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After hearing tales about Leica M cameras from my brother in the late 70s early 80s I finally bought my first Leica in the early 90s, S/S M3 with a Summicron 50 and a Hektor 135, later adding a 90 and 35. I stupidly sold this kit and went digital with a Nikon SLR. For the last few years I’ve been back in the Leica fold with numerous M bodies, film and digital plus a couple of screw bodies and numerous lenses. 

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I came to my first Leica (the M9) after a long and happy period using a Zeiss Ikon film rangefinder.

I was never fully satisfied with the M9. Its poor-quality jpegs and inconsistent white balance drove me crazy. The handling was never pleasurable because I found the body to be too thick relative to that of the Zeiss Ikon.

I currently have a Leica Q, which is excellent.

I will soon buy an M-10 and a Zeiss ZM 50 mm Planar to complement the Q.

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  • 2 months later...

Ny first "Leica" was a digilux zoom, a rebranded Fujifilm, in 2000. My first digital camera and the only of my cameras stolen so far, in Dublin 2002. By then, I had used film SLRs since I got my Canon FTb in 1975 after which I decided never to touch a rangefinder again (my father had a Konica C35, a compact of that time).

Well, in 2005, after having gone fully digital with a Canon DSLR (EOS 10D) a bit earlier, I purchased a new M6TTL with a Summicron 50/2. Amazingly easy to get used to (well, I HAD used a rangefinder before), but going back to scanning film was tedious.

But I was already becoming a Leicaholic, so there were more lenses, an M9 and an M10... I still have other camera systems for other purposes, though.

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My Leica journey started with the M6 (used) about 20 years ago.  I’ve owned an M7, MP, M3, M8, and now the Monochrom M (ccd version).  I own a few Leica M lenses, but the buying has pretty much slowed.  Despite improvements to  later M’s, I’m hooked on the CCD sensor, and will not part ways with it. I’m also shooting with a Sony A7RIII, sometimes with M lenses.  I think I’ve settled down with what I’ve got.  Love my MM for what it produces. Oh, I also own a D2, another camera I won’t give up due to the very strong images I get when doing portraits requiring no frills  character. 😎 

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Leica IIIc with 50mm f/3.5 Elmar, acquired from a dormitory-mate during my first spring at college in 1973, for $100. Picture below made in 1974.

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I have to say that just after I took the picture above, I saw an exhibition of glorious 24" x 36" dye-transfer prints by a National Geographic photographer using Nikon Fs with 16mm, 20mm, 24mm, 105mm, 180mm, and 500mm lenses - and that was the end of Leicas and rangefinders for me, for quite a while. SLRs were the serious deal for pro work (which I wanted to pursue), and I swapped every camera I had (Canon FX SLR, the IIIc, and a Canon P rangefinder - and 3 different 50mm lenses) for one Nikon F and 35mm f/2.8 lens (to which I eventually added).

Over the next 26 years, working as a photographer in settings where SLRs were the professional standard, I occasionally experimented with Leica Ms (5/2/4-P/6 with older cheaper lenses). But my basic reaction was "what am I getting for all the extra money - I just don't see it in the pictures."

However, in the 1990s, I began to be frustrated by the loss of split-image manual focusing in the newer pro SLRs, along with the mirror noise and growing overall weight. Which led me to the Contax-G and Voigtlander Bessa-L - although those still lacked the split-image manual focusing that I had loved ever since that Canon FX and the IIIc/Canon P.

Then in 2001 I ran across a Leica M4-2 at a store that also had a new/old-stock 21mm f/2.8 pre-ASPH, and a used 90 pre-APO Summicron. I ran the massive swap in reverse, trading everything I owned for the 21/90 and M4-2. Never looked back (although I looked forward - adding or upgrading lenses and eventually M6/8/9/10 cameras.)

Edited by adan
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A retirement present to myself - a second hand Leica M240 with a 50mm lens. I have just added a wonderful 15mm Voigtlander Heliar 111 lens to it.

This is a picture taken with the M240 and 15mm lens of the canal and an old Victorian bridge in where I live,  Huddersfield UK.

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Edited by Francran
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Well.

in 1984, one night i was at my girlfriends house, looking for a Dire straight cassette, and when i opened one door in the living room, i saw a Camera, and one lens...

I looked closely, and it was a Leica M2 with a summicron 50/2, and a summaron 35/3.5, clean, clean, clean! wow, what a feeling!!

I asked " and this camera?", "from my grand pa, now belongs to my brother"

Well, i finish paying to him 400 uss .

It was my first leica, i was shooting at this times ( my first steps, 20 years old) , with a russian tlr camera.....

It was fantastic, after a CLA, it was very silky.

Some years later, i moved to france, as a student, and one day , the bank called me, and they asked to me to pay them in two days, i had no money, and no work....

This afternoon, i decided to sell the Leica to pay the bank, i made one call to a friend photographer, and he bought it.

I was really really sad.

Some month later, i was walking in Paris in "the month of the photography", and someone yells me across the street, it was my friend, he opened his 3/4 black suit and he showed me the Leica. He brokes my heart.

Then i've had lot's of cameras and other leicas, now just a IIIC mint, and a M8.

I miss my M2.

 

Fabian

 

 

 

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Edited by fabianoliver
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  • 3 weeks later...

I don't have a picture of it to share, but my first Leica as an R3 Safari with a 50mm Summicron. I remember it well because many years ago, before eBay, etc I try to sell it and placed an ad at the local newspaper, a guy called, came to my house, gave me a cashier's check and when I went to the bank to collect the money I was arrested because the check was false. They took me to the precinct in a police car, and at the end they let me go, but I lost my camera and my dignity in the process.

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As a follow up on my earlier post (#6), just a couple of shot; 'Man in the street' is an M7 with a 50 Summicron type IV, 'the Angel', an M3 with a 50 Elmar-M

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My first Leica was an M8 that I bought second hand in 2010 or 2011. Before that, I was happy with a Panasonic DMC-FX01 and later an LX-2. To my taste and use at that time, a camera ideally had to be small. Actually, I cannot really remember why I wanted to upgrade to a larger format sensor. What I remember is, I choose the M8 because it was smaller than the DSLR alternatives that put me off because of bulk. It is finny that the M8 actually triggered the wish to shoot b&w film and use all kinds of film cameras before I bought a Monochrom :)

Edited by Arrow
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