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Q user? What is your age, or approximate age, etc.?


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58

 

my first camera was an Instamatic 50 which I found on a park bench in Northern Ireland when I visited my grandmother. I was eight... this was in the mid sixties!

 

From there I was hooked... just taking photos of family, holidays... anything.

 

first 'real' camera was a Pentax Spotmatic F with a 50mm 1.4

 

i loved the photos I took on tri-x, wide open at 1.4... 

 

A few few years later I fell in love with a used Nikon F2A I saw in the shop window of University Cameras in Cambridge. I used to go and stare at it through the window.

 

one day, maybe a week or so later, it was gone. When I got home that evening, I found that a girl who lived in our shared house had bought it for me,,,!

 

we lived together a year or so later for seven years!

 

since then, I've had an OM-1, various Nikon digital cameras and now my Leica M-P.

 

i am going to buy a Q for my son, who loves taking pictures, has a REALLY good eye (and always has, even when he was five or six) and fell in love with my M when we were in Berlin together recently. I had taken him to several camera shops just prior to that trip and he simply wasn't interested in any camera I showed him... well, he quite like a Sony which disappointed me...  ;) 

 

however, on that Berlin trip, I went to the Leica store with him and asked the guy there to show him the Q.

 

the moment he picked it up he fell for it... it was exactly what he wanted. Right focal length for his style (he likes his iPhone, but hates his little digital compact), but the Q felt right to him.

 

he is 15 now, a very bright, very cool young man who is off to Cambodia and Laos next year (school trip) and I want to get one for him.

 

i am working on a deal with my company. If we get the contract, he gets his camera. If we don't, I think I'll be living on porridge for a while... I can't see how he can go on that trip and me not being able to afford it for him :D

Edited by Bill Livingston
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I'm 42, I'm pretty new with this forum. Over the years I've been shooting with different kind of cameras format from 35mm (MINOLTA/CANON/LEICA)  to Medium format (Rolleiflex/Mamiya/YashicaTLR and Rollei Integral series/Hasselblad 503) and then digital age with mostly Canon and Nikon as well as Olympus. And now waiting my Q to be arrived by next week (hoping Herrington Catalog will come through).

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DOB:- 1942 BC (B4 Computers) started off in the mid 1950's with my own Box Brownie, Dad had a Kodak pull out. From memory I moved to a Balda, thereafter Sensorex & Pentax SLR's. Minox GT, M3, M6 & R6.2..

Digitals:- early Olympus SLR, Original Leica/Fuji & then Original D-Lux.. Now, X1, XVario & M-P Safari..

Nikon D90, Leica V-Lux 4 & 40...(possibly forgotten a few somewhere along the line)

I still get that thrill of pushing the shutter & I certainly remain astounded at digital...'(^_^)'

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32 years old, bought a video camera in 2011 - decided I didn't have the vision or patience to use it, sold it and bought my first DSLR Sony A580 and Sigma 35mm 1.4

 

Come 2014/2015 I had a 5d Mark 3, A7S various primes for both - then sold it all for a Leica Q (with about £7000 in change!)

 

Just getting into medium format film photography too.

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40 (ish) and did photography at school using, I think, Nikon L35's. Dark room developing and printing.

 

Had a break and started back on Canon SLR's about 15 years ago and bought a Canon 60D and 50mm prime about 5 years ago. Loved it, but way too large and complicated.

 

Found a dusty old Leica M3 and bought that with a 50mm 'Cron and started back on film. Sold the 60D and started developing in my sink. Happy again.

 

Had no digital camera for 12mths and then saw the M9-P. Bought that and then a 21mm, 28mm, 90mm and finally 35mm. Nearly got divorced over it  ;)

 

Got sick of changing lenses and pretty much only used the 28mm and 50mm. 

 

Saw the Q, prayers answered. Sold the 21mm, 90mm, 28mm and 35mm and finally the M9-P. Best of both worlds, fim and digital.

