Your first Leica? Tell your story...

[Jeffry Abt]

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See post # 79. First class camera.... still beautiful!

I should have said without M7 engraved on the front.

Edited August 27, 2015 by Jeffry Abt

[Jed Orme]

A frequently carried but lightly used (less than 3K actuations) black M240 became my first Leica about 3 weeks ago.  In retirement I finally had time to get back into serious photography & I sought to emulate the rangefinder system with a series of Fuji X cameras (X-100, X-100s, XE-2 & X-Pro1).  And I was pretty content until one day I realized that I had always wanted a Leica rangefinder, I was 75 years old & if I didn't so something about getting one, it might be too late!  So I gathered up all of my Fuji gear, headed to the nearby Leica dealer (where I also bought my Fuji gear) & asked how much they would give me in trade if I bought a used M9.  The trade-in number was a little less than my target, but knowing of the sensor problems with the M9 & none of the used ones I was shown had the factory replacement, I then asked "how much more would I have to spend to get the M240?"  Again, the amount was within my reach, so I told them I would buy an M240.  The rest is history as I now have the best camera I have ever used in my life.  Also three of my lenses from my Fuji system were M mount that I had adapted, so I had a basic kit - they are a CV21mm f4 Skopar, a Zeiss Planar 50mm f2 ZM, & a Leica Tele-Elmarit 90mm f2.8.  Finally, yesterday I bought a lightly used Leica Summarit 35mm f2.5, & now I think I will be ready to take on what ever comes my way photography wise.

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[rpavich]

My first Leica.

 

My story isn't a long as others' and doesn't include years of film experience.

I'm a relative noob when it comes to photography and especially film photography.

I bought a few Canon DSLR's in the beginning; of course I started with an entry level camera and then worked my way up to a 5DIII in a short amount of time.

I knew about Leica and dreamed that one day I might own one, but in the mean time, I bought a few Fuji cameras; those who aspire to be "rangefinderesque" in their form factor and use. But I always felt that I really needed to try the real thing to see what the fuss was all about.

I bought an M9 very very used from a camera store and returned it within a day or two. I just could NOT get on with it. In my mind, there were too many limitations.

So I kept shooting my Fujis and massaging the files to try and look like film. I spent a LOT of time to try and make my tack sharp as a razor files look like film from yesteryear.

One day it popped into my head to try a film Leica. I had a few SLR's and really enjoyed them so I thought this might be a "way in" to the Leica family.
 

I bought an M6 Classic from ebay (1986 model, very clean) that turned out to need a CLA. I had the viewfinder done at the same time via Sherry.

At first I chased the G.A.S. experience through different lenses but soon realized, one lens one camera was my thing. So I settled on a Summarit 35/2.5

Well...long story short...I will never part with my beloved M6! It's cured my G.A.S. completely. I no longer drool over the latest and greatest stuff as there is no point. I use a camera that's 30 years old already!


I am just enjoying shooting...that's it. Shooting and developing (and hopefully soon, darkroom printing) my images.

Here is a picture of my baby.

[kalifornier]

My first ever Leica was a used X1, just couple of months back. Unfortunately, found sensor dust, disappointed at the battery life, sent it back. The IQ was great, however. In came a very nice used X2 (black). Much better battery life, same fantastic IQ. And so, after a brief pause, my Leica story continues. I am having a blast! Here is a sample

 

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[rivi1969]

My first Leica almost got me into jail...

It was an R3 Safari, in the late 90's I guess... When I decided to sell it, I placed an ad in the local newspaper, a guy came by, gave me a cashier's check, I went to the bank to cash it and it was a fake one, so they called the cops for fraud and took me to the precint in a police car That episode last 6 months or so... Lost the R3 and the money!

[atournas]

Recently, a friend of mine heard this story about my first Leica and suggested that I shouldn't keep it for myself. It is in fact a story about Leica representatives of old times rather than me as a buyer.

 

This happened more than twenty years ago. The instructor in a photography class I attended told us that the local Leica representative had an offer of Leica R7 plus an intro zoom lens, but the representative asked that the prospective buyer went through an interview first!

