[northcoastgreg]

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I saw someone with a Leica rangefinder (I could not tell if it was digital or film camera) just week ago at Arts Alive in Eureka, CA. I have seen Leicas in the wild four or five times, all in places where people were taking landscape photographs, such as Maroon Bells in Colorado or Oxbow Bend in Wyoming. I once ran into an elderly gentleman with a Leica at Klamath River Overlook in Redwood NP. He asked me for advice on what he should photograph at that place, as he seemed rather confused about that.

The photographer at my nephew's wedding had two Leicas, both with telephoto lenses (90mm? 135mm?) attached to them. He shot all the set shots with the Leicas. With the group shots, he must have been standing 50 feet or more away. He took his time framing and focusing his shot and crimped every shot to make sure. In fact, the wedding ceremony was twenty minutes late because his method of shooting was so slow. During the ceremony, he reverted to FF Canons with big zoom lenses. For the dancing, he took out a discreet Ricoh GR and held it above his head when taking shots (he was more than a foot shorter than the groom, and half a foot shorter than the bride).

[Digitalis]

The photographer at my nephew's wedding had two Leicas, both with telephoto lenses (90mm? 135mm?) attached to them. He shot all the set shots with the Leicas.

Telephoto lenses are inherently difficult to work with on rangefinder cameras...with telephoto lenses, small focus errors make big differences, and RF cameras are best suited to lenses 50mm and below*. SLRs are much better for long lenses when it comes to focusing, coincidentally mirror vibrations and shutter shock can make SLRs worse to work with from an Image quality standpoint.


*Especially fast ones, how many 75mm f/1.2, 50mm f/1.0 and 35mm f/1.2, 21mm f/1.4 lenses exist for SLRs?

[ChrisPlatt]

I have spotted Leica cameras with real live owners occasionally in Manhattan,
often at camera stores like B&H. Not sure if they were users or just jewelry.

I have often fancied owning a Leica M2 camera but never took the plunge.
I do however own nice Leitz binoculars I bought used from Jon Goodman.

Chris

[bikehead90]

I have spotted Leica cameras with real live owners occasionally in Manhattan,
often at camera stores like B&H. Not sure if they were users or just jewelry.

I have a feeling for some (not all) who do own Leica, it's an accessory to them. "look at me, I'm a photographer. I can afford a Leica, so I must be serious. Follow me on Instagram at blahblahblahI'msodeepandinteresting."

[Digitalis]

I have a feeling for some (not all) who do own Leica, it's an accessory to them.

Certainly the red dot has an appeal to the well heeled and ignorant: The Lenny Kravitz edition Leica with its pre-brassed finish was particularly cringe-worthy.

Anyone who takes wet-dry sandpaper to artificially age the finish on their camera richly deserves the title of poseur.

[Wasp]

I like the idea of the Leica M Monochrom. A digital camera that only takes black and white pictures. Yummy.


But the $8000 price tag is just nuts. And then there is the crazy slow buffer, low resolution screen and the amount of post processing needed to get the best out of it. Meh.

[acoufap]

I like the idea of the Leica M Monochrom. A digital camera that only takes black and white pictures. Yummy.


But the $8000 price tag is just nuts. And then there is the crazy slow buffer, low resolution screen and the amount of post processing needed to get the best out of it. Meh.

I like the idea of the M Monochrome too. Interesting: the display shows a raw histogram and so it should be more precise than the usually jpeg based histograms.

To „model“ contrast you need to use optical color filters while capturing the light, I guess. So you have to work like in the black & white film days - no way to do this in post using RGB Curve Channels or Mixer. This for sure is a new challenge for people that never worked this way.

[UncleVanya]

Certainly the red dot has an appeal to the well heeled and ignorant: The Lenny Kravitz edition Leica with its pre-brassed finish was particularly cringe-worthy.

Anyone who takes wet-dry sandpaper to artificially age the finish on their camera richly deserves the title of poseur.

NOMINATED for best comment so far!

[antipattern]

I have seen a few Leica cameras in Germany. Apparently Germans get one for free when they travel through Bielefeld.

---------- Post added Aug 15th, 2018 at 13:21 ----------

Anyone who takes wet-dry sandpaper to artificially age the finish on their camera richly deserves the title of poseur.

You mean like this?

[Digitalis]

Leica Monochrom - Leica Summicron-M 90mm f/2 APO




Prepare for Itemized rebuttal:

But the $8000 price tag is just nuts.

1]The pricing is in line with other products from Leica. 2] the Monochrom isn't using an off the shelf sensor - it's specially made for the camera [as it has no CFA at all] this raises the cost of sensor production.

