M-lenses you bought, don't use, yet keep

[bayernfan]

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I’ve got a drawer of them I won’t sell because of the difficulty involved in re-obtaining most them.  Simple as that. 🙂

Edited April 10, 2020 by bayernfan

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[darylgo]

I’d rather sell my other collectibles and keep Leica. The only regret was selling Hasselblad V,  after repurchasing it and sitting unused I sold it again to fund more Leica.   No regrets with Leica, having variations of focal lengths and within focal lengths the character of the lenses becomes evident. It’s fun to photograph something I’ve shot many times to see what a wider or narrower field brings, along with all the subtleties. New lens (1941) arriving today. Selling Leica bodies is easy, but not the lenses, especially a good sample. 

[ardbeg]

50mm Lux ASPH black chrome. Lovely lens (second best built of the whole lot of excellently constructed lenses and exceeded only by the 50 Cron DR) but I find that I am just not a big fan of the more modern rendering. I keep it because it is just such a lovely object but the other six (yes I shamefully admit to six) older 50s, the two 28s, and the 90 get a lot more use.

[Stein K S]

I guess I am ¨stuck¨ in between ¨Never sell a Leica lens¨ and GAS if that is possible; I am very reluctant to sell (fearing to regretting it), but rather disposed to buy. So for the time being, owning 12 Leica lenses (all rather carefully chosen & with the perfect stories on why they should stay with me), I have self-imposed the requirement that adding a new lens will have to imply sales of an old one. And it works; no new lenses has been added in a while now. And I just enjoy the obviously very nice Leica lenses I have.

Now I am just curious how long this medicine lasts...😉

[RayD28]

10 hours ago, Stein K S said:

I guess I am ¨stuck¨ in between ¨Never sell a Leica lens¨ and GAS if that is possible; I am very reluctant to sell (fearing to regretting it), but rather disposed to buy. So for the time being, owning 12 Leica lenses (all rather carefully chosen & with the perfect stories on why they should stay with me), I have self-imposed the requirement that adding a new lens will have to imply sales of an old one. And it works; no new lenses has been added in a while now. And I just enjoy the obviously very nice Leica lenses I have.

Now I am just curious how long this medicine lasts...😉

I don't have 12 lenses but your logic is good.  If not a collector 12 (or something in that range) lenses in the same mount, including those requiring an adapter, should satisfy about any genuine need.  However, logic and GAS are often mutually exclusive motivations, meaning one will trump the other.  Spare cash without pressing need generally leads me to severe GAS.  In these troubled times the definition of spare cash is increasingly narrow for me.  I'm almost to the point that I don't browse my list of equipment sellers each night as is my custom.  Note that I said "almost".  😁

[otto.f]

I have been running out of GAS (since september 2019 when I bought an M7 but) already a few years for lenses. I own every Leica lens I have ever wanted except perhaps the AME 100mm R, but I wont’t buy it because I find that I own so many lenses that I spend too much time in choosing lenses before I go out with a certain photographic goal. I won’t sell because I find I should be wise enough after all these years of Leica equipment to make a good decision in 5 minutes. And if not, I consult my son, that helps. 

[chasdfg]

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In the past few years, I was more focused on acquiring gear rather than shooting. GAS also made me feel like my existing lenses were no good, my kit not complete enough, until I bought the next item on my list. After a while, I found the excessive amount of gear distracting, e.g. sometimes I couldn't decide which lens to use or would use a lens simply because I hadn't used it in a while. So this year, I bit the bullet and listed and sold a lot of gear (a lot...other camera brand kits, Q2, all my L-mount lenses along with beloved M240 and several M mount lenses). The M240 and M glass took a lot of convincing for me to part with.

Prior to my selling off, the M-lenses which were largely un-used were the 28mm Summilux in silver (it looks really good in silver and the 28mm Summilux is a wonderful cinematic lens), the 50mm Summilux ASPH (used only for paid work but my first M lens so didn't want to sell it) and the 75mm Summilux (my favourite portrait lens). I also had a 50mm Millennium Nikkor (used to be a Nikon shooter, so this lens helped me shoot Nikon and Leica while being rangefinder coupled) and 35mm Konica UC-Hexanon (in black paint). All of the were barely used, but easy to justify keeping if you focused on rendering style/aesthetics/sentimental reasons.

I decided I would "only" keep 5 lenses. I prefer modern rendering lenses in general, so these lenses were going to be my base kit (28, 35, 50 for paid work, travel, daily shooting). I then decided that in this kit, the lenses should balance size with speed and so I settled with the 28 Summicron, 35 Summilux and 50mm APO Summicron. I picked the 50mm APO Summicron over the 50mm Summilux ASPH as it renders more differently compared to the 35mm Summilux. If I kept a larger lens, it'd better have some special magic sauce to justify keeping it - this was the 50 Noctilux f1 for me. I kept the 75mm Summilux despite its lack of use rather than keep the 28mm Summilux/50mm Summilux, as it pairs with the 35mm Summilux in a 35-75 kit. If I had to trim to 4 lenses, the 75lux would go. If it was 3, it would probably just be the base kit left.

Other rules: 1 camera : 3 lenses ratio OR 2 cameras : 4/5 lenses ratio. Max 2 cameras. Only M lenses (adapting lenses are a trap as there are so many to buy). Minimal overlap with existing lenses/cameras (i.e. product differentiation of sorts which would allow me to pick what to use quicker).

