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Hi Banks here.... Tortured in high school I sought refuge and a work exchange program which allowed me to work with the photographer name of Jon. He raised me on the zone system and insisted I shoot only in manual mode it was the '70's and Nikon was the Camera to have! My first camera was the Nikon FM, I eventually graduated up the chain to F2AS's etc. My Nikon FM believe or not was made out of brass was very small in hand and once all the basics of photography were learned to work a manual camera it was simple and very rewarding as you all know to get a shoot focusing ring, aperture ring, and shutter on the top help you make selections out of the box that will get you a well exposed frame but also the effect you want. I love this little FM. I owed many Nikon's and their lenses. All of which Iam happy to say I sold for more than I paid many years down the line. Due to the kindness of my Mentor I had the pleasure of working with all of his Nikon equipment , Hassalblads CM bodies and it's glass and one special day I was allowed go out with his prize Leica which had I believe had 35mm Leica lens on it!!! Rangefinders were new to me yet the love affair was on! Life went on I adopted four boys, open 24 stores and by the time I turned around the digital revolution was here, coming from the background that a camera was an investment and if purchased correctly one would never lose that much on resale much less that it would be worthless in a matter of months! So I embraced this new technology I purchased my first digital, it was a Sony something and cost $1600 for a all plastic one megapixel camera! The rational that I could launch my eBay career LOL! Being a computer illiterate at the time I couldn't even upload those fabulous one megapixel photos onifto my eBay pages nonetheless I did very well in on eBay which ironically is where I sold the Sony for $50.... I was ready to try again. One day in my plastic surgeons office as I glanced through the pages a magazine I saw the Leica Digilux 2!!! It look like a RF yet it functioned quite a bit like an automatic SLR, with the ability to be used in manual to boot it had a nice Leica zoom! The exciting news was all of its bits and pieces were exposed IE aperture ring, focus ring, shutter speed with a built-in flash all very expensive for what it was but I was in love. Panasonic' counterpart DMC LC1 came in all black which was half the price and came with more but purchased the Leica I did. boy was I lucky i purchased the floor model saved there it had the actual Leica impossible to find Leica filter,a extra battery and was eligible for a Leica free hot shoe flash to promote the camera! So I hade done quite well and just loved that camera! Due to the Sony debacle and the entry of the Nikon D 200 a SLR that in my opinion now is like all DSLR's today they are disfunctional albatross, which in the fact play hide and seek with all the controls for no apparent reason other than to make taking a manual photograph an exercise in The occult and are very heavy, but due to the wealth of my Nikon lenses I parted with my film bodies sold my Leica at a profit and purchased the D 200 with a digital zoom because it was to be the second coming of Jesus!!! It was not to say the least I'd trade it in a second today for the 5 megapixcel Leica! I still have the D 200 and even though we are up to the D 800 the 200 takes great pictures the zoom is adequate to good but I've never been comfortable with the screen menu and controls which are not where they should be . So here I am waiting for the last several years to finally buy the M I have always wanted!!! I don't need to have the latest and greatest but after a couple digital experiences I do know what I had to have.... which would be a full frame great sensor a body that caters to manual photography and a great lens! I knew the M-8 was a no go and I waited patiently for the M-9 to become of age and was quite surprised this year when the M-10 came out with a M-9 in monochrome! I believe this leads me to the body choice of either the Leica M9 monochrome or the M-10 (I am a B&W guy but the idea of not being able to take color picture leaves me a bit uneasy ) and unfortunately for me the lens I like and will serve me best is likely the 50mm F 0.95 coming in a grand total of $18,000!!! The only way to cut this in now would be to purchase the Magic SLR copy which is $5000 which is not exactly cheap but would save about $6000 and probably be a year wait.... So this is my story of woo if anybody can identify and has any input that might save me from all these decisions and/or encouraged me to do just exactly what I described please feel free! If this diatribe is to confusing or you're not old enough to understand please forgive me and go to the next tread. FYI I am not a professional photographer but thoroughly enjoyed it as a hobby. I have two lamps from the 50s which for some reason were $50 and will now sell for approximately $15,000! So money really is the issue where I could use an information is in the sheer volume of Leica Lenses I'm a one maybe two lens guy, I enjoy portraits and street photography, I travel quite a bit, I never use the flash... so if you have some insight as to an alternative lens be it one or two that are less desirable yet taken in enough light are a sharp enough that have that magic Leica Boeken I'm all ears. Thank you.