 

In the interview the representative, a fanatic Leica photographer himself, wanted to know whether I knew the Leica history (sic) and names and stories of various masters of photography that used Leica. I passed the 'exam' and my Leica adventure began.

 

Later, the representative and I became friends and I asked him about the purpose of that interview. It wasn't only that they weren't many R7's available, he said, but that he wanted to make sure that the owner appreciated and loved that "fine instrument of miracles" (his words).

 

Paul

 

 

 

 

 

 

[wilfredo]

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It started with an M6, later MP, M7, M3, M8, and now it's the Monochrom Classic, in addition to the D2.  The Monochrom is my favorite tool!  The last two are the two Leicas I currently own and use.  I'm aging with Leica!

[mikemgb]

My story started at age 8 in 1974, when my mother handed me her Brownie 127, from that moment I was hooked. Once my parents realized they had created a monster I was handed my father's Kodak 126 Instamatic because film for that was cheaper!

 

I used that Instamatic for many years while studying everything about photography and the great photographers, the one camera brand that kept coming up was Leica, I decided at a very young age that one day I would own a Leica.

 

Fast forward to early 2015 when I took my wife to England and France for the first time, I'm an Expat Brit living in the USA since 1999, I took my favourite travel camera with me, a Nikon D3100 DSLR with an 18-105 lens. It proved to be a pain, I travel light these days and it was too bulky. My other go-to camera was a pocket sized Nikon compact that I carried with me all the time, a couple of months after getting back from Europe I dropped it and broke the rear screen. While researching replacements I found I could buy a used Leica C-Lux 2 for about the same money I was willing to spend on a new pocket camera.

 

Ebay came through and a C-Lux 2 became my first Leica. I was impressed enough with the image quality that when I went back to Europe at the end of last year with my wife and daughter I left the Nikon at home and just took the C-Lux 2. As part of that trip we had tickets to access the stone circle at Stonehenge. Unfortunately on that day it was raining - hard! The camera got soaked and it never fully recovered, it developed spots on the sensor and the lens cover started sticking.

 

I started researching a replacement for it but eventually decided another C-Lux 2 would fit the bill, mainly because I had multiple batteries and travel chargers for it and the image quality was just fine. While researching though, I came across the Leica D-Lux 109 and decided that would be a perfect travel camera, excellent IQ, small, light and compact. One became my third Leica, my fourth will be an M3 because I still use film and I love that camera.

 

The images below are the three Leicas, three photos taken with the first C-Lux 2, including the day that killed it, and two taken with the new D-Lux 109.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Paulus]

I bought my first camera a Leica M6 Titan in 16-7-1998, because the chrome version was sold out at the dealer Ben Dalsheim. He wrote me a letter ( ! ) to tell me that.

 

Beginning with a Minolta 7000 , 9000, buying a Nikon F3 in Japan, I kept searching for the ultimate tool. Simple like the F3 , but more compact and sturdier.

 

When I got a inheritance from my late aunt, I splitted the money in three. One part for my two year old daughter, one part for my wife and the part which was left, left me just enough guilders ( before the Euro ) to buy me a new Leica M6 Titan and a canadian summicron 50mm lens. It was the best buy I ever did.

 

My roll was shot on a hike through the Netherlands.

 

In this book is one of my first shots , right page:

 

https://pauljoostenfotograaf.smugmug.com/People/Boek-Through-Leica-Lenses/n-WcnbT/i-7TKKrpv/A

 

Still got the bill ( f 4896,- for the camera and f 795,- for the lens. )  but sold the camera to make money for other M's.

 

Still got the canadian summicron.

Edited September 27, 2016 by Paulus

[pico]

[...]

Still got the bill ( f 4896,- for the camera and f 795,- for the lens. )  but sold the camera to make money for other M's.

 

I got my Leica M2 with 50mm Summicron, brand new for $225 in 1965 through a USAF commissary in France.

It was a painful expense.

[erudolph]

Can't remember quite when I bought it, an M4, but the previous owner was Sherry Krauter and I bought it from her.  She'd had it since the 60s but at the time was totally into M5s and wanted to buy another of those.

[Ko.Fe.]