And then there is the crazy* slow buffer, low resolution screen

3]Leica cameras were never at any point designed for loud spray and pray 10FPS shooting, buy a Nikon for that. 4] The rear LCD on any camera is basically only there to adjust settings and cursory inspection of a photo - but we all have big monitors to do the critical inspection and editing. The low res LCD has never hindered me in any way when working with the Monochrom.

and the amount of post processing needed to get the best out of it. Meh.

5] This complaint I really don't get - post processing is a matter of taste, you can do as much or as little as you want. In that image above, I did zero post processing to - apart from reducing its size for display on an internet gallery 6] If you hate post processing at all: the Monochrom is excellent if you are using a lens that is worth a damn, you don't even need to touch the sharpening slider! 7] You can use coloured contrast filters with the monochrom, just like the days of B&W film! so you can apply selective contrast in camera.

Anyone who takes wet-dry sandpaper to artificially age the finish on their camera richly deserves the title of poseur.

You mean like this?

* BTW great way to appeal to the millennial crowd by using "crazy" in that sentence. The 645D has a slow buffer, that didn't stop it from selling well. Coincidentally the rear LCD on the 645D had basically the same specs as the leica monochrom, I don't recall anyone calling that a show-stopper.

[neokind]

I have several friends and acquaintances that shoot Leica exclusively. One of them somewhat shamefully shared that he'd spent over $100k with them in the last 12 months! All of the people I know who use Leica systems are primarily hobbyists, though I believe that they occasionally shoot professionally--but really, just for fun.

[Digitalis]

One of them somewhat shamefully shared that he'd spent over $100k with them in the last 12 months!

Fortunately I come from a family that has had several professional photographers in it and thus over the past 100+ odd years accumulated a considerable amount of photographic equipment, so my need for new equipment is't as great. However I have sold a fair bit of it off...I regret selling the Linhof and Leica R systems. Though I have to say, the Leica S camera and lenses have made up for it.

though I believe that they occasionally shoot professionally--but really, just for fun.

Have you ever worked with a Leica? they are fun to use!

[neokind]

Have you ever worked with a Leica? they are fun to use!

I have not. Next time I see them I hope to have a chance to take some shots with them. I little reason to believe that they made their decisions to buy Leica for any reason besides the system fit the type of photos that they intended to take. Another acquaintance of mine is shooting Hasselblad, and has offered to let me hang out during a session and use his gear. Any chance I can get to try out other systems is one I'll take. It's great to see what other companies are doing.

[acoufap]

I studied Leica’s lens catalog and I‘m impressed. Leica offers lenses with concrete focal lengths in different „fastnesses“. Seems to be a complete other strategy than CaNiSoFuOlyPen ... The consumer decides how fast and heavy his FF lens shall be and chooses accordingly. The consumers trade-offs in fastness vs. weight are leading! At least that‘s my impression concerning M-Series lenses.

For the -M lenses ... 1:0.95 => Noctilux 50mm (heaviest M lens at 700g), 1:1.4 lenses => Summilux, 1:2.0 lenses => Summicron, 1:2.4 lenses => Summarit, slower and other criteria => Elmar, Super-Elmar, ... shortest FL 16mm (Tri-Elmar-M 1:4/16-18-21 ... interesting), longest 135mm.

IMO it‘s great that Leica still is there. I‘m sure they couldn‘t have survived if they didn‘t go their own way.

A small store, kind of minimalistic like the cameras - I like it but didn't dare to enter ...


Photograph taken with KP • DA15

3 Big Red Dots.
One huge camera near the entrance.
3 models on display - 1“, APSC, FF.
No prices.
A huge hologram of another building in the window panes ...

[TomB_tx]

When I started with Leica in the 1960s, Leica basically said the different lens lines (based on speed: Elmar (f2.8 or 3.5), Summicron (f2.0), and Summilux(f1.4)) had equivalent image quality, but varied in speed, size, and cost. A 50 mm 2.8 Elmar in tiny collapsible mount cost $78, while a 50 f2 Summicron (a bit larger) was $150, and the larger 50 f1.4 Summilux cost $213.
There was also the new 50 f1.2 Noctilux (the first production lens with aspheric elements) at $678. I was offered one at that price at Altman’s Camera in Chicago, but got a Summicron instead. (Now that model Noctilux goes for around $15K used.)
In fact there were differences in performance between the various lenses, but they also had similar rendering, such that images were compatible.
The first Leica I used was a friend’s M2 with a 50 2.8 Elmar. At the time I used a Pentax H1a with 55 f2 Super Tak. The Pentax lens was at least as “sharp” as the Leica, but I found the Leica images more pleasing.