Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/07/18
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Regarding those of you who were snidely (grin) commenting about the cheapos who would save a few bucks when they're using $2000 cameras and $2000 lenses (well, not me, my lenses are C-V). The way I rationalized getting a Leica in the first place was because the cost of the camera really is the smallest item in the overall cost of ownership. Film and developing is the biggest hit. I go through about 150 rolls of film a year. Most of it is E-6, so the cost of each roll is about $4 + $6 for developing = $10. That's $1500/year for film or over the lifetime of the camera (20 years? 50 years?), about $30,000 or $75,000.... (makes you almost want to go digital? ) I'm using a lot more B&W right now. I admit that I only hand-roll film for my classic cameras and use pre-rolled for my work (mostly because I can get reimbursed for it), but still each roll's savings does add up in the long run. But hand-rolling and hand-developing means that my B&W work is about $2 a roll, versus $8 if I pre-bought and outsourced developing. Look at it this way, you only need to hand-roll 200 cartridges in order to get a new Summicron. :-) Karen Nakamura www.photoethnography.com - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html