Leica Stories

[misterb]

Back in the days when I was a poor university student, I managed to buy three Leica's. My first was a DS M3 with a similar vintage 50mm Elmar, which I gave to my girlfriend. I then bought for myself a later model SS M3 with a 50mm Summicron. The 3rd came from an ex-Life Magazine photographer (unfortunately, I've forgotten his name), who lived in a little cabin on the outskirts of town. He had a pair of M4's, but one of them had a broken viewfinder window. At this point, I couldn't afford to buy both, so I bought the one in good shape, which came with a 35mm Summicron.
That was over 30 years ago when the tuition at a Canadian university was less than $500 a year, when I could live off my earnings from a summer job without taking out a student loan, and a university student could still buy 3 used Leica's!

 

[aka5ha]

My long sad Leica story

My long sad Leica story

I have been into photography since the 5th grade, when my Dad bought me an Olympus OM-1. Soon I had a B&W darkroom in the basement and have produced hundreds and thousands of images per year since then. I moved to Nikons next for like 20 years: Fs, F2s, F3s, and an F4. Always admired Leicas and Leica glass but the lack of a built in meter turned me off. When the M6 came out I think around 1984 I said, I have to have one. Switched to Canon with the EOS-1 and I have a bunch of EOS gear to this day. When the M8 came out I said, now I am going to build an M system. So, I placed an order for the 28 2.8 ASPH, which stayed on back order forever, so I found and purchased a mint v4 28 2.8 instead and had it 6-bit updated. Then I bought a new 50 2.0 cron. While saving for the M8, they raised to price like $800 to $5600. That is just too much. So I give up, and scoured NYC until I found a demo mint black paint MP, which I bought. Lots of dust quickly settled in the finder so I sent it to Solms for cleaning. Guess what, the US postal service lost my MP about 1 month ago, and they require an additional 90 days to trace the package, then maybe after that I can apply for my insurance money. So no Leica for me. In fact I have given up, and now I am going to trade in my 28 and 50 lenses for a 5D body, to go along with all my EOS lenses and film bodies. It was a valiant attempt you must admit, but I hope someday to just have an M body with a fast 35 lens. I only got the 28 because of the M8 crop! Well that's my story! I will still be around the forums just to check out the great cameras, and also the great photography. If you folks ever see an MP serial # MP2983750 it is the one the US post office "lost".

 

[Avotius]

My Leica story:

I dont have a M leica, and that is something that I hope to rectify soon. What I do have is an old Red scale 50mm elmar 3.5 in tip top shape that I picked up at a camera store in Tacoma. They didnt really know what to do with it and didnt even have it out on display, I simply asked if they had any leica stuff. A few minutes later the old guy comes out with this lens and said he would take 100 bucks for it, I talked him down a hair to 90 and got myself a very much excellent shape elmar which I went on to take many photos with.

 

[Tom A]

Many years ago,in the early 60's I was on assignement in Germany. At the time I was freelancing and my client was a rather large and wealthy newspaper so the "per Diem" was good (and most importantly, they gave you an advance). One of my M2's bit the dust and a fellow shooter from a much smaller and poorer paper was running low on funds so I lent him $80. He insisted that he give me one of his M2's as "security" and I said OK. Once the job was done and we returned to Sweden, I kept telling him to pay me back so that I could return his damned camera! He kept postponing it and in the end he said" Why dont you keep it - I got myself a Nikon F instead". So I did keep it and it is still around, a battered black paint M2, now on its 3rd top plate and second shutter assembly.

 

[sepiareverb]

That Erik, always the first one on the best deals...😉

 

[sepiareverb]

Would this Norwegian guy like his $250 back?😀

 

[sepiareverb]

My brother-in-law got a NIkon 50/1.2 same way. $50. Some people have all the luck with gear. I've got no gear luck, but I'm lucky in love.

 

[Roger Hicks]

In '69 or '70 my girlfriend wanted a cheap, reliable, manual camera. I recommended a Leica. She bought a II for twenty quid (under thirty bucks). After 3 weeks or so she wanted to try it so I had to buy my own IIIa for thirty quid.

Since then I've had A, I, II, III, IIIa, IIIb, IIIc, IIIf, IIIg, M1, M2, M3, M4-P, MP, M8, and handled/put film through FF/GG, IIId (!), M6, M6ttl, M7.

Favourites? For smoothness, M3; for usability, MP, especially à la carte.

They're cheap cameras. Between my M4-P and MP I never bought a new Leica in 25 years. The M4-P was a swap for a black paint M3, maybe a thousand quid ($1500-$2000), and across 25 years that's forty quid/$60-80 per year.

Cheers,

R.

 

[raid]

So Leicas are good investments. This is good to know, especially since new Leica cameras are not cheap. It seems that with many things in life, money creates money.

 

[HSI]

Tom, you going to have to lend a young photography a 35mm one of these days. I picked up a 90/2.8 Elmarit (Newest version, German made) for $90 at the flea market along with a 28/1.9 for another $40. Pretty good deal I suppose. - Anyone wanna trade for a 35/2?