After getting into travel/street photography taken on bw film I was reading how great Leica is for it. I owned briefly IIf, but it is 50mm predominately and I let it go. My first Leica for real is M4-2. In 2014 I purchased it with some help from Russians on on-line auction in Japan and conveniently send it to myself where I'm. So, M4-2 made it back to its motherland. Nobody wanted it on auction, but me. I followed to wise advice to buy not the shelf queen, but user camera.

 

Canadian Leica. by Kostya Fedot, on Flickr

 

The choice was right. Bodo (Halton Camera Exchange) as ex-Leica Ontario technician gave me green light to use it. Later on he fixed its RF after I dropped M4-2 on concrete at Queen Street in Toronto.

Film Leica M is the best camera for street, travel photography I ever own so far. I took thousands frames with M4-2 and 35mm lens. It was skating with me on Rideau Canal, Ottawa at -28C, went to USA and recently to Russia. First, I wasn't confident to have only one camera on trip with me, but M4-2 did it. 

Since November 29 2016 my M4-2 is waiting for some parts to be repaired. I can't complain, M4-2 was everyday camera for me for three years. I hope by the spring I'll get it back to my go everywhere bag.  

 

Here are 100+ pictures taken with my M4-2:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/kf095/tags/leicam42/

Edited January 17, 2017 by Ko.Fe.

[OR120]

My father gave me his old Leica IIIF red dial with a 50mm Summitar and a Weston meter. He bought that camera kit in Germany right after WWII.

That was my intro to the world of photography. It was fantastic. One of the finest photos I ever took was with that IIIF and a 35 Elmar (I purchased later)

That was the beginning of my love for Leica cameras. 

[pico]

A Leica M2 with rigid Summicron 50mm in 1965 when it meant six months of extreme budgeting, soup lunches, no beer which was the most difficult part. Below is one of first candid photos. My friend Robert Bullock, a historian not posed in my room. A casual photo.

 

Edited April 18, 2017 by pico

[SilentShutter]

My first Leica was a Leica IIIf I bought used with a Elmar 3,5/50

Always will remember that little shop I nearly checked the used gear daily

I saw her and know she will be mine

Was really impressed about the lens after get back my first prints

because I didnt expect that sharpness

 

My first Leica R was a Leica R3mot with winder and R 3,4-45/28-70

with almost no signs of use

The film window on the backside had a lack of sight so I asked

Leica service and they send me the stuff to replace the lightseals

for free

[Neil Purling]

My first 35mm rangefinder camera was a Soviet FED 1, named after Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky.

I was prosperous, having got a job and noted a Leica III on ebay. I was like a cat on hot bricks until the auction ended & I was supposed to be on holiday.

The Leica had 'issues', nothing too bad but the rangefinder certainly needed re-setting. I sent the Leica to someone in the former Soviet Union who had also serviced my FED and lenses.

I have only one genuine Leitz lens, an Elmar 50/3.5 and a hood because the lens is not coated. Everything else is Soviet.

No 90mm or 135mm at present. I had a 135mm Jupiter briefly. On discovering it had fungus It went in the bin. It wasn't an especially good example anyway.

[Archiver]

My photography journey began as a child in the 80's, using Dad's Pentax and Minolta SLR's.  Years later, I began using digital cameras from Canon, and got back into film during the mid 2000's.  Ironically, Lomo cameras were the spur to this return.  At the time, a Leica M seemed like a mythical, esoteric artifact, immortal and unchanging as the Sphinx or the Taj Mahal.  DSLR's were just too heavy after a while, and buying a Zeiss Ikon in 2008 gave me a taste for what rangefinder shooting could be like.

 

When the M9 was announced, I knew that I had to have this camera.  My name went into several waiting lists, but to no avail.  If you have a slightly obsessive bent, and when you want something it's like your world revolves around its arrival, you know what I was feeling.

 

When the second round came to Australia in early 2010, I called a few shops with the intention of asking about stock of Zeiss lenses.  I wanted to round out my collection in preparation of my nebulous M9.  When I called one shop, I enquired about lenses, then asked offhandedly if they had an M9 in the shop.

 

"Yes."

"Yes???  You mean, on the shelf, and not waiting for someone???"

"Yes, it's in stock now.  We've only got one left, everyone else on the list has theirs now."

 

I SCREAMED like a little girl being taken to Disneyland for the first time, and was at the shop with a bundle of cash within the hour.

