[Leica] leica for my mid-life crisis

[David Binder <dbinder@sympatico.ca>]

I've been lurking here for a few weeks and I'd like to first thank
everyone on this mailing list for the information I've gleaned.

Photography has been somewhat secondary to my endeavors in architecture
and whenever something serious had to be done (publication photos etc.)
I've brought in the pros. I've never had any interest in using automatic
features in cameras and have relied on my faithful lowly Nikkormat for
more years than I care to remember. I don't know exactly why, but I've
become more interested in photography lately and have taken the leica
plunge. I now own a new black M6TTL, 35 summicron ASPH and 90 Elmarit-M.
The ability to hand hold at lower shutter speeds has been an incredible
asset so far. The quality of my photos with the M6 has been better than
ever, and I'm quite excited about the whole thing. Contrary to some
opinions I've read, I find the film loading to be easy, quick and
reliable. I can live with the rangefinder focusing flare problem thanks
to some of the tips I've read here but I'm not all that thrilled about
the off switch for the battery as I like to leave my shutter speed in
'ready for anything' position and I've got a probably unfounded fear of
wearing the shutter speed dial out from turning it so much more than I
would normally.

I'd like to learn a bit more about the lenses I have before draining my
bank account further, but I think that my next leica acquisition will be
the 50 summicron. This is a dumb newbie question, but is it wrong to buy
a chrome lense for a black camera? I was thinking it might be an
advantage when fumbling in the bag for lenses.

My recent leica plunge goes a bit further in that my mother has just
given me her 1937 leica IIIa with Summar lense.  The bad news is that
the Summar is badly fogged and according to Kindermann it's toast. The
camera seems to be fine so I'll be on the lookout for a screw mount lens.

Once again, thanks to all for the invaluable leica information.

- -David Binder (shooting more photos than ever before!)