Leica photographers - the naked truth

[Pioneer]

I am glad you bought a Leica and can now make good photos. Please say a prayer for those who do not have a Leica and cannot make good photos. Maybe one day, if they are lucky, and save up their money, they can buy a Leica and make good photos too.

I make good photos with my Leica...

I make bad photos with my Leica.

Actually, more of the latter.

It is about the same with every camera I use and I enjoy them all.

Else I would not use them.

 

[faberryman]

I make good photos with my Leica...

I make bad photos with my Leica.

Actually, more of the latter.

It is about the same with every camera I use and I enjoy them all.

Else I would not use them.

I was responding to snusmumriken's post.

 

[Huss]

OK, good call. Clearly I joined late, so please don't flame me for not having picked through the entire 17 pages! But I read enough to see how people were reacting. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to imply that your subject was stupid - the video is great fun. But while many contributors here took it in that spirit, some seemed to be very serious and defensive. My clumsily-expressed point was that most of us succumb to hype, and that we can and should laugh at ourselves about it. Maybe we should feel uncomfortable, do a little soul-searching. But still, we haven't (necessarily) made a bad choice of camera. I've tried making good photos with bad cameras, and it was frustrating. Enough, let's keep smiling.

Oh, no offense taken! This thread was started off with the silly/goofy video. And of course some people took it seriously, so here we are, 17 pages later...

 

[Huss]

I'd rather walk, skip dinner and wear the same jeans I have been wearing for 20 years.
..

Wait, you can make a pair of jeans last 20 years?

 

[removed account4]

Wait, you can make a pair of jeans last 20 years?

I'm still wearing clothes that I bought in the 1990s and 1980s. I didn't make them LOL

And of course some people took it seriously, so here we are, 17 pages later

I know, people here are kind of funny like that. ( that's both funny ha-ha and not funny ha-ha ).

 

[snusmumriken]

I am glad you bought a Leica and can now make good photos. Please say a prayer for those who do not have a Leica and cannot make good photos. Maybe one day, if they are lucky, and save up their money, they can buy a Leica and make good photos too.

Ye gods, not only do I have to feel guilty that I bought a hyped-up Leica, I also have to feel guilty about all the people who don't have one? It's harsh.

 

[cliveh]

A Leica camera is no better for taking pictures than any other camera, but it is just so damn tactile and a joy to use. It is also a very high precision instrument. I once bought a Leica copy to try it out and it was like a house brick compared to the engineering precision of a real Leica.

 

[Huss]

A Leica camera is no better for taking pictures than any other camera,....

That's not true, it's much better than my Soviet RFs or my Nikon S2 or S3 that i used.

The Leica M has a much clearer VF, the rf patch is much better and easier to use, no weirdness with aperture or shutter speed settings - or even focus - any M with the quick load system (M4 onwards) is much quicker to load than any other RF. Apart from maybe my Agfa Optima 1535!
Oh yeah, and a much bigger lens selection.

 

[George Mann]

That's not true, it's much better than my Soviet RFs or my Nikon S2 or S3 that i used.

The Leica M has a much clearer VF, the rf patch is much better and easier to use, no weirdness with aperture or shutter speed settings - or even focus - any M with the quick load system (M4 onwards) is much quicker to load than any other RF. Apart from maybe my Agfa Optima 1535!
Oh yeah, and a much bigger lens selection.

Great! So once I save up a million gazillion dollars I can afford one.

On a side note, even though my Fed 3 has a viewfinder that only shows 75/80% of a 50mm lense, it works just fine for taking pictures.

 

[zanxion72]

What – so either drive a Formula One car or walk? Kobe steak and caviar or skip dinner? Get the most expensive Japanese denim or just go pantsless?

Sorry, that makes no sense whatsoever.

You think so? Go do macro work with a Smena camera. Do some fashion photography with a Zenit and a Helios lens (any Helios, including that overpriced 85mm one). Now if you are just having fun with it and it simply doesn't matter to you, go ahead, it is all up to you. Be reasonable and leave foolish comparisons aside.
And for the record, I said always buy the best you can afford, not the most expensive available. There is a huge difference between these two, I bet you understand it.

 

[NB23]

That's not true, it's much better than my Soviet RFs or my Nikon S2 or S3 that i used.

The Leica M has a much clearer VF, the rf patch is much better and easier to use, no weirdness with aperture or shutter speed settings - or even focus - any M with the quick load system (M4 onwards) is much quicker to load than any other RF. Apart from maybe my Agfa Optima 1535!
Oh yeah, and a much bigger lens selection.

Meh, even a N65, N2020, minolta x-9, fm10, F601... will be easier to use and willl yield equal results most of the time.

It’s just that, once over 40 years old, One doesn’t want to fiddle with cheaporino stuff anymore (as a general rule).

