[Leica] Leica 1982-2012

[mak at teleport.com (Mark Kronquist)]

In 1977, while in high school I read the Modern Photography review of the 
M4-2 and lusted after one. But I was 15 and shooting with Minolta SR-T and 
XE bodies. (Ink runs in blood my uncle was Treasurer of the AP, my aunt a 
shooter, my grandmother shooter/editor of many papers-also until Jim bought 
an M6 new they tended to use Rollei and Nikon F/F2s)

I am a user not a collector so I have always purchased good glass and 
working bodies but hell, I am going to USE the cameras in all conditions (

In 1982, in college, my rather large Minolta kit was stolen. Don Leap, Leica 
rep turned my settlement check into a well used M2, 50 1.5 and  135 Hektor 
and MR Meter (what five bodies scads of lenses, motors, etc etc to one 
camera and two lenses???) Caveat I was given IIIc and Summitar and remember 
in the early 1980s taking t to one of my grandmother's parties and having 
Ray Atekinson (Oregon photo of note) exclain he hadn't seen a Leica in use 
in several years...

In 1983, I bought a new M4-P and 50 Summicron. (sold earlier this year). In 
1983 was on Oahu at Ala Mohana (sp) Mall when a Japanese gentleman gently 
chided me for shooting with roughly translated museum piece. I roughly 
explained that I was a college student and it was all I could afford and by 
the way the camera store (remember those) had new ones just a level up or 
down...

Added lenses and bodies and SM and a huge R kit. Shot all over the world 
with the R kit...1989 SFO Quake, Wall Fall (I was importing Feds Zorkis 
Kievs Arsat Tama Svema etc), 1992 Zapista Uprising, 1993 in Moscow when 
Yeltsin dissolved parliament and all hell broke loose (great pix-went to GUM 
and bought all the film and casettes the poor clerk was explaining I only 
needed one or two cassettes film was sold on foil wrapped spools and swapped 
into cassettes...I explained the unrest in horrible Russian, bought and 
shot...purchased chemicals and developed the negs in Hotel Cosmos.....put 
the negs in my insole and went thru Amsterdam, got ":busted" in MSP thought 
they would find an Amsterdam joint found negs of tanks alas...keep shooting 
in Rwanda, Tanzania (94), OZ 9 96 Battle for Seattle, NYC on 9-11-2001, 
Hurricanes NO, Antigua, Iraq protests etc etc etc ... R stuff was 
great...unusual in the field but great...

but, when Leica "dumped" the R, I dumped the R kit and went Nikon...bought 
CV stuff...loved it...not Leica but damn good...

DITIGAL. Had RD175...bleeding edge...had DCS Nikons, D1, D100, D2s by the 
stack, D2x/s, D2h...all convenient but all lacking...still burned scads of 
film through the blads and M kit

Then came the D3.

Nothing before came close...few 2008-2012 cameras since...

Still have 1K rolls in the freezer (BW), lab at home chemicals in 
trays...but...D3...D3...D800...maybe Fuji X-1 Pro because the D3 D4 are a 
bit bulky...

I love the mechanical perfection of Leicas 

 ut the M8 was a first gen and I had been there done that many times 
already...when the M9 came out it was STAGGERINGLY overpriced and it seemed 
as though the Solms faction that churned out endless M6 commemorative models 
(Ein Struck? Columbus 500 etc etc etc etc) had prevailed and profit 
triumphed over real world performance (the D3 D4 is almost a Nikons).

Rather than watch them collect dust I sold the flock to a new home...if 
someone has a cheap III/IIIa/IIIb/IIIc kit I'll grab it and use it but, 
unless Solms focuses on price  they will drift into irrelevance. 

I am thrilled they will survive and maybe even thrive but the press world 
belongs to Nikon and Canon...I would venture to guess that less than 1% of 
recent Magnum imags were created with ANY Leica SM M R Film or digital...

Mark K in PDX 

Now back to the lab to print te TXP I shot at my cousin's request at her 
wedding...(F/FM/FM2/F2)