 

[tedwhite]

I told this story sometime back on another thread (can't find it right now). In the 60's Roy Shigley and I were poor graduate students living in the Haight Ashbury district of San Francisco and free-lancing for food on the table. We did not have, to use a term I heard recently, much in the way of discretionary income. As in flat broke.

We wandered south of Market one day with our beat-up Spotmatics, looking for a photo we could take and sell to the Chronicle, the Examiner, the Oracle (remember that one?) or the Berkeley Barb (the last two paid sporadically, if at all) and, in our wanderings, happened into a dingy pawn shop.

Roy spotted a small, beat-up looking camera in a showcase full of mostly junk and asked the shop owner what he wanted for it. Eighty bucks, said the owner. I'll take it, said Roy, not even trying to negotiate.

He literally emptied his wallet. All the money he had in the world at that moment might have been ninety bucks.

You out of your mind? I asked. What the hell are you going to do with that thing?

Roy, smiling somewhat smugly, said, it's a Leica. I've been reading up on them.
I think this is the one with roller bearings or something like that that the Germans used for high altitude photography or maybe just a camera that would work in below zero weather. I'm not sure, but that's what I think.

I thought he was out of his mind.

Turned out he wasn't.

 

[gberger]

I have a friend in New Zealand who uses an M6 and assorted lenses in his work as a feature writer and as a free-lance photographer.

I dropped in on an estate sale in our neighborhood earlier this year and found a decent 35mm Summicron ASPH on the counter. The estate executor had no knowledge of either what it was for and/or its intrincic value.

So, I asked the executor about the price. He had no clue. In the ensuing conversation, I remarked that rthe lens was for a FILM camera! His eyes glazed over, as he only knew about and had used point-and-shoot digitals. He immediately lost interest in the lens as a valuable item.

I was able to buy the lens for a pittance, and I shipped it off to my New Zealand friend.

Every now and then, the film vs. dightal conflict can work in one's favor.

George

 

[Uncle Bill]

My brother-in-law got a NIkon 50/1.2 same way. $50. Some people have all the luck with gear. I've got no gear luck, but I'm lucky in love.

Let me tell you guys about a gear story. My brother has a thing for Nikon F's, wanted and early serial number beater, so he orders one from famous camera broker we all know. Guess what they send him, number 64000031 with working cloth shutter and a Photomic head (not original but a year or two later). From what I understand not many cloth shutter F's are in circulation at the moment, Not bad for $200.

I am still hoping to find an original black paint Leica MP at a garage sale for $100......

 

[raid]

They used to sell "whole sale" entire lots of Leica cameras at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola. I never made it to such auctions.

 

[aoresteen]

In 1980 I swapped a Hasselblad 250mm Sonnar for a SS M3 w/2.8 Elmar. I took it to Ft. Bragg with me and used it in Special Forces School. We moved to Germany and by then I had a Canon 50mm f/1.2 (swapped the Elmar for it), a 50mm f/2 Nikkor, and a Canon 85mm F/2 Serenar. I also got a 35mm 3.5 with bug eyes.

I took it on every SF mission I went; I parachuted in with it in my rucksack, went on trips with it thoughout Europe. In Sazlburg I dropped it on the cobblestone destroying the 85mm Serenar. I was sure that I had bent the lens mount as well. I had it checked in Munchen expecting a high repair bill. When the tech said all is good! No problems! was I relived. Even the RF was still aligned. USAA paid for the 85mm Serenar.

Just before we left Germany I got a 50mm Summicron and a 90mm Tele-Elmarit.

In 1988 needing money and havinging too many cameras I sold it at Oak Park Camera with the lenses.

The M3 has "LT Oresteen" engraved on the back under the film advance. If you know where it is let me know!

A couple of years ago I decided to get another SS M3. I get a nice one, and a Canon 50mm f/1.2. I send the M3 to DAG for a CLA and it comes back perfect with M4 loading and M6 motor drive coupling; it now is an M3-MOT.

 

[HSI]

Oresteen, rad.

 

[mw_uio]

aoresteen, Can you buy film at the PX, as I hear it is the biggest in Iraq?
Great story also.

Cheers
Mark
Quito, EC

 

[caffeineshutter]

Yikes. I suspect he knew very well what that lens on the table was. According to The Leica Compendium, the Noctilux was f/1.2 before it became an f/1 lens.

Dammit.

*I* want to have that kind of luck at yard sales....

Well the guy obviously got fooled since the noctilux is a f1 lens 🙂

Tell him that

 

[aoresteen]

Marc,

The PX at Taji does sell film - only C41. Not a lot of selection. I brought 50 rolls of guess what with me? Yup, HP5+ 35mm. I don't shoot C41 anyway so it's not an issue with me.

It is the largest PX in Iraq by square footage but with most of the shelves bare, not the biggest by selection. They just split it in half to make room for the Bazar which burned down a few months ago.

Tony

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

My brother-in-law got a NIkon 50/1.2 same way. $50. Some people have all the luck with gear. I've got no gear luck, but I'm lucky in love.

That's all that matters.

Love keeps idle hands busy 😉