 

Happy wife, happy life  :lol:

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Oh my goodness, this thread has made me think! I'm on the wrong side of 40, incidentally. Many years ago when I was in school, I wasn't having much luck in art class (couldn't manage to make anything I drew look like the intended object), and the teacher put a Pentax K1000 in my hand, explained how it worked and told me to go and take some photographs. She then showed the me the darkroom and that was me hooked. My own first camera was an Agfa 110 effort, then moved upmarket (hah) to a Zenit E. The first camera I really fell for was my Canon AV1, and that's why my preference is always for aperture priority. That camera was stolen and, after a while in the wilderness, I went for a Sony Cybershot soon after digital cameras came out (I thought I was being really smart ordering it from the US and thinking I was saving a lot - then the Customs bill came in). I then got a Canon digital SLR, moved to Nikon for a while, came back to Canon and then was drawn to Fuji (x100 and xPro1). Everything ended up being a bit cluttered, so I purged things and got a Panasonic something or other and HATED it. I went to Canon FF and had a couple of brilliant lenses but carrying them was back-breaking and they ended up most gathering dust in the cupboard. And here we are... waiting for  the Q. When it's all down in black and white, it looks like there have been far too many cameras (if I had all the money again...) but they've delivered so very many treasured memories that I wouldn't have been without them. That art teacher who put the camera into my hand started something for which I'll always be grateful. She could easily have given me a ticking off for not being able to draw. Thank God for inspirational teachers. 

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32 years old, bought a video camera in 2011 - decided I didn't have the vision or patience to use it, sold it and bought my first DSLR Sony A580 and Sigma 35mm 1.4

 

Come 2014/2015 I had a 5d Mark 3, A7S various primes for both - then sold it all for a Leica Q (with about £7000 in change!)

 

Just getting into medium format film photography too.

£7000 in change? Looks like your trade-in was an awful lot better than mine!

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58

 

my first camera was an Instamatic 50 which I found on a park bench in Northern Ireland when I visited my grandmother. I was eight... this was in the mid sixties!

 

From there I was hooked... just taking photos of family, holidays... anything.

 

first 'real' camera was a Pentax Spotmatic F with a 50mm 1.4

 

i loved the photos I took on tri-x, wide open at 1.4... 

 

A few few years later I fell in love with a used Nikon F2A I saw in the shop window of University Cameras in Cambridge. I used to go and stare at it through the window.

 

one day, maybe a week or so later, it was gone. When I got home that evening, I found that a girl who lived in our shared house had bought it for me,,,!

 

we lived together a year or so later for seven years!

 

since then, I've had an OM-1, various Nikon digital cameras and now my Leica M-P.

 

i am going to buy a Q for my son, who loves taking pictures, has a REALLY good eye (and always has, even when he was five or six) and fell in love with my M when we were in Berlin together recently. I had taken him to several camera shops just prior to that trip and he simply wasn't interested in any camera I showed him... well, he quite like a Sony which disappointed me...  ;)

 

however, on that Berlin trip, I went to the Leica store with him and asked the guy there to show him the Q.

 

the moment he picked it up he fell for it... it was exactly what he wanted. Right focal length for his style (he likes his iPhone, but hates his little digital compact), but the Q felt right to him.

 

he is 15 now, a very bright, very cool young man who is off to Cambodia and Laos next year (school trip) and I want to get one for him.

 

i am working on a deal with my company. If we get the contract, he gets his camera. If we don't, I think I'll be living on porridge for a while... I can't see how he can go on that trip and me not being able to afford it for him :D

Lucky boy! I remember my dad taking me to get my first serious camera - what a day!

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Just turned 60 and my great wife's present to me was a Q. Awesome wife.

 

Started with a Box Brownie (Which I still have) at about age 4. Yes 4 with a bit of help from my Mum and Dad.

 

Been shooting all my life. Don't have all the cameras I used to own but wish I did.

 

Will be shooting till the day I die...... :-)

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Hi I am 60

If I remember rightly the first camera I owned was a Kodak Starmite and then an instamatic.  My first serious camera was the OM-1 and stayed with them up to the OM-4 but when I started working as a photographer in Italy I switched to the Nikon system namely the FM, F801,F801s and F90 (still have the 801s). First digital was Nikon D70 plus an early olympus compact then went to Nikon D700 plus a full range of Nikon lenses (the Holy Trinity etc). With the arrival of the Leica M8 (and having come into some inheritance) I started switching to Leica and have had the 8.2, 2 X M9's and 2 x M240's. A few years ago I tinkered with the fuji X series but on release of the Sony A7 series I started switching to that system and now have the Sony A7s, A7rII and Leica Q. All my Leica lenses have now gone apart from the apo-telyt 135.

