The M9... and the Need for Ever More

[Jager]

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At our hunt camp many years ago a buddy of mine slowly uncased one of the most beautiful rifles I had ever seen. Long and slender, it had a double-set match trigger that broke like glass. It shot sub minute-of-angle, easy. And it had a fancy walnut stock that was beautiful in the same aching way that a woman is.

 

I've never been envious of many things. But I'm sure my jealous desire was written on my sleeve as I handed it back. The Ruger No. 1 I would be hunting with the next morning - a rifle I loved and thought was quite graceful - suddenly seemed very pedestrian.

 

"How do you afford these rifles?" I asked. For I knew that this was just the latest in a gun cabinet full of custom rifles that Stevie had bought or had built. And as a country lawyer I knew he didn't make all that much more than I did.

 

He paused a moment before he answered. "Well, you just get 'em one at a time," he said. "You get something you like. Then, after a while, you trade that for something better. After awhile, you get another one. First thing you know, a bunch of years have gone and you look back and all of a sudden you've got a bunch of good stuff. It kind of surprises you."

 

I remembered Stevie's words of wisdom years later when I bought my first Leica rangefinder. That M6 and the 50 Summicron that came with it were breathtaking in what they cost.

 

It seems Leicas are like that. They take your breath away every time you buy one. You know you're not in Kansas anymore when a $1500 Summarit is "cheap."

 

But we do it. We do it because that gear that took our breath away when we signed the receipt in the camera store... also periodically takes our breath away with what it gives us in return.

 

When I bought my M8 a few years back, I ended up also buying a 28 Cron and a 50 Lux ASPH to go with it. The Cron because I needed that 35 FOV back. The 50, well, just because it was so good.

 

I thought I was set with the M9.

 

Apparently not.

 

Today I picked up a 75 Summicron. Aye, the one that brings up framelines so sad they remind you of vestigial tits on a boar hog. The ones that the fine folks in Solms apparently conceived after too many hefeweizens one late Friday night. No matter.

 

There wasn't much time for anything. Just a handful of quick snapshots on the way home.

 

But enough that I can tell it has that magic in it. I can't wait to get to know it.

 

Maybe then I'll finally be done. At least for awhile.

 

 

 

 

 

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[JWW]

Yes, I know the feeling. Leica glass is expensive but knowing that in owning Leica glass you can make money on reselling as often as not, the initial buying price isn't as bad as it 1st appears.

[KM-25]

I recently did a slide show as a way to raise funds for my project, all Kodachrome and all Leica of course. Even the projector was a Leica, my Pradovit RT with it's stunning 90mm 2.5 Super Colorplan lens. Seeing those images 15 feet wide paired with stirring music was far more breathtaking than the price of the gear used and even more breathtaking than digital anything.

 

If we needed a life extending surgical procedure that cost $250,000, we would not balk at the breathtaking price tag, we would find a way. Photography is more than a job for me, it is my life, I always find a way and always will.

 

Go big or go home I say...