RE: [Leica] lower classes don't use leicas?

[leica@davidmorton.org]

Tim Atherton wrote:

"As for backup camera, I live and work in the Canadian sub-arctic - there is
no such thing as a quick turnaround on anything - courier to anywhere is 2-3
days if you are lucky and will cost an arm and a leg. Summer dust and winter
cold are hard on any camera (as well as batteries dying and/or shutters and
lenses seizing up in the cold) so, as a pro I ALWAYS have backups."

Sure everyone has spares for stuff they rely on. In fact I'm developing a
theory that Nikon F3HPs *breed* when left in a dark store room, because I
really don't remember buying that many of them. :-)

I confess I don't have a spare 5x4 body, or a spare 10x8, though I suppose
they rather act as spares for each other.

The problem isn't so much with spare bodies, since one should have enough of
those to cover. The problem when you have repair turn-arounds measured in
months and no loan stock available is things like spare lenses.

If the look you use often depends on a Nocti or a 75mm 'lux, and something
goes wrong with that lens, you're a bit stuck if you can't get it fixed in a
timely manner.

In my case the lack of the 75mm f1.4 would mean using the 85mm f1.4 Nikkor
(so I do have a 'spare' in one sense), which isn't a disaster, but it
doesn't look the same at all. The alternative would be - as I said in my
original post - buying another 75mm f1.4 and selling it (or the repaired
lens) when the repair was complete.

Do folk here *really* have more than one Nocti or 75 'lux to protect
themselves against accident or failure?

- -- 
David Morton
dmorton@journalist.co.uk

"The more opinions you have, the less you see." -- Wim Wenders.