[Leica] My first Leica

[ken at iisaka.com (Ken Iisaka)]

It was an M3, DS 886601, and a DR Summicron 1:2/50mm acquired in Tokyo from
Hayata Camera, shortly after the birth of my son in 1998.

Many of his baby pictures were taken with this, though color photos were
primarily taken with a Nikon F3/T.

It wasn't long before I started acquiring additional lenses, and bodies. I
flirted with an M5, but finally settled with an M6 0.85 pre-TTL by the time
he turned one. With an abundance of used lenses in Tokyo, and with eBay
exploding onto the scene, I went through perhaps 10 different lenses, from
Cosina/Voigtl?nder 15mm to Hektor 1:4.5/135mm. By the time my daughter was
born two years and two months after my son, I had settled down to just an
Elmarit-M 1:2,8/28mm (IV), Summicron-M 1:2,0/50mm (IV), Noctilux-M
1:1,0/50mm (II), Summilux-M 1:1,4/75mm (II). I continued to use Nikon for
longer lenses, though eventually Leicaflex SL2 MOT joined the menagerie.

Some