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

[Matero]

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Hi, I'm soon to be Q2 owner, I wish. Already at age 51 and wondering when those years went by. I've been making pictures since 17 years old. My father was enthusiastic amateur photographer, and I didn't want to follow him, until as said in the age of 17. Father then didn't shoot that much when I started, but he loved to collect old cameras and repaired them. 

I bought pre-owned Nikkormat EL as my first camera, recommended by a good friend of mine. And later acquired also pre-owned Nikon 301. I have those both still in my cabinet. And couple of very affordable used lenses, 50mm F1.2 Nikkor, 135mm F3.5 Nikkor and 28mm Kiron. I also had own photo lab, but developed myself only B&W pictures. Money was tight and I couldn't shoot as much as I would have wanted to.

When digital era started I was a bit confused and lost interest to photography for a period of time. When my first daughter was born 2002 I bought Canon Ixus v2 and later Digital EOS D350/Rebel XT when the second daughter came to my life. (I actually sold EOS D350 just recently, it was a loaner to my father, and when he passed away I couldn't keep it, too painful) 

I've then made a long journey with digital cameras, both ILC and compact, Sony a57, RX100Mk1, RX100Mk4, Olympus Pen E-PM2, Pen E-P5, OM-D M-10.1, Fuji X-T1, X100S, X10 and back to Olympus OM-D E-M5.2, Nikon Df and latest Leica M8 (and forgot some compacts ). I already had "restricted" my cameras to few: Olympus E-M5.2 and E-P5 together with Nikon Df. But then I saw mint M8 and bite the bullet. Rest is history, I gave my Fuji X-T1 to my younger son and before that Sony RX100Mk1 to older one. I hope I could lure them to photography. My daughters are making photos, but both are using just iPhones although I've provided them more serious cameras, also. 

Now I'm planning to keep only Nikon Df, Leica M8 and coming Q2. Olympus Pen E-P5 is borrowed to my wife, this way I can keep it in the family 😎. I just love the looks of that camera. 

I mostly shoot nature, landscape, architecture and events, occasionally street. I'm also learning zen-photography, it is the work-life balance thing. I wish I had the eye for professional/art photography, but I do not. Therefore I just meditate and ease stress with photography. I love beautiful items, like cameras, and I must resist the temptation and keep only those I really use. I'm quite confident Q2 will ease the burden of Df and M8, and be my main tool in future, almost can't wait to get mine. But the day is closer and closer

Nice to watch all these fine pictures you all are making!  

 

[FHPdoc]

Great thread and WONDERFUL reading--thanks so much to you all for sharing your photographic/artistic journeys!  I am somewhat surprised at how similar many of these stories are to each other and to my own--for some reason I expected a broader diversity.  My condensed journey:

- Approaching 60, but have been enamored with photography since childhood.  Had several Kodak Instamatics and Polaroids like many American children of the 60s, but really became serious around age 12 when I began developing and printing all my own B&W work.

- Started with an inherited Voightlander Vitomatic IIa, then saved and scraped to buy my first SLR, a Nikkormat FTN with a 50mm f/2 Nikkor.  That Nikkormat and various Nikkor and Vivitar lenses served me well for over 25 years when I finally "upgraded" to a Canon EOS Elan IIe with eye-controlled focus (LOVED that feature) and the consumer-grade Canon 24-105mm f/3.5-5.6 lens.  Moved to a Canon EOS A2E and L-Series 24-70mm f/2 before divesting ALL my film gear in 2006-ish to downsize and move to digital...

- Spent the first 10 years of my digital phase with various Canon, Sony, and Panasonic point-and-shoots, and then finally bit the bullet for a DSLR with the Canon 6D and a bunch of L-Series lenses.  I still love shooting with that system, but have added the Fujifilm X-T2 with XF 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 lens for general travel, and the X100F for around-the-house family shots.

