[Leica] Leica bug [long post]

[firkin@netconnect.com.au (Alastair Firkin)]

Dear friends,

There are often comments about the Leica Virsus and bug. Addiction is a
strange phenomena that will strike you without warning. Once you realize
that you are addicted, its too late. I was daydreaming about my addiction,
and the pushers here on the LUG, and began to think --- What have I bought
since joining the LUG just over 2 years ago, and how will I react to the
coming cold turkey associated with the continuing slide in our once beloved
dollar :-( Then I recall a thread I started called the roll call just over
a year ago. It was a thread that brought a lot of people out of the
woodwork, and was one of the most enjoyable reads on the list. I would like
to start another. Lets hear about you and how photography entered your
life, and how the LUG has emptied your bank account ;-)

Alastair Firkin
Radiologist Ballarat Australia
born 3 dec 1955 Sydney NSW

Joined LUG early 1996 as a raw amateur with a Minolta SLR system, a
fledgling Hasselblad system, a collection of Rollei TLR's, a Minolta CLE
[complete kit], an M3, a visoflex 3 and bellows with 65 Elmar, 280 telyt
and 135 tele Elmar. So you can see the photographic bug was there. In fact
it started in 1969, when a friend and I began to use the home darkroom of a
now professional photographer as a joint hobby. We became darkroom mad, and
tried to start a business "diamond eye photography" whose motto was "we
guarantee perfection". Fortunately we had only one taker from the 500
flyers we distributed around the neighbourhood, and in our enthusiasm,
washed the first "commercial" roll with hot water --- the emulsion slide
off :-(

I bought a Minolta rangefinder camera with which I took shots of the
Australian Tennis Open at Kooyong [I was a ballboy], and began to dream
about an SLR. I read every magazine I could get my hands on. The
advertisement for the SRT 101 with the huge f1.2 lens sucked me right in.
In 1970 Dad was lecturing in Singapore, and I was saving like crazy. He
brought back the SRT 101 with 58mm f1.4. I was hooked. A year later on a
school trip to Indonesia I picked up a 28mm lens and when I got home,
bought a cheap telephoto and became one of the school's official magazine
photographers in 1972, [this got me out of playing sport]. The later 70's
saw me in Medical school shooting mainly parties, and I graduated MBBS in
1979. In 1981 I bought my second SLR, the new Minolta XD7 [11] and moved to
Tasmania, where I studied Internal Medicine and fell in love with our
Southern Isle. In Hobart, I bought my first decent zoom a Minolta 35-70 and
shot lots of Nature/landscape stuff. A trip to Hong Kong in 1982 brought a
Durst M605 enlarger, and a Bronica SQ.

In 1984, the Leica dealer in Hobart in conjunction with Leica held an open
day. We were able to handle the M and R cameras, and talk photography with
Leica's German representative. It was he who "told" the local dealer to
lend me an R4 and several lenes, and test them off against my Minolta gear.
I spent a weekend shooting slides and b/w and the rest of the week in the
darkroom, before returning to the shop and challenging the owner to pick
the Leica shots. He managed to do so in about 80% of cases. It had not just
been my imagination, the Leica images were different, and "better". At
first infection does not always take hold, it needs the right medium in
which to grow, and finances did not allow the luxury of the bug to really
bite.

In 1985, Helen traded off the Pentax ME for a Minolta X700 when we decided
to take a year off and travel Europe. [I was tired of study and sick of
exams]

On the way to Europe, we bought a "fancy" ring flash, 17mm, 100 macro
lenses and carried the Bronica. For 6 months, we flogged a small Citroen
around France Spain Italy Austria Switzerland Germany Holland and the UK,
shooting largely Kodachromes. I then spent 3 months enlarging and printing
Cibachromes [with varied success]. On the way home, I decided that I did
not want to be a physician, but rather to change direction and do Radiology
(images seemed to fit with my love of photography) and we came back to
Australia in 1986. By this time, the Bronica was developing some rust in
and around some of its body screws, and I bought one of my dream cameras,
that I'd read about since the early 80's, the Minolta CLE. The Bronica was
traded in at a profit for a second-hand Hasselblad 2000 FCM, and I got some
second-hand lenes for it at the start of the recession [50 and 150 f2.8 F
series]

