LCT
ex-newbie
I have kept a couple of Leica rangefinders from M3 to M11 but my last one will be the MEV1 or a successor of it. An M camera to fit my M and LTM lenses with EVF for mirrorless capabilities.
What is your 'camera for life'?
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Godfrey
somewhat colored
(bolded 1) Yes.
(bolded 2) Hmm. No. I've had a few things done with Leica USA, same as I have with Olympus, Nikon, Hasselblad, Pentax, and Sony, all over the course of the past 15 years or so. All of them averaged 2-4 weeks turnaround, with similar shipping time on each end. Leica is well within the average in my experience.
I'm happy enough with the four M bodies I have now (M10-R, M10 Mono, M4-2, M6TTL 0.85x). Since both M10-R and M10 Mono do Live View and work with the same EVF, and I feel this is good enough; I don't have a driving need to buy an M EV1 or similar at present. Maybe at some point in the future.
G
38Deardorff
Well-known
LCT
ex-newbie
Let's say from MEV1 to MEV4 with a bit of luck.
RichC
Well-known
I find the idea utterly bizarre! It's like having a "hammer for life" or a "TV for life"!
A camera is just a tool, a means to an end: to take photos. So it gets replaced whenever I want a new feature, or the way I photograph changes.
I only ever own one camera at a time, as what's the point in more? (My current Sony A7CR is an exception - it's essentially identical to the Sony A7R IVa except for being a lot smaller.)
The cameras I've owned over 26 years, in sequence are below. Photography became important to me when I bought my first digital camera 26 years ago - top-of-the-range with 2MP!
Fuji Finepix 4700 (in 2000)
Canon 10D
Epson RD-1
Leica M8
Canon 5D
Nikon D800E
Sony A7R II
Sony A7R IVa (Sony A7CR)
Note the increase in MP, from 2MP to 61MP! I like to exhibit prints at A2 size (60 cm or 24 in.), and sometimes need larger prints for certain projects - one had 1.5 m (5 ft) prints!
A camera is just a tool, a means to an end: to take photos. So it gets replaced whenever I want a new feature, or the way I photograph changes.
I only ever own one camera at a time, as what's the point in more? (My current Sony A7CR is an exception - it's essentially identical to the Sony A7R IVa except for being a lot smaller.)
The cameras I've owned over 26 years, in sequence are below. Photography became important to me when I bought my first digital camera 26 years ago - top-of-the-range with 2MP!
Fuji Finepix 4700 (in 2000)
Canon 10D
Epson RD-1
Leica M8
Canon 5D
Nikon D800E
Sony A7R II
Sony A7R IVa (Sony A7CR)
Note the increase in MP, from 2MP to 61MP! I like to exhibit prints at A2 size (60 cm or 24 in.), and sometimes need larger prints for certain projects - one had 1.5 m (5 ft) prints!
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raydm6
Yay! Cameras! 🙈🙉🙊┌( ಠ_ಠ)┘ [◉"]
Actually, I have one of those. A small tack hammer my Dad used around the house - a keepsake to remember him by. He was a professional cabinet-maker.
But I get your point. 🙂
petronius
Veteran
I thought about this camera-for-life-question during a walk (cold!) this morning. Quite to my surprise, when I thought about the camera that gave me the most satisfaction while shooting and when looking at the output it is the Polaroid Image/Spectra. I bought it in 1987, used it as my main camera for the next five years and I wish I could get new film for it.
mtnbkr
Established
In digital, I agree completely. Digital is still growing and improving, so stopping at any arbitrary point and saying "this is the camera I will use forever" is shortsighted (though I'm using a 9yo M43 digital that still does what I need it to do, so maybe it can happen at the amateur level).
However, we've reached that plateau with film and we've long been at a stage where a person can pick a camera, lens, and emulsion and use it for decades without being "behind the curve" at some point in the future.
Chris
Photar
Well-known
Utterly bizarre? I always liked the Bizarre Festivals (of indie music) in Germany. Bizarre can be quite entertaining. I found this thread entertaining.
stephen_lumsden
Well-known
About 20 years ago I decided on the Kiev/contax mount as I had a Kiev 4. I got rid of it as it had light leaks in 2009 after I got a reconditioned contax ii from fom Henry Scherer. I did not use it for a few years til 2020, but now have a good lens set for it and a good spare body obtained via eBay. Once I take my time, it delivers. Once Oleg is there to do a cla I will stick with it and I am not sure how much extra quality I'd get going to a manual Leica M body at this stage.