- The Q2 is now my latest addition to the arsenal, which I anticipate auditioning for travel use as well as for other more thoughtful and artistic endeavors.  As I said in a previous post, there is something immensely alluring and, dare I say 'spiritual', about a finely crafted precision instrument, and the feel and communion one experiences with the tools of one's art or craft.   The Leica has just that appeal, as others have so beautifully stated elsewhere in this forum.  So, with great eagerness and anticipation I look forward to this first venture (for me) into the Leica world...

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[traveler11]

72

 

Began in 1959 with Kodak Brownie Hawkeye.  I added a Nikkorex F w/50mm f2.0 and a Beseler 23 C w/50mm Schneider Componon in 1964. Sold the Nikkorex and bought a Nikon Photomic Ftn w/50mm f1.4 in 1967.  Took a Minox B with me into the Navy.  Found a Rollei SL66 in Naples, Italy for 1/2 the US price in 1968.  Bought a 3 lens SL66 used outfit in 1974 which I still have.  I also added a Simmon Omega D2XL Dichroic with an 80mm Rodagon.

 

In 2012 I reunited with some of my combat buddies and learned about disability.  With the back pay I bought a Leica S2P w/120mm Summarit.  I added a 70mm and 35mm later.  I bought a Q in 2015.  Recently I bought a used 007, because my S2P has sensor corrosion.

 

Since high school I have coveted Leica as the ‘best camera in the world.’  During my working years I was a camera store manager.  

 

I raise orchids to photograph.

 

My digital knowledge is minimal, because I came to it as late as I did.

[Sirba]

Just turned 60, still going strong. 😂

My first camera was a plastic one with 120-film, I believe it was called "Diana".

When I was 15, I got a summer job at a photo retailer. Then, I bought my first "real" camera, a Nikkormat FTn. I had a 28/3.5, Micro-Nikkor 55/3.5 and a 105/2.5 to the Nikkormat.

I sold the Nikkormat, kept the lenses and bought a Nikon F2 Photomic. Then came the F3, I was the first Swede that got the F3 after hard negotiations with the importer. 🙂

Then came the AF era and I converted to Canon, the first AF Nikons did not impress me much. So Canon EOS 650, EOS 10 and EOS 5 was my companions for some years. In that order, not at the same time.

After that the digital ages arrived. There was lots of Canons, D60, 20D, 5D, 5D MKII, and 5D MKIII (present DSLR). And EOS M6, also present. I have had a bunch of compacts as well. Mostly Canon Ixus and PowerShot series. And a couple of Sonys. After all, I became manager and owner of the photo retailer where I got my first summer job. So I kind of had to use the latest model av the cameras. 😉

The camera I loved most is the Sony RX1, the little full framed camera with a fantastic Zeiss 35/2.0 lens. And that is the camera who led me to the Q2 (which arrives next week).

I hope that you understand me, I write much better in Swedish. 🙂

Best regards,

Hasse

[microview]

Ar 83 (and still working in magazine production and as a classical music reviewer) I seem to be the oldest so far bar one here. My first film camera when 21 was a Zeiss square format Ikonta, for which I still have the orange box (filled with prints). A couple of years later I started reading about the wonders of 35mm film and bought, on 'hire purchase' (remember that?) a Corfield Periflex with 50mm lens which I still use as a magnifying glass for dealing with any splinters acquired in the garden etc! One of its features was the film wind mechanism which was not fixed incremental but allowed you to get one of two more pics out of the film than usual. Lenses were M screw-in thread (UK specialist Malcolm Taylor said they were rubbish but I still think mine was excellent). These cameras were made in Ireland and at the time Leica imports hadn't recommenced after WW2.

Finally, the shutter fabric ripped and the stick-on wrapping never adhered, so I found, now living in London, s/h Canon AE1 with 50 1.8 F lens at a Tottenham Court Road dealers now gone, a short walk from my office. This was later stolen in a burglary but they (Stephens?) had a similar one which only a few months ago I gave to a charity shop. I hadn't used it for years of course but the internal battery still worked! Digital cameras then appeared and I bought a Canon Powershot but didn't keep it: a work colleague was very pleased to have it.

