Who intends keeping their M8 FOREVER?

[jaapv]

Let's hope the dollar recovers. in Euros the M8 and M9 did not differ that much in price.

 

[nakedcellist]

You mean you know how many cameras you own?

Good grief. I lost track in the 1980s. Almost certainly more than 20; probably fewer than 50.

Cheers,

R.

Wow.. and how many Leicas? I love to see people's collections. But I decided against collecting myself a few months ago. I now use my m8, m6 and Hasselblad 500cm, with a Nikon FE2 as a spare.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Wow.. and how many Leicas? I love to see people's collections. But I decided against collecting myself a few months ago. I now use my m8, m6 and Hasselblad 500cm, with a Nikon FE2 as a spare.

The joke is that I don't collect any more, but bear in mind what I do for a living. These were acquired as users, and superseded (or are still in use), or were bought for 'Classic and Collector' articles in Shutterbug. A few I inherited or was otherwise given. I just very seldom get rid of things, but for an account of the most recent camera to go out of the door, see http://www.rogerandfrances.com/subscription/konica sIII.html -- ignore the typo of 'yelloe' instead of 'yellow' in line 4 (it went up yesterday, and the web-master hasn't fixed it yet). Last year a Werra 3 went under the same conditions.

Leicas are a IIIa (my first, kept for sentimental reasons), M2, M4P, MP, M8, M9. I'd cheerfully sell the M4P but it's in such disgusting condition after 30 years (25 of them used hard, before I got the MP) that I doubt it's worth much.

But (for example) I have five 4x5 inch cameras (Gandolfi, Linhof, Toho), two 6x6 SLRs (Kowa, inherited, Pentacon Six, bought in Prague for a C&C column), two rollfilm rangefinders (Graflex XL, bought for its f/2.8 lens to test Delta 3200, and Polaroid 600 SE, gift from Polaroid, with roll-film adapter back), and a top-end scale-focus wide-angle rollfilm camera (Alpa). And probably about 5 Nikon Fs.

And so on, from a Chadt (the smallest camera ever to take Minox film, a review camera) via Minolta 16, Olympus Pen W, Retina IIa, Pentax, Exakta and other full-frame 35mm, 5x7 inch Gandolfi & Linhof, 8x10 inch De Vere, to a 12x15 inch Gandolfi.

Cheers,

R.

 

[popeye]

It looks like in order to make room for something else I won't be keeping it forever...

Great camera, much better at what it does than I. Love it's simplicity and unless I return to the system, I'll be hard pressed to find something as easy to use and engaging to create with. I'll surely regret it but I have other things to tend to that necessitate divestiture of my M system, the old Pentax will have to suffice I guess...

 

[Doug]

I'm arriving at a greater appreciation for the M8 now. Its peculiarities have been handled with suitable solutions; it's working and is a stable system. I'm used to its "crop factor". The M9 still has an odd kink or two.

 

[Jim Evidon]

Given the market drop in used camera value plus the fact that I love the camera, I'll keep it and put it in my will providing my kids behave themselves.

So far, so good.

 

[cidereye]

Well I sold my M8 several months ago to concentrate simply on film M's but have really regretted selling it and miss it big time. So much so I'm doing an about turn and selling off ALL my non Leica gear so that I can afford to buy another one preferably an M8.2 but that doesn't matter too much as I found most of what the M8 offers fine to work with.

 

[Mr. Big]

Although I laid out some serious coin when I bought it new, it's just a tool that had flaws that were mostly fixed when the M9 came out. I don't get emotionally attached to brands so I sold it last week before the price dropped any further.