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Funny How Time Slips Away

ColColt

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Forty years ago I bought a Leica M2 with a 50 f2DR Summicron and 35 f2 Summicron lens with hood. That photo is forty years old as well. Took a lot of great pictures with it and still have it today except now I have the MR-4 meter mounted on it as well. Maybe it'll still be around another forty but I won't. The kid brother will be getting it

Me023 by David Fincher, on Flickr
_1DF3977aq by David Fincher, on Flickr
 
Nice... one consolation is, at least you have someone to leave it to.
 
Yep, and he's the only family member left and into photography so, I don't feel bad leaving it to him.
 
Screw it! I am taking the cameras with me!
 
I thought about taking my F2AS with me.
 
The guy down the street had a big white Van and some graffiti tagger guy painted all over it in the middle of the night. The poor guy spent the day in 100+ heat trying to scrub his truck clean again and he died that night from a heart attack. So the tagger guy killed him sort of and his wife who hated him sold all his stuff in the driveway the next weekend. I did not go to see if he had a Leica laying on a blanket for sale as I was kind of ticked off about it all anyway. He did not get to take his stuff with him. I guess I would take my Nikon FM2n with me except I don't own one. I do not have a Leica either. Just a lowly FG that I paid $39.00 for but I guess I do not want to take it with me.
 
For a few decades I dreamed of owning a Leica M but could never justify the cost, not just of a body but lenses, even CV lenses are not within my modest budget. At about 62 and close to retirement I fell into a couple of CV lenses from a neighbor for a fairly good price and so, finally sprung for a M4-2. Now, about 4 years later I find I never was much of a rangefinder sort of guy and still much prefer my 40 year old OM-1. funny how life works out sometimes. Still have the M4-2 and the CV 35mm f2.5 PII lens but, to my great shame it mostly sits in the bottom of my dresser. I should just sell it but feel like a darn fool already.
 
Now that I can afford to buy a Leica and the lenses, I find that the range finder Leicas do not bring anything to the party that I do not have with the Nikon slrs. Yes, there is nothing that feels like a Leica, but feel alone is not enough to make a Leica desirable to me.
 
I never had an interest in Leica, but I still use the Nikon F3 I bought 35 years ago. In fact, almost all of my camera gear is from that era. Never had a need or desire to replace them.
 
Time is slipping away, but I'm not laughing about it!
 
A Leica M and a nice lens is not that much money really considering the durability of them.. Forever repairable and probably will be around when cheap camera's like my FG are dead and gone.
 
I'm packing the cameras in the coffin. I've got e*ay postings already written, in my will. They'll all be listed for local pickup only, and they'll be reposted periodically. Seems like a good way to get regular graveside visitors with taste...
 
If I can't take my camera equipment with me, I'm not going.
 
Seems L & M's are timeless already.
 
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I'll need to consider moving to a large wooden camera, because I'm planning on cremation.
 
MattKing said:
I'll need to consider moving to a large wooden camera, because I'm planning on cremation.
Click to expand...

Not having any progeny of my own (nor a wife, for that matter), I'm planning on leaving my Nikon, Leica and Hasselblad collection to my niece and two nephews who each share my love of photography; they can settle accounts on their own - hopefully in a civilized fashion. I got each started in photography with gifts of Nikon F2s and F3/F3HP bodies, Nikkor lenses, a Tiltall tripod and a Vivitar 283 flash.

Like you Matt, I'm planning on going the cremation route; in a city with limited room for expansion, it seems, in my estimation, entirely too self-centered to take up scarce real estate with a box-o-bones.
 
I'm amazed at the condition of the M2 in the second shot. Mine lasted about a week in that condition, and I'm fairly careful with my cameras. Used Leicas seem to come in two states of health, thrashed within an inch of their lives - and sometimes beyond - and like the day they were made. It's hard to believe the latter ever took photographs.
 

Mine have been with me on mountain hikes and field trips all over the western U.S. - they're still nearly mint. One M3, the double stroke, has some odd red paint dots on it that the original owner put on the self timer and rewind lever for some reason. Otherwise it is dent and scratch free, fully functional. The single stroke is near mint with only a small 0.5mm ding on it when I got it from Don Chatterton. I've had these and used them for over 20 years. The M6's and SL's are also perfect.

 

Most all my cameras look like that. I have my oldest FTN Photomic that's taken untold amounts of photos and still looks good. No reason why they need to look beat all to hell if kept in good cushioned bags and not dropped or put down on cement and moved several inches over for someone to sit down, that sort of thing...never dropped a camera in over 40 years-a flash, yes but never a camera.(knock on wood)
 
isn't this thread about a song?
 
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