I had two aspirations: a Leica and a Bentley, the latter unfulfilled but the former a possibility. I began dealing at Aperture and had an M6 with black paint 50 Summiluz pre-asph. This led to the trading-in and buying and rebuying GAS syndrome. Cameras included the classic film M with rewind knob as I disliked the twirly fold-out angle winder (!) and then the M8. By then it was less easy to find 35mm film developers in London except intimidating pro companies. I do have prints dating back to the 1950s which haven't faded, which is amazing.

I moved on to M9, M240, M262, M10 (briefly) now back to 262, which I like for its simplicity. Inevitably I had to get the Q, and loved the autofocus and all its other features. That lens! Only last month I sold it in anticipation of getting a Q2 but in the interim I fell for the Nikon Z7 and two lenses plus M adapter. I'm tempted by the sheer minimalism of the QP with its nicer red lens engravings; and I still am unsure about the big files with the Nikon or Q2. Somehow though, once you taken the step, then 24MB seems a lesser option. Q2 waiting lists are running into months so I will, for once, not jump into a queue. Lenses I have valued most are the 35 2.8 Summaron ( I must have had five Zeisses of that spec oer the years), the v4 Cron, the 50 asph Summilux.

[FHPdoc]

15 hours ago, Sirba said:

Just turned 60, still going strong. 😂

My first camera was a plastic one with 120-film, I believe it was called "Diana".

When I was 15, I got a summer job at a photo retailer. Then, I bought my first "real" camera, a Nikkormat FTn. I had a 28/3.5, Micro-Nikkor 55/3.5 and a 105/2.5 to the Nikkormat.

I sold the Nikkormat, kept the lenses and bought a Nikon F2 Photomic. Then came the F3, I was the first Swede that got the F3 after hard negotiations with the importer. 🙂

Then came the AF era and I converted to Canon, the first AF Nikons did not impress me much. So Canon EOS 650, EOS 10 and EOS 5 was my companions for some years. In that order, not at the same time.

After that the digital ages arrived. There was lots of Canons, D60, 20D, 5D, 5D MKII, and 5D MKIII (present DSLR). And EOS M6, also present. I have had a bunch of compacts as well. Mostly Canon Ixus and PowerShot series. And a couple of Sonys. After all, I became manager and owner of the photo retailer where I got my first summer job. So I kind of had to use the latest model av the cameras. 😉

The camera I loved most is the Sony RX1, the little full framed camera with a fantastic Zeiss 35/2.0 lens. And that is the camera who led me to the Q2 (which arrives next week).

I hope that you understand me, I write much better in Swedish. 🙂

Best regards,

Hasse

Hasse,  Your English is fantastic, as is the story of your photographic journey!  I LOVED my Nikkormat FTN which was a faithful companion for over 25 years before I, too, switched to Canon EOS auto-focus for the same reason you mention.  I am now loving my Q2 and hope you enjoy yours!

All the best, and welcome to the forum!

- Scott

 

[saechang]

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I am 33 and work in software. Photography is a hobby that I use to express my creativity. I primarily take photos of everyday life and my travels, mostly documentary style.

1996 was when I first began taking photos with disposable film cameras. I'd take photos on school field trips, summer camps, vacations, etc.

2004 I purchased my first digital camera, the Sony Cybershot DSC-T1. Took a lot of photos and made a lot of videos with that little thing. Always had my camera on me.

2009 I purchased a used Nikon D50 DSLR and started to learn how to use a camera. I ended up buying a few lenses, 35mm 1.8 and 50mm 1.4. I brought my camera everywhere and took pictures of everything.

2010 I sold my Nikon D50 and bought a Nikon D300s along with a 17-55mm f/2.8. Learned how to post post process better. I continued bring my camera everywhere, work, lunches, outings. Loved taking photos. Bought the D300s because it was a faster camera, had weather sealing (took it snowboarding a lot), and also had video. Started dabbling in video again.

