Mike Johnson is at it again

[venchka]

This should be in Equipment, but the general population might not understand.
Filling in for Mr. Stovall.

The Online Photographer: The Secrets of the Leica

Enjoy!

[Murph]

More pretentious crap about Leica, a camera good only for one thing, street shooting, and second best at everything else. If they were so good, why did SLR/DSLRs pass them by in 1960, and Leica has been living on its overblown rep ever since. Sorry, like Apple hype, I don't buy into it.

[venchka]

Get up on the wrong side of the wrong bed, did we? Grinning.
Murph, you have to learn to stop beating around the bush. Tell us how you really feel.

FWIW...I took my oldest SLR and newest lens for same out today. Burned up a roll of Kodachrome in a couple hours. Felt really good.

[venchka]

This may be good advice regardless of brand. A bit of snicker as well.

4. Lenses are expensive, so chances are better you'll only own one or two.Three at most. If you are lucky enough to acquire a Leica but you also acquire too many lenses for it—too bad! You lose. Lenses are like women: one main one and maybe one on the side are enough for any real man, as long as they're the right ones for you. Too many and you're either just playing around or busy making yourself and everyone around you unhappy.
Mike Johnson

[Murph]

Working off a sinus migraine yesterday. Kodachrome, yes.... I suspect it did feel very good. I just wish Agfa was still making AgfaPan 25, 100, and 400, that was some good film.

Originally Posted by venchka

Get up on the wrong side of the wrong bed, did we? Grinning.
Murph, you have to learn to stop beating around the bush. Tell us how you really feel.

FWIW...I took my oldest SLR and newest lens for same out today. Burned up a roll of Kodachrome in a couple hours. Felt really good.

[venchka]

Mike's Close to almost good enough choices......



Lately I've been having serious thoughts about a Nikon body like the one above and 24-50-105 lenses.

[venchka]

Murph,
Sorry about your ills. Hope feel better SOON!
This is more in tune with your feelings.......

All of Leica's Franklin Mint horsesh*t (endless special editions, collector come-ons, special materials and coverings, etc.) is, well, horsesh*t, and all the shrill, whiny "I'm better than other photographers because I have a Leica" snob appeal that's been getting worse as the years go by is more than counter-productive—it's obnoxious.

Leicatistas will howl, but the business about how special the lenses are is pretty much horsesh*t too. Most lenses today are plenty good enough and are not going to hold anybody back. If you're not getting enough quality out of a good Pentax or Nikon prime, the solution is not to spend the price of a used car on magical Deutsche-dust, the solution is to get a camera that shoots a bigger neg. Again, I'm still on film here. The digitals are another can o' worms.

Mike Johnson

[Flea77]

Originally Posted by venchka

Leicatistas will howl, but the business about how special the lenses are is pretty much horsesh*t too. Most lenses today are plenty good enough and are not going to hold anybody back. If you're not getting enough quality out of a good Pentax or Nikon prime, the solution is not to spend the price of a used car on magical Deutsche-dust, the solution is to get a camera that shoots a bigger neg. Again, I'm still on film here. The digitals are another can o' worms.

Mike Johnson

I won't disagree that moving up a neg size will do wonderful things, but when I see the images my 35mm rangefinder and Zeiss glass produce I could almost cry. Of course my Contax costs a fraction of what a Leica system would which makes it even sweeter.

Allan

[venchka]

Not all things Leica are costly. Most are a real bargain. Buy right and get all your money back if you want to change stuff.
That said, there are very many optics out there that will knock your socks off and weren't made by the gnomes in Wetzler or Midland.

[Flea77]

Originally Posted by venchka

Not all things Leica are costly. Most are a real bargain. Buy right and get all your money back if you want to change stuff.
That said, there are very many optics out there that will knock your socks off and weren't made by the gnomes in Wetzler or Midland.

Wayne, that depends on what you call a bargain. I can get what I paid for out of my Contax gear which means a cost of $0. I have heard you and others say the same about Leica gear too. The big difference for me is that the initial cost for my Contax gear was a fraction of what the same in Leica would cost. For me, that is a much better bargain

Allan

[venchka]

Interesting. I thought that the Contax gear was highly sought after and priced accordingly.
No worries. Any gear that gets used is good gear and a good value.

[Flea77]

Originally Posted by venchka

Interesting. I thought that the Contax gear was highly sought after and priced accordingly.
No worries. Any gear that gets used is good gear and a good value.

I think we may be thinking about different Contax equipment. Mine is in my Avatar, the G1 (You have seen her before on one of our film crawls). The body goes for about $350, the lenses for around $300 each in 28mm, 45mm, and 90mm. The closest in functionality Leica is the M6 which looks like about a $1200 body only (about the cost of my entire kit), a 50mm Sonnar f2 Leica screw mount is looking around $500-$600 on the bay (compared to the G1's 45mm f2 Planar T at about $300), a 28mm f2.8 Biogon T Leica screw mount off the bay looks like about $500-$600 (compared the G1's 28mm f2.8 Biogon T at around $300), a 85mm f2.8 Sonnar Leica off the bay looks to be $3000 new and I will guess $2000 used (compared to the G1's 90mm f2.8 Sonnar T at about $300).

Using those number my kit costs about $1250, the Leica kit of equivalent lenses and body would cost at least $4200. That is why I went Contax.

One note. I am no Leica expert (heck, I am not an anything expert!) so I really do not know if the lenses I selected for this were equivalent or not. I tried to get the focal length, aperture and lens design (Sonnar, Biogon, etc) as close as possible to match them.

Lastly, I completely agree with you, anything that gets you out and shooting is worth it!

Allan

[venchka]

There are deals to be had. Like $600 M5 bodies. M2 bodies are sometimes less. $200 85/2.0 Nikkors. $300 Leitz 90/2.8 Elmarit-M. Virtually all of the Cosina/Voigtlander lenses are very good and affordable. Then there are all of those great Canon LTM bodies and lenses.

[Murph]

Yeah, I get just annoyed by the whole: "Leica glass gives so much better photos, and only Leica's can make great photos, all other cameras are just Soooo second rate." attitude among those who own that over priced, over-rated, under performing German stuff. When Leica made SLRs like the R8 and R9, THOSE were decent cameras that you could use for something other than street shooting. Try doing a Macro, or Wildlife, or even landscape on a rangefinder. The whole elitist attitude pisses me off. Rather than waste my money on a Leica (which I did in Germany, got rid of it ASAP), get a Contax or other camera using the excellent Zeiss optics which IMHO are better than those made by the Solms folks. Or even yet use a "Texas Leica" a Pentax 6x7.

Originally Posted by venchka

Murph,
Sorry about your ills. Hope feel better SOON!
This is more in tune with your feelings.......

[Tom]

Speaking of which, whatever happened to all of John Stovall's gear?