]

Interesting to hear all that. I have been living in the US for the past few years and find myself slowly approaching a point where I might find those very same old street scenes from India a little different. When you spend some time away, I guess things again appear in a new light. But it's not been that long yet 🙂.

Of course, I've never been to Ireland but may go someday. Who knows?

 

[dll927]

About that Minolta SRT-101: Interesting that it should still be the "camera of choice" around the Taj Mahal. In its day it was supposed to be the largest-selling SLR. I have one I bought brand-spanking new in 1970 - still have it. No elastic, either!

 

[RML]

About that Minolta SRT-101: Interesting that it should still be the "camera of choice" around the Taj Mahal. In its day it was supposed to be the largest-selling SLR. I have one I bought brand-spanking new in 1970 - still have it. No elastic, either!

I guess that in many parts of the world where people shoot portraits for a living, like at the Taj Mahal, they stick with what they know, can repair and afford. In Mongolia's capital, Ulaanbaatar, in summer the photogs on the main square in front of the House of Parliament generally use old, battered, black Nikons and the odd Minolta or Pentax. Not a single new model to be found there. Too expensive for most, and the old ones still perform stellarly. These people are there to make a few bucks, not to spend a ton of it on new gear. 🙂

 

[Nikon Bob]

Sorry to hear that the M3 packed it in, especially in such an image rich place as India. I have one M body and would not put it up against my old used Nikons in the reliability department. The Nikons have proven themselves to me and the M has not, as yet. I am going on a long overseas trip where the M will get a chance to prove it's worth. It had better function as good as the Nikons have in the past or the M goes.

Bob

 

[payasam]

If you're in Delhi again, Sean, I'm 22752067 and 22750240. My chap will see to the Minolta: but be warned that if he thinks it unfixable, he'll refuse flatly to touch it. For the Leica, the one person of whom I know is in Calcutta (now Kolkata). There were others, but most died and the rest are retired. Everyone claims, of course, to be able to fix anything: and very convincingly too. If suicidal, be convinced.

 

[RML]

Everyone claims, of course, to be able to fix anything: and very convincingly too. If suicidal, be convinced.

Hear, hear! They do the same to your mobile phone, tv, car, etc. 🙂 Be forewarned!

 

[payasam]

"They" are people of my country, RML, but the world is full of the kind. I've never been to Mongolia, but I was pretty badly ripped off in Rotterdam at the end of 1975. Have things changed now that people take pictures of shadows?