2012 I sold my Nikon D300s with my 17-55mm f/2.8 and 50mm f/1.4. Bought a used Nikon D700 along with a 24-70mm f/2.8. Did some family portraits, weddings, and graduations on the side. Primarily still just shot for fun. Really loved the low light performance and the night photography I was able to do with my D700. I eventually got tired of carrying the massive 24-70mm lens around and primarily shot with my 35mm f/1.8 DX lens on my FX camera. The vignetting not major and the lens was super sharp, best kept secret for the Nikon. The DX lens was $200, the FX lens was $1,500.

2014 I wanted something smaller, i stopped using my camera and carrying it around with my everywhere due to it's size and weight. It spent a few months just sitting there and only used on a few occasions, I sold all my Nikon gear and purchased the Fuji x100s. The x100s was amazing. Great sensor size, good glass, great size, and felt great in your hand. It was significantly slower than my DSLR in terms of buffer and focus, also the low light performance was not very good (compared to the full frame D700), but it was a camera that I used almost everyday. Great travel camera! What I was looking for was a camera with good IQ, small and easy to travel (doesn't draw a lot of attention), can take into concerts (it's a point a shoot, not considered professional since it can't change lenses), and would get me excited to take photos again. The x100s did this. Also started to get into coloring in post, film emulation, more heavily editing my photos at times. Made a lot of awful photos, but it's all part of learning right?

2016 while traveling I saw someone with the Leica Q. It did everything that I loved about my x100s, but better. It was full frame... how I missed having full frame. I sold my x100s and used the money I had saved from selling all my Nikon gear to fund my Leica Q. The Leica Q is the stuff of my dreams. Auto focus was so much faster than my x100s, more closely resembled my D700. The camera felt great in my hands. I absolutely love the OIS and how I can get sharp photos shooting at 1/8. The lens is amazing. The EVF is great, I can't get used to taking photos without a viewfinder, i just really like to compose using one. I used it on all my travels, taking lots of photos and falling in love with the video feature. Used the video feature a lot.

2019 I am looking to sell my Q1, which is a bit beat up (I never dropped it, but I do set it down a lot... sometimes not on the softest surfaces), and upgrade to a Q2. I tend to crop in post and re-frame my shots so looking forward to having more MP. The weather sealing is great, I was always too afraid to take my Q out snowboarding. I am very excited about 4k video... I may be the only one haha. Looking forward to having a fast processor in the camera and also the better EVF. The thing I may be the most excited about is the on switch no longer having continuous as the last spot.   The upgrades from the Q1 to Q2 look good enough to me that I feel the Q2 may be the camera I use for the next 10+ years. 

 

 

[pico]

Seventy-three and coping with my 18-month younger brother's natural death last year. My two reaming  younger brothers are ill. Survival guilt is becoming a real issue.

Edited April 23, 2019 by pico

[Leica Guy]

On 4/22/2019 at 7:30 PM, pico said:

Seventy-three and coping with my 18-month younger brother's natural death last year. My two reaming  younger brothers are ill. Survival guilt is becoming a real issue.

Pico. So sorry for your loss. My younger sister passed last year at age 66. Very sad. 

Only you know the real pain, but hopefully you can resolve to enjoy the days ahead and make the best of them. That’s my approach. 

Good luck!

Dan

[Giguchan]

I'll be 105  by the time i get the Body... but currently i'm a "young at heart" 55.  My First Camera was a Nikon F4 and then moved up  to the F4S...  I then moved up to D3  Aquiring  Glass along the way.     Currently I shoot  D850.

I like to shoot a bit of everything- becoming a master of none.   I am a total newbie  when it comes to the world of Leica...  That's why i am here..

