Who Else Uses Leicas?

Who else uses Leicas? How about a Leica M4-2?

I'd like to know...



Mostly, because this blog got started right when I got my own, first Leica M4-2. 

To some, it may seem a weird decision...  Why bother getting a meterless camera body, when there are so many advanced camera systems out there? 

At some point, the control-freak inside a photographer shows up.  And starts longing for a camera that gives you a lot of control (that is to say, forces you to make decisions) over your the way you photograph.  

Besides, one starts needing a number of lenses that are not only reliable, but also fast, small and unobtrusive.  Hence, the longing for a camera like the Leica.

Now, by the time I got my first Leicas (which should have been subject for a separate blog... and I may do it one day), I was already relatively bored with SLR bodies.  Granted, they are versatile, flexible and easy to use, but people see you coming a mile away and, more often than not, they assume you know something or other about photography.  I've been taken for a professional more times with my Nikon gear than with any other cameras.  

So, my Leica decision was, rather, a move towards the new.  I could have gone with medium format, or even digital, but I'd have the same conspicuousness problem.  So, rangefinders were there.  I went for the metered bodies because my short experience with an unmetered medium format body didn't really satisfy me.  Probably, I wasn't ready to learn the little traps about taking a reading with a meter instead of using a camera.  

Why a rangefinder camera?  What was the draw to a metered or unmetered body?  What did you do it?  Was it the B-and-W look?  Was it the brilliance of the color?  

Let me know!

(FWIW, Street carolers in Hinsdale, IL, M6TTL, Summilux 35mm on Agfa ISO 400 at ISO 1600, Nov 2007; Brazilian musicians at the Bembo Haus, Nuremberg, same rig, but with Provia ISO 400 pushed three stops, 2008.) 

The Problem With Leicas

The problem with Leicas is...

That they have to be so darn good... The photograph above was taken in a store near Bogotá, Colombia, with a Leica.  Spur of the moment, light hitting the right spot, or maybe simple boredom, but the camera (and the `cron 50mm) came to the rescue.  Mind you, I'm not a fan of this focal length, but then, I force myself to use it, as it was the first Leica lens I got, and the one and only purchased new (hard to believe!!).  Now, the photograph below is, as it turns out, somewhat random.  Taken with my very M4-2 and Hexanon lens, I did not take a reading; just set the camera at f2.8 and 1/60, overexposing one bit on Provia ISO 400 (yes, I dared use slide film).  The result is a fairly pleasant photograph of a colleague in his office at the university where I work.  He liked the shot himself, it seems.  

Lastly, we go back to Denver.  In a place called Red Rock there's a huge auditorium carved in the rock that, when it's not busy with famous bands (the Beatles offered their first concert in Denver at this place), turns out to be just as useful and the steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum were for Rocky Balboa.  Here's the proof! 

Need I add that this one was taken with my M4-2?