The Q is the best digital leica I have used and I love it. The Sony's are not perfect but are very versatile with an ever growing arsenal of great lenses

Edited by viramati
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great thread.......

Me? DOB 1942.

I don't know how cameras came into this but here's my potted history with them....

First camera was a folding Kodak that my Dad gave me, I still have it. It has to date from the 1920's

Worked magazine fashion/advertising in the '60's to '70's in London, best times......Everything from Hassy's, Rollei's, Leica M's to Nikon Ftn's and I still have one Nikon Ftn from then plus some of the lenses too, but the M3's are long gone.

Nikon kits saw me through the 70's and 80's but when I moved over to motion picture work in the US I once more got back into Leica's, finding it great to have small camera's on film sets. 

Then later into digital M's of course, but I still have an M6 and M7......plus a motley assortment of Nikons and VC cameras and lenses.

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74 years old. Started serious photography with Mom's Nikormatt 35mm. Over time upgraded cameras and skills. Now have a D7200, D750 and D810 with a wide range of lenses, 20mm to 500mm mostly primes. I have 8,700 images in my LR catalogue dating back to 1961, no duplicates. Never sold a image in my life, any posted on SmugMug can be had with a download. One has been published in a photography book that was selected from many, many submitted. Never did it before or since.

 

Bought a Q several months ago, my first Leica, as I was wanting a smallish good camera as a walk about for travel and having with me most of the time, car, Starbucks, etc. I learned a long time ago, you cannot take a photo if you don't have a camera and my iPhone does not produce images that satisfy my habit.

 

I knew I'd like the 28mm focal length as I use that a lot, might prefer 35mm but the IQ of the Q is such that that sizable crop is fine. I like it a lot and it fits my needs perfectly. Hard to see ever being a Leica guy as I am so invested in Nikon and frankly my Nikon at 28mm versus my Q is no different except the Q does have a slightly different color mix. LR6 can make it whatever I want so they come out even. Size and ease of use, the Q wins hands down.

 

Just traveled to Europe and carried both the D750 and Q all the time. Used the Nikon for 50mm and up. Q really shines in low light situation like church interiors, but for night shots I prefer the Nikon on tripod at ISO 64. I tested the Q before I went in this circumstance, and do not feel it is as good. Its only other drawback for me is the three shot bracket. I often use five or seven.

 

Would I buy the Q again?......100% yes.

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56 in a few weeks. 

First camera was Dad's old Rollie TLR.

Then Dad bought me a Nikon FM when I went off to college. That was all I needed for literally decades.

Then I bought myself a Nikon D70, and I've had innumerable cameras since then: Something about planned obsolescence....or Moore's law...or something.  :D

Sold a few things recently to assist with funding my Q. I'll admit here and now that while I do indeed love the Q, the X Vario gets more action.

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Great thread as it is interesting to hear how we got here.

 

I am 62, and started shooting in summer camp at age 7  with Box cameras and processing  BW photos.  At age 13 bought my first rangefinder which was the Yashica Minister III which I still have today.

 

Fast forward, I have been a wedding photog for the last 20 years which came after a career as an electrical engineer.  Wrote a couple of books on event photography (Amazon has them search Stan Turkel).

 

I have been Nikon these past 20 years for work, and for fun have tried just about every major brand of camera.  My favorite  cameras for enjoyment are the Nikon DF, Nikon P900 ( 2000 mm zoom,crazy) and of course the Q.

 

I have a collection of 200 or so cameras, which are mostly rangefinders, such as the Epson Rd1s, etc.  

 

Being able to make a living doing what I love has been a real gift to me.  Now my oldest grandson goes out to events with me (age 13), and I see potential there so who knows, maybe he too will be able to do the same.

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