Edited April 28, 2019 by Giguchan

[AnikiMu]

I am a Q2 owner, and I am no more virgin... 🤣

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

Edited April 28, 2019 by AnikiMu

[Leica Guy]

8 hours ago, Giguchan said:

I'll be 105  by the time i get the Body... but currently i'm a "young at heart" 55.  My First Camera was a Nikon F4 and then moved up  to the F4S...  I then moved up to D3  Aquiring  Glass along the way.     Currently I shoot  D850.

I like to shoot a bit of everything- becoming a master of none.   I am a total newbie  when it comes to the world of Leica...  That's why i am here..

Welcome. You will be well rewarded by reading many of the recent posts and enjoying the many fantastic images from both the Q and now Q2? Check out the threads on macro, B&W and the Barnaby Challenge. All are fantastic! 

[Batman57]

Hi, I am 62, shooting with Canon since when I was 18... Ftb, then AE1, A1, F1, then EOS1.. I stopped photography for some years and re-started in 1999 when digital cameras came-out: Sony first, and then back to Canon 400D, 20D, 5D, 1D.... Then, suddenly, in 2015 I realized that DSLR was dead, thanks to the EVF, sold everything and I switched to Olympus mirrorless for sport and fashion and Leica Q for street and traveling. And now Q2.... I love it!

[Gregg]

Hi everyone, 

 I’m 46, live in south west London (suburbs), and have had my Q for a few months - absolutely love this camera.

Have always used cameras as a hobby, started when my mum gave me her old Olympus Trip 35 when I was in my early teens. 

Great forum, thanks.

[Giguchan]

56 here...  54  when i first  discovered the "Red Dot"

[Batman57]

I’m 63, 48 years in photography. Several brands, but only one Leica, the original Q and now Q2.

[jwr50]

I'm 70 . . . uh, what was the question . . . ?  🙂

[Stephen.s1]

Eighty-seven years old here.   Was "street shooting" with a box camera when I was in the seventh grade of grammar school. 

At age 22 (1955) I sold my Contax/50mm f1.5 Sonnar and bought a small-town photo business.  I shot portraits, weddings, high-school yearbook pix, commercial, architectural and aerial photographs. Tons of meet and greet shots for the local newspaper... I can still feel the weight of that 4x5 Speed Graphic in my right hand and the wet cell driven power supply for the strobe hanging over my left shoulder. Not to mention three or four film holders in my jacket pockets.

Other well-used cameras were the Rolleiflex (weddings)and an 8x10 view (all studio portraits).  The Leica camera interested me but I really didn't need a 35mm at that period.

Accepting an offer to shoot for a company that was fabricating nuclear fuel elements resulted in the sale of the studio (1959).

Since then photography has been for fun.  First Leica was the M6 followed by M8 and now with M10 and Q2.

[Giguchan]

7 hours ago, jwr50 said:

I'm 70 . . . uh, what was the question . . . ?  🙂

  Nice one!

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[Alain88]

I'm 33, bought my Q2 a year and a half ago.

I really started getting interesting in photography with the Canon 20D of my father, and I bought my 550D with my first paycheck. After 2-3 years I went for a 2nd hand 5D full format and never get back to aps-c. 3-4 years later I switch for a 5D mkIII, in second hand again (I still own it). I was very happy of this machingun but I felt I needed to try something more artistic and warm. This perfect shootingmachin was a bit too cold, too big and heavy for casual photography.

Then I discovered film photography on a minolta X300, then a SRT101, a X500, XD5, XD7, X700... I have a nice little collection, all in working condition. I loved the feeling of the leatherette of my XDs, the manualfocusing, the need to slow down and thinking before clicking, the sound of the shutter and the cranking lever... and the fact the camera offers just what's needed to take a picture: aperture, speed, iso setting, focusing. All of this in a small form factor nice in hand. I wanted to have this simplicity on digital camera. No PASM dials, no complex autofocus/exposure settings, a film camera with all the capacity of modern sensors and electronics.

Today I use almost exclusively my Q2, such a great camera!