[Leica] An obsession sated - now sometimes you luck out

[enitka1 at comcast.net (e. nitka)]

A different story -  I lucked out  - 3 years ago with a divorce I 
divested myself of all my Nikon SLR
equipment.  I move to Denver and just cant resist a cute little 
Pentax  MF SLR.  I get a few lenses
and soon I have a digital Pentax.  All the time people are saying 
that Pentax is going six feet under.
Now it appears that's not true and I'm currently lusting for the 
K10D.  Moral of the story is that sometimes
by shear luck you bet on the right horse.

Back to the M8........... This is where I part company with Leica - 
I'm happy using my CV R3a

ernie



At 08:51 AM 11/3/2006, you wrote:
>Hi All:
>Got to thinking- and that's always somewhat dangerous. When I was a kid,
>quite a while ago, I wanted a Leica. Boy, did I want a Leica!Futzing around
>with a great many good little cameras, I wanted the ultimate. So for one
>birthday, my dad took me down to Willoughby's Camera on 32nd Street in
>Manhattan. Little did I know then that I would work there for about eight
>years through high school and college- while trying to keep body and soul
>together as a commercial photographer.  Anyway, for $50.00 we got a Leica
>IIIc body. It had a Komura 80mm lens attached, and we bought an accessory
>viewfinder. I still have the camera and lens. Years and Leicas, Canons,
>Nikons, Minoltas, Konicas (all in my cabinet) later, I wrote the LUG just
>after getting a Digilux 1 (my first digital camera) and asked- how about a
>digital M? NO WAY! was the reply- physical impossibility. Well, we all know
>the rest of the story- RD-1 and M8. So yesterday it was my turn to look at
>and handle an M8 at the *Photoexpo* show at the *Javits Center* in NY. What
>I have, of course, used in the past, before my conversion to digital was the
>M3 and M6, to say nothing of the CLE. Here *finally *was a nice matte body,
>with a wonderful viewfinder and NO wind lever. My thumb was "lost". I didn't
>ask the price- how much is it?- $5,000- are you kidding? The M8 is nothing
>more than another digital gimmick. I love "dem" digitals- I have eight of
>them - 5 of which, including the DSLR, have been lovingly placed back in
>their boxes and put away. Their results, are fine. The images are fun to
>make, fun to manipulate in the computer, fun to print and fun to display. I
>am now concentrating on using just 3 digital cameras that do everything I
>want them to do. But $5,000.00 for WHAT?? For cache?? Never!  I have come to
>the conclusion that this is then end of digital buying for me. I have
>absolutely everything I need to make images that please me and if I am
>lucky, those to whom I display the photos. The $5,000.00 Leica offers
>nothing- absolutely nothing for me.In five years or so,  (giving the
>industry the benefit of the doubt), it will be outdated. Never "obsolete",
>but definitely outdated. $5,000.00???  My obsession with Leica has been
>sated. My obsession with digital purchases has been sated. I will now enjoy
>myself making images digitally and look askance at those who deign to
>purchase the M8. In the words of Bugs Bunny: "What a maroon!"
>Below is Niels Thorsen representing Leica and a really lovely person to
>know- at the show.
>http://vroger.smugmug.com/gallery/1837739/10/107628521
>
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