I read some comments above about the reluctance to sell due to the time and effort it has taken to build that set of lenses/never sell a Leica. I'm hoping the time and effort it has taken for me to streamline my kit is enough to stop me from adding more to it. 

 

TL;DR
I have a 75mm Summilux I can't part with as it is my favourite portrait lens. And I can't part with the 50mm Noctilux f1 because nothing else renders like it. I would not use either of these lenses daily, but when I do, they have a wow factor, which is why I keep them.

[Stein K S]

7 hours ago, RayD28 said:

I don't have 12 lenses but your logic is good.  If not a collector 12 (or something in that range) lenses in the same mount, including those requiring an adapter, should satisfy about any genuine need.  However, logic and GAS are often mutually exclusive motivations, meaning one will trump the other.  Spare cash without pressing need generally leads me to severe GAS.  In these troubled times the definition of spare cash is increasingly narrow for me.  I'm almost to the point that I don't browse my list of equipment sellers each night as is my custom.  Note that I said "almost".  😁

Two or three of my lenses could possibly qualify as collectables 😉 But there are actually still too many. 5 lenses should be more than enough. My next self-imposed ¨level¨ could be to sell off a bit according to the philosophies in posts 48 and 49... maybe...

[Stein K S]

4 hours ago, otto.f said:

I have been running out of GAS (since september 2019 when I bought an M7 but) already a few years for lenses. I own every Leica lens I have ever wanted except perhaps the AME 100mm R, but I wont’t buy it because I find that I own so many lenses that I spend too much time in choosing lenses before I go out with a certain photographic goal. I won’t sell because I find I should be wise enough after all these years of Leica equipment to make a good decision in 5 minutes. And if not, I consult my son, that helps. 

Spot on about the ¨which lens(es) to choose today¨ process! 🤪

Edited April 13, 2020 by Stein K S

[logan2z]

I currently only have two Leica lenses - a 35/2.4 Summarit and  75/2.4 Summarit.  I use the 35mm about 99.9% of the time so the 75mm goes mostly unused.  I've thought about selling it and putting the proceeds towards another Leica lens but I'm reluctant to do it because a) the Summarits have been discontinued so it may not be easy to replace and b) it's a "budget" Leica lens so may not fetch that much on the used market.  I guess a third reason is since I use the 35mm almost exclusively I'm not sure I really need another Leica lens.

I have thought about selling both Summarits and buying a 35mm Summicron but I'm not sure it'll be any better than the Summarit for the sort of things I shoot (mostly street and urban landscapes).  So I'm likely to do nothing and just keep the gear I have (for now). 

[Arrow]

15 minutes ago, logan2z said:

I currently only have two Leica lenses - a 35/2.4 Summarit and  75/2.4 Summarit.  I use the 35mm about 99.9% of the time so the 75mm goes mostly unused.  I've thought about selling it and putting the proceeds towards another Leica lens but I'm reluctant to do it because a) the Summarits have been discontinued so it may not be easy to replace and b) it's a "budget" Leica lens so may not fetch that much on the used market.  I guess a third reason is since I use the 35mm almost exclusively I'm not sure I really need another Leica lens.

I have thought about selling both Summarits and buying a 35mm Summicron but I'm not sure it'll be any better than the Summarit for the sort of things I shoot (mostly street and urban landscapes).  So I'm likely to do nothing and just keep the gear I have (for now). 

Get a Contax T2 instead?

[pgk]

On 4/13/2020 at 4:01 PM, logan2z said:

I currently only have two Leica lenses - a 35/2.4 Summarit and  75/2.4 Summarit.

There is much to be said for keeping things small, simple and (relatively) cost effective. Its all too easy to get drawn into GAS and whilst its not necessarily something to regret in some ways, it can make lens choice a somewhat cumbersome event😉. I've been fortunate in trading up at the right times and have acquired too much but for not hideous cost. Eventually I will realise that not all is worth keeping ..... sometime ..... in the future ..... one day .....

[Ecaton]

My confession: CV15, CV21, Cron 28 asph, Elmarit 28 asph, cron 35 asph, lux 35 asph, MS optical 35 perar, CV Nokton 40 1.2, 50 elmar, lux 50 titanium, lux 50 asph, 50 ZM Sonnar, 50 summarit, 75 summarit, CV75 Nokton 1.5, cron 90 asph, 90 macro elmar.

My favourites: 35 lux asph (pre fle), CV 40 1.2,  50 lux asph, ZM 50 Sonnar, CV 75 1.5, cron 90 asph.

Never used and overdue for selling: CV 21, Elmarit 28 asph, MS perar 35, elmar 50, summarit 50, summarit 75. The new generation of CV offerings made the Summarits unattractive for me.

Will never sell: lux 50 asph, ZM 50 sonnar, cron 90 asph

[evikne]

From Lightroom I export all my Leica-images to a screensaver that plays the images in random order. With the help of a plug-in, all images are annotated with date and the lens I used. Watching this screensaver is a nice way to be reminded of what lenses I have and have had, and how they perform. 

My experience is that pictures taken with the 50mm Summilux pre-ASPH v.3 and 35mm Summicron pre-ASPH v.4 are among those I most often enjoy to see. The last one is sold, unfortunately … 😪