 

It was like the hand of God had given me the most frustrating camera I could have imagined.  Being used to matrix metering in DSLR's, nothing prepared me for the centre weighted metering of the M9, so my images were either over or underexposed.  Rapid focus was out of the question.  But I had just bought the most expensive thing of my life, and I wasn't going to be beaten.  I spent hours every day for a month, shooting anything and everything, until I developed the skills and habits that opened this German Ark of the Covenant.

 

Since then, I bought a chrome M7 and several more Zeiss, Voigtlander and Leica lenses including the 50 Summicron, 28 Elmarit and 75 Summarit.  My M9 is currently in the repair centre awaiting sensor replacement, and remains my favourite digital camera.

 

 

Edited June 5, 2017 by Archiver

[Jeffry Abt]

Thanks for telling your story.

[jhluxton]

I bought my first Leica just after my 21st birthday in October 1980. Though I was only a student at the time my funds were boosted by birthday present money and a few days after my birthday I found myself browsing in the window of the London Camera Exchange in Exeter. Up to this point I had started with my mother's 127 Brownie (8 on 127) no shutter wind on interlock, had progressed at the age of 5 to my own 127 Brownie (12 on 127) with shutter wind interlock and then on to my Grandfather's Praktica Nova 1 SLR which he gave to me when he became fed up with it - could never get the hang of loading 35mm film! I hankered after a new camera and went looking at Leicas  - the design appealed - I don't know why - it just did - plus the fact they were built in Germany and I had always been brought up by my parents to believe that if it was "Made in Germany" it was as good as or even better than "Made in Britain". Of course there was no way I could afford a new or even used M at this point.  

 

Funds were boosted in October 1980 when my 21^st birthday came along. A couple of days later, browsing the window of the London Camera Exchange in Exeter I spotted a Leica IIIa range finder for £79 complete with ever-ready case.

The IIIa dated from the late 1930s and came complete with uncoated 5cm f2 Summar lens. Within moments I had my first Leica! 

It might have been just over 40 years old and survived WWII but it appeared to be in very good condition.  The base loading procedure, however, came as a bit of a shock but on a bus trip to Bude in Cornwall that day I soon worked out how to load it! By the time I arrived in Bude I was ready for action! Being interested in trains, buses and ships I pointed the camera at a bus at the bus stop in Bude and I had taken my first Leica photo.

Unfortunately by the time I had returned home to Liverpool a few days later I discovered that when the film was processed the camera had a light leak as you can see from this scanned copy of my first Leica slide.

The camera was posted off back to Exeter and repaired, but I lost confidence in it and went back to using the Praktica and a recently bought Rollei 35. I still wanted a Leica, but something more recent. Some years later I did buy a nice mint IIIF with 5cm collapsible Elmar and a 9cm cm Elmar. This Leica IIIF camera was used for some b/w negative work but along with a lot of my photo gear was sold on 1996 when I switched to the Contax G1 system.

Next came a Leica AF-C1 my first new albeit Minolta produced Leica - then the Fuji built Digilux Zoom, D1, D2, D3, V-Lux 1, C-Lux 1, V-Lux 3, X1, X- Vario and finally in October 2016 some 36 years since I bought that IIIA I walked out of Leicastore Manchester with my first brand new Leica M262 rangefinder! I finally got there in the end.

For some time I have been working on a personal photographic history file for my web site which I am calling from "Yellow Box to Red Dot" when I complete it I will post a copy here - but basically it tells the tale of how I maintained that dream to get my own new Leica M. I made some bad decisions on the way and perhaps could have made the jump to in 1996 to the M range but was lured away by the Contax G1 digital rangefinder as I could have a full outfit for the same price as an M with standard lens.

But the important thing is I finally reached my goal and I am now in the process of considering what will be my third M lens!

 

John

www.jhluxton.com

 

 

    

 

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[jaapv]

Short story for me - I saw a nice M3 with Summicron 50 and goggled Summaron 35 in the window of a photo store on my way to work in 1976 and never looked back.   I paid the equivalent of 175 Euro for it... Up till then I was using the Olympus OM2, after a whole career of cameras starting with a classic box camera at the age of seven.