Using a X700 was fun, it was cool to have access to such good quality for dirt cheap money, but there comes a time when a Honda motorcycle will not cut it anymore versus a Harley. Sure, Honda yadda yadda yadda but STFU once and for all, Y’all: a Harley is a Harley. a Leica is a Leica.

 

[George Mann]

Y’all: a Harley is a Harley. a Leica is a Leica.

Miserable relics and overpriced bling!

 

[NB23]

Miserable relics and overpriced bling!

“Overpriced” is a philosophical concept, really.

Relic? Also merely a philosophical concept.

 

[ced]

i like mine

Prefer your shirt!

 

[Patrick Robert James]

Wait, you can make a pair of jeans last 20 years?

Not anymore. But yeah. I have some jeans that are that old. I have a sweater a girlfriend gave me from Ambercrombie & Fitch, before they became hip. They just had normal good clothes. Seems to me clothes these days aren't up to Leica standards... Lol.

 

[Patrick Robert James]

That's not true, it's much better than my Soviet RFs or my Nikon S2 or S3 that i used.

The Leica M has a much clearer VF, the rf patch is much better and easier to use, no weirdness with aperture or shutter speed settings - or even focus - any M with the quick load system (M4 onwards) is much quicker to load than any other RF. Apart from maybe my Agfa Optima 1535!
Oh yeah, and a much bigger lens selection.

Not to be pedantic, but the Hexar RF is by far the easiest to load/fastest to use RF.

I have a Canon 7 that was rebuilt and man is that thing smooooooooth. Total butter. Better than my 1 mil M3. You'd have to try it to believe it. Yeah the rangefinder patch isn't quite as good, but it has more usable framelines, and a meter. Lots of good cameras out there. Leicas are nice too though.

Personally I think the best camera to use is the one you have in your hand. The ones I try using with my feet don't work out too good. Same with the ones in the drawer. The worst ones are the ones in boxes. Those take horrible pictures.

 

[cliveh]

Miserable relics and overpriced bling!

I wouldn't call it overpriced bling, as you are paying for precise precision engineering and a tactile and ergonomic design, coupled with ideal weight and size, unsurpassed since about 1932.

 

[snusmumriken]

At the risk of heresy, one thing about my M6 really niggles me: while the shutter speed runs in whole stops, and the aperture ring has clicks on the whole and half stops, the film speed dial is calibrated in one-third stops. I can't see any sense in that. Did they change it on later M models? I kinda feel they could have been a bit more logical having been in the business since about 1932.

 

[cliveh]

At the risk of heresy, one thing about my M6 really niggles me: while the shutter speed runs in whole stops, and the aperture ring has clicks on the whole and half stops, the film speed dial is calibrated in one-third stops. I can't see any sense in that. Did they change it on later M models? I kinda feel they could have been a bit more logical having been in the business since about 1932.

You are correct, as after Oskar Barnack died the marketing men moved in to propagate the design with money signs in their eyes. The original concept was lost after about the 1950's to special editions, snakeskin coverings, gold versions, you name it. But let’s not forget the original concept that Oskar Barnack created. The early Leica’s were probably the finest cameras ever created in the history of chemical photography.

 

[madNbad]

At the risk of heresy, one thing about my M6 really niggles me: while the shutter speed runs in whole stops, and the aperture ring has clicks on the whole and half stops, the film speed dial is calibrated in one-third stops. I can't see any sense in that. Did they change it on later M models? I kinda feel they could have been a bit more logical having been in the business since about 1932.

Buy a Zeiss lens, they have third stops. Then you'll have two of the three.

 

[removed account4]

At the risk of heresy, one thing about my M6 really niggles me: while the shutter speed runs in whole stops, and the aperture ring has clicks on the whole and half stops, the film speed dial is calibrated in one-third stops. I can't see any sense in that. Did they change it on later M models? I kinda feel they could have been a bit more logical having been in the business since about 1932.

half stops, third stops.. does it really matter that much ?
I've been making photographs since I was 5 with a Mickey Mouse camera and later a Hawkeye Flashfun no half or third stops.
people with multi speed shutters and variable f-stops have it easy ...

 

[Don_ih]

I've been making photographs since I was 5 with a Mickey Mouse camera and later a Hawkeye flashgun

I can see how you'd use a Mickey Mouse camera to take photos. I can't see how you'd do it with a flashgun, though. Maybe you should've got the camera along with the flash?

 

[fdonadio]

Wait, you can make a pair of jeans last 20 years?

I don’t know about John, but one of my brothers sure can, depending on your interpretation of “making something last”. He wears them until they tear apart in the wash machine.

 

[fdonadio]

That's not true, it's much better than my Soviet RFs or my Nikon S2 or S3 that i used.

OK, Huss. But are the Nikon S2 and S3 that much worse? I mean, they (the Nikons) should be much, much better than the Soviet rangefinders, of course.

 

[removed account4]

flashgun

Dang speelcheek hawkeye flashfun