RichC
Well-known
TBF, I do have my grandad's century-old hammer - but it's not exactly an everyday tool! 👍
Ccoppola82
Well-known
Mine would have to be my M246 and M6 with the updated windows. Every other camera I own could be interchangeable with other models but those two for me are unique enough and tick all the boxes I need.
JeffS7444
Well-known
If you could coax them into delivering BP-SCL2 batteries and Monopan 50 film in a timely manner (as defined by us, not them!) you could become an online legend, "The Leica Whisperer".
Godfrey
somewhat colored
Unfortunately, neither of those issues has anything to do with the Leica USA service department.
Those are issues with Leica USA parts and supply organization, a totally different group of people.
G
Godfrey
somewhat colored
Why do you say that? For example, my Sony DSC-F707 (an EVF type compact camera with a 10:1 zoom lens and 5Mpixel sensor) which I bought in about 2003, is still in use by the good friend I gave it to in 2005 when I moved on to my first DSLR. There's no reason, discounting battery availability, that a Leica M EV1 will not be a perfectly functional camera for 15-20 years. That's longer than I will most likely be a perfectly functional human being at this point... 😉
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kxl
Social Documentary
Saying that the MP or MA can be my forever camera implies that I am willing to accept its current state as good enough for the rest of my life. And that's fine with me wrt a film camera.
I have a difficult time in accepting that my current digital body (Nikon Z6III) will be good enough in the long term because my perception is that digital bodies will incrementally improve/evolve over time, and I may want to be part of that ride.
I have a difficult time in accepting that my current digital body (Nikon Z6III) will be good enough in the long term because my perception is that digital bodies will incrementally improve/evolve over time, and I may want to be part of that ride.
Godfrey
somewhat colored
I guess I look at this differently. My Olympus E-1 is exactly the camera that I bought 20+ years ago, same five Mpixel, FourThirds format sensor, same focus, same sensitivity, same excellent lenses. Raw converter technology improvements have made its output a little cleaner than it was back in the days of its youth, but it still remains largely just the same nice camera that I spent a bit too much on, and I still like what it produces. My M10-R/-M cameras have far better sensors, much higher resolution, etc etc, and I love what they do too, but neither competes in my head against the old E-1 directly. They simply produce different output ... it's my job to work whichever one I want to use to make the output I want from it. That's all. I wouldn't have bought the E-1 if I didn't think it could do what I wanted, and I would be mighty disappointed in the M10s if they didn't have far more capability ... But that doesn't negate the E-1 from being still a useful, desirable camera, nor does it say that I ignore what additional capability the M10s have either.
Analogously, I still take out my Minox 8x11 mm subminiature cameras now and then despite that my more standard film camera nowadays is a 6x6 cm Hasselblad. They do utterly different things, and it's in those differences that I find their charm and unique personalities.
G
skahde
V for Victory!
Just play along and have fun! 😁
kxl
Social Documentary
I agree that any camera I might have bought have bought years ago and produced images that I liked would all of a sudden stop being a good camera because of tech advances. I owned an Epson R-D1s several years ago--it was great then and for what it was designed to do, it can probably be considered great today. Would I pick it up today in lieu of my Z6 III? Probably not, and it's not because the Epson is no longer any good. And probably not because the Z6 III in and of itself is a current body. I think it's primarily because my needs have changed--I have changed.
And beyond that, I can't say that the Z6 III is my camera for life because I don't know what I may want/need a few years from now, nor do I know if the Z6 IV, V, VI will include features that I may decide I can't live without. Yeah, I know--camera companies love people like me.
Archiver
Veteran
This is exactly what I was thinking when looking at the posts of @Erik van Straten , which prompted this latest train of thought. He uses a handful of film cameras and lenses which are decades old, and he produces a very classic look in everything. When I look back through my flickr, I can see when I changed cameras, when I experimented with Lightroom presets and processing styles, when major upgrades resulted in large differences in output. Erik's work is pretty much timeless.
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