Anyone getting the new titanium M-A?

[Huss]

I dunno. I can’t afford a Ferrari but I’m not going to write an article beeyotchin about it, then provide a link to GrandTurismo...

 

[Moose22]

I dunno. I can’t afford a Ferrari but I’m not going to write an article beeyotchin about it, then provide a link to GrandTurismo...

I would if someone paid me to.

I mean, writing snarky beeotching articles is so much more fun than something like honest and impartial reviews. Like how movie reviewers are probably dying for a bomb so they can pull out all of their best catty remarks. For enough dollars a column inch I can certainly piss on your head and tell you it's raining.

If there's no money on the table I don't care though. Wouldn't buy a Ferrari even if I could, but I harbor no ill will for people I've known who love Ferrari to death. I've known people who've spent that kind of money getting even less practical things and loved the hell out of the whole process. Who am I to tell them what how to enjoy themselves?

 

[Bronson Dugnutt]

I'll trade one body for 10 cubic meters of gas at STP.

 

[AgX]

In the seventies ... at the end of the article the author could not help them self and had to put in a dig about the pollution made to the environment in the production of titanium.
I have never heard mention of this since. Has it been brushed under the carpet, or are production techniques safer these days?

Metallic Titanium is produced from ores that contain Titanium- resp Iron-Titaniumoxides. This process is very energy-consumptive.

That author may have mixed up production of metallic Titanium with that of Titaniumdioxide. At the production of the latter a lot sulfuric acid was produced and dumped into the North Sea. This was a major media topic from 1980 on in Germany. This led to keeping the acid and costly purifying it for industrial use again.

 

[faberryman]

Wouldn't buy a Ferrari even if I could, but I harbor no ill will for people I've known who love Ferrari to death.

I harbor no ill will toward people who enjoy buying luxury goods as long as I don't have to listen to their bullshit rationalizations for doing so. Honesty is the best policy.

One thing has sort of been bothering me. Is Leica going to issue a matching handcrafted titanium light meter so you won't have to use some crappy bent metal or worse yet plastic light meter when you are taking photos with your titanium M-A and completely ruin the experience?

 

[Arthurwg]

Like an AR-15, there's some kind of fetish at work here.

 

[Patrick Robert James]

Not sure why anyone cares what someone else buys. The Titanium is too rich for my blood, but if someone has the scratch, whooopdidoo. It is just "stuff" afterall.

 

[MattKing]

I'd be very slightly more concerned if Leica also made reasonably priced film cameras, and the manufacture of this high end/luxury market product was diverting scarce resources from that production.
Sort of like not being able to find a new, less than $30,000.00 small car on a lot because the dealers only buy the ~$100,000.00 pickup trucks for sale to you.
And yes, I know, that is a terrible analogy.

 

[Huss]

I'd be very slightly more concerned if Leica also made reasonably priced film cameras, and the manufacture of this high end/luxury market product was diverting scarce resources from that production.
Sort of like not being able to find a new, less than $30,000.00 small car on a lot because the dealers only buy the ~$100,000.00 pickup trucks for sale to you.
And yes, I know, that is a terrible analogy.

Last summer, before the war, inflation etc my local Dodge Jeep dealer had next to no stock apart from about 10 $150,000 Ram pickups. These were the 'standard' pickup trucks that had commissioned modifications done to them. Not sure if it was through the factory but there they were.
They did look cool, but $150K for a Ram pick up? $50K seems high to me for what is meant to be a utilitarian vehicle but I guess times have changed.

 

[Kodachromeguy]

dealers only buy the ~$100,000.00 pickup trucks for sale to you.
And yes, I know, that is a terrible analogy.

It not all that bad of an analogy. My wife and I call those massive blingy trucks penis substitution devices for the pussy-whipped American suburban husband. The more apt analogy with cameras would be for the guys with the huge super-megapixel DSLRs mounting the biggest baddest penile cannon-like lenses (for those once in a lifetime Flickr uploads).

 

[MattKing]

It not all that bad of an analogy. My wife and I call those massive blingy trucks penis substitution devices for the pussy-whipped American suburban husband. The more apt analogy with cameras would be for the guys with the huge super-megapixel DSLRs mounting the biggest baddest penile cannon-like lenses (for those once in a lifetime Flickr uploads).

The sales people tell me that a huge percentage of sales of fancy/expensive pickup trucks are to women buyers. Guys come in asking for something cheaper.
Make of that what you will.

 

[Moose22]

The sales people tell me that a huge percentage of sales of fancy/expensive pickup trucks are to women buyers. Guys come in asking for something cheaper.
Make of that what you will.

Little Girl in Big Truck trope is a thing around here, too. Actually went away for a while after the 2008 gas price mess, but it was a big thing in the early 00s and it has been coming back since 2015 or so. Obviously a speedbump there the last couple years, but lots of women buying trucks and jeeps again.

guys with the huge super-megapixel DSLRs mounting the biggest baddest penile cannon-like lenses (for those once in a lifetime Flickr uploads).

I spent much of the ridiculous covid home confinement period taking pictures of lizards in my driveway and LBBs (little brown birds) flitting about my yard. 200-500 lens on a modern mirrorless camera, for which I also have an unreasonably-large-for-the-focal-length fast 20mm lens to take very middling night time sky photos (I live at the coast with a ton of light pollution) and make an occasional time lapse.

Comically large lenses on a spendy state of the art body are my bread and butter it seems. I just slapped a big-ass 105 macro on the mirrorless, which I use 90% of the time to scan negatives, though obviously if I ever want a close up of a penny I'm good to go at 8200x5500 pixels! Ridiculous, right?

I'm not quite sure what this has to do with my penis. It seems like a very strange projection, or something -- not much of a psychologist, myself. I'm glad you and your wife are thinking about it, though. Cheers!

I spend on stupid crap like this because I can afford it and because I enjoy it. I like to hope other people spend their money on luxuries because they can afford it and they will enjoy what they get as well.

Also, to the original point, none of this gear is being made in a way that has stopped anyone else from getting what they want on the market. Looking at Nikon's website they still offer a substantial variety of cameras from $500 to $5000 to suit any budget. My buying the stupidest possible lens to take pictures of finches and fence lizards would not affect them at all, just as a titanium meter for a very limited production titanium leica certainly hasn't slowed their production of the film cameras they are selling to their normal target audience.

Leica is a lifestyle brand. Not a mass market brand, not a bargain brand, and they seem to be servicing their market just fine.

 

[faberryman]

The sales people tell me that a huge percentage of sales of fancy/expensive pickup trucks are to women buyers. Guys come in asking for something cheaper.
Make of that what you will.

I don't think I have ever seen a woman driving a pimped out monster truck, and there are a lot of pimped out monster trucks on the roads around where I live. Maybe women are buying them for their husbands for their birthday. Also, it may be a Canadian thing. That's possible. I guess. Maybe. Probably not. More likely I am just not paying attention.

 

[Huss]

I actually have not seen women drive jacked up trucks in Cali either. I'm sure there are a few, but all the ones I've seen - and I've seen plenty! - are driven by men.

I have seen a few women drive Wranglers - lifted and stock - and for some reason I find that super cute. Maybe because I also drive a Wrangler and so appreciate their impeccable taste!