I met my M3 at that time. She was born the same year as me, but had held up
somewhat better. I loved her, but did not really know what to do with a
35mm camera without a light meter, so she was sorely underused. In an
attempt to prove that it was useful, [and justify her to Helen,] I picked
up a second-hand Visoflex bellows and adaptor for my enlarger lenes. Later
the 65 Elmar 135 and 280 were added to "expand" the system [a system which
was still largely unused]. I studied Radiology and passed in 1992, moving
to Ballarat to become a partner in 1993. Starting study again had not been
easy, and in order to do it, I bought myself a Mac, and combined learning
and playing with the computer with study. Once settled in Ballarat, [and
for the first time without a darkroom] I decided to spend some money, and
set up a digital darkroom and expand my old Mac SE into the big brave new
world of colour. The inital PowerMac was a real trial of fire, but I got
myself "educated" in Photoshop, and went on the Net. In 1995 I was
searching for a replacement system for the Minolta's. I found another dream
camera second-hand Rollei 3003 with 28, 50, 80, 135 and 200, but it was not
easy to expand the system, and I could not find a super wide to replace the
17mm [a lens both Helen and I had loved using] Besides, Helen did not like
the handling of the Rollei. By 1996 I was internet savvy enough to find
things of interest. I found the LUG.

Since then I've learnt to use the M3, love the visoflex, and become
disenchanted with the CLE [it became unreliable, and Minolta refused to fix
it; first its flash and then its lightmeter -- I was already angry with
Minolta for changing the mount on their SLR's and this was the last straw].


As I read the LUG and relayed some of it to Helen, the infection was
obvious. Helen bought me a titanium M6 as my mid-life crisis pressie when I
turned 41 with the matching 35 asph f1.4. Love a first sight. The LUG
brought this on but the bug really began to bite once I had the M6;
In chronological order, I've decended into the abyss:-
1997
Noctilux f1.0
50 DR summicron with eyes
Leica IIIf and 50 Summarit

This was the period where the LUG was teaching me the value and use of the
rangefinder, enchanting me with stories of ancient lenes and miricle after
glows, shooting techniques and the decisive moments of HCB, and the
"investment" value of the leica name

1998
85mm Summarex
15 super Elmar [despite not having a body]
Leica R7 with 50 f2 for Helen felt and handles like her X700
35-70 f4 for Helen
Leica R8 [first new camera since the XD7 of 1981]
70-180 f2.8
100 f2.8 macro
Elpro for 100 macro
2X apo extender
21 asph M

and the year is not half over ;-) The LUG finally convinced me to convert
fully and dive into the SLR, but not at the expense of the M series, which
will always now be at the heart of much of my photography. The decision was
made easier by the outlandish claims for the 15 super elmar, and the fact
that the contax version would never be seen second-hand here in Australia,
so R series it was.

I continue to learn to use my cameras and become more adventurous. You can
see my effort in Japan on my web page [URL below]. Last night I spoke with
the principle of the Bell Shakespeare company about attending rehersals
about doing some theatre photography, a thought inspired by comments from
some of our European members. In two weeks I fly north to Broome and spend
a week 4 wheel driving, doing landscape photography macro work and M series
shots of the locals. This is one hell of a great hobby, and my progress has
been greatly enhanced by the contributions of all. I hope the LUG does not
have to split to remain viable as it grows and I for one vote to keep it
together.

I hope all of you will take the time to give us a summary of you and Leica
photography, especially those of you who lurk in the shadows or may feel a
little inhibited by lack of English. Please uncloak and let us hear about
you. There should be over 500 stories to tell. Please use the Subject Leica
bug and your name so that we can file and search them. thanks

cheers


Alastair Firkin,

http://users.netconnect.com.au/~firkin/AGFhmpg.html