Lachlan
I was drinking with Dante when he wrote that.
While it makes a certain sense after a liter or two of beer, it really doesn't apply to the case in hand. It is meant more for the 'wannabe' with a 6 figure income
( see ' dilletante' ) who frets over every comment on the LUG and is too paralyzed with fear of making a mistake to make pictures.
Today's Leica is meant for shooting at the margins of what may be caught on film. Shoot from a tripod on a bright sunny day, and almost anything will be good enough. Shoot wide open in low light with dazzling light sources in the scene, and you can throw out alnost every lens on the market: they all fail. Which is why people are justified in buying $3000 lenses for 35mm.
My big photographic interest is recording the lives of ordinary people. It's what drew me to making pictures almost 40 years ago. Now, when you turn on bright lights, or take out a flash, you don't get the image you might have in normal, everyday lighting. Long ago, you had to push film and hope for the best. Today, you CAN use an f/1.4 lens and 400 film, and record amazing detail, in gentle tonality. AND not spend a long time in the darkroom, or on the scanner, making a satisfying image. The 35 Summilux is a passport to another world, and if you are enough of a photographer to use it, you can make good pictures. Nothing touches it. This is saying no more than should be obvious: learn your craft, be committed to what you do, have a compelling urgency to your work, and use the right tool for the job. And go shoot pictures. Tell stories. Be a creative force for good before the maniacs blow the world to bits.
Roger: do you have in more wine left ? I'm coming over.