Wednesday 22 September 2010

Life is full of little disappointments.

A colleague brought their Leica in today for me to have a look at. It was bequeathed to them in a relations Will. Now when I heard about this I was understandably excited, imagining a classic Rangefinder. However, like many things in life it proved to be a wee bit of a disappointment. It was one of the SLR type (early one I think), film not digital. Now I know the build and optics are second to none, but to my eyes it was an incredibly ugly beast, but worst of all it was so heavy almost to the point of being unusable (I certainly wouldn't want to lug it around)!
Now it's not that long to that time of year again ... Dear Santa ...
As an alternative, does anyone know roughly how much this little gem is likely to retail for? 
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6 comments:

  1. sleepyduck23 September 2010 at 08:30

    Super shot here too :-)

    I have a Leica M2 - my tool of choice in the film days. It's a lovely, lovely thing but yes, heavy. I've never handled a Leica SLR but they always struck me as ugly lumps. I'd be tempted by an M9 if it was half the price... Saw that Fuji on the web the other day, it does look sweet.

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  2. alexander j blair23 September 2010 at 09:20

    Stuck at home (literally)waiting for a locksmith! M2 - we must meet the next time we meet. Do you still use? I'm thinking use, film scanner, digital processing.

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  3. sleepyduck23 September 2010 at 09:51

    I'll try to remember to bring it along next time I see you. Sadly, I haven't used it in ages, not because I don't love it (I do!), but because of the difficulties processing film: it would feel positively wrong to shoot B&W and not process it myself and, whilst I don't feel proprietorial when it comes to processing colour, the M2 isn't great for shooting colour - with no built-in metering, exposure is necessarily approximate (unless you spend time on it, by which time the moment is gone) and colour film doesn't have enough latitude to deal with guesswork metering.

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  4. sleepyduck23 September 2010 at 10:22

    Just seen a report that the Fuji is expected to retail at about $1,000. No doubt that will translate as about £1,000...

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  5. alexander j blair23 September 2010 at 12:06

    M2 needs more use. Possibly as suggested above! "Real men dream in Black and White". Fuji - my boy is based in NYC :-) If I was to start thinking about Rangefinder types any suggestions? Was bidding on a Ricoh G1 on Ebay the other day but lost (went for £158).

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  6. sleepyduck23 September 2010 at 13:29

    All I know about digital rangefinders is that the M9 is far too expensive for me. As far as film is concerned, in my opinion the shortlist begins and ends with the M2 (or M3, depending on your viewfinder/lens preferences).

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