The cult of Leica

[morrow]

I still have six , but knew some serious collectors .

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/09/24/candid-camera?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=onsite-share&utm_brand=the-new-yorker&utm_social-type=earned&fbclid=IwAR1Bb3DgvLms2aTyLZ3YxuAUQO4sg93AQcDOow0pIx_9a1AjZHezjP9k5u0

[Pilgrim]

I have my father's 1950's Leica M2 with the 50MM pull/turn lens. It's a lovely piece of photographic history, and the lens is incredibly sharp. Some of the slides I shot in the 70's with Kodachrome 64 (no longer available) across the WSU football stadium showed the individual bricks in a wall on the opposite side of the stadium.

However, I'm not sure I will ever use it to shoot film again. My Canon EOS T6S shoots well enough, in high enough resolution, that it wins the battle unless I simply have a turn of fancy to shoot some film.  In that case, I might also use my favorite camera, a 1981 black-body Pentax ME Super.

The Leica is worth $$$ on the resale market. I just haven't decided I want to let go of it yet.

[Highlander]

A specialist site I work in had £100k of Leica gear taken... commercial seller... daft considering it's very difficult to shift because of it's "specialist" nature... we fitted a smoke-screen system... virtually impossible to see your hand in front of your face... yes it was tried again but they got no further than the lobby...
I've picked up a 10-20 and 135-600 lenses there for my Nikon... nice place... new and s/h gear, mostly on-line...

[morrow]

I was always on the search for missing accessories whenever I was in an interesting camera shop . The Leica system was pretty convoluted .
I knew four or five local collectors that had between thirty and fifty Leicas , and they knew every little variation and how the lenses evolved . Fascinating characters , now gone .
I was a fan of German optics , and also invested in Sinar , with Schneider glass , and Blad gear , with Zeiss glass . But the Leicas were always such a joy to use .
I really should set up a darkroom again . I think I still have around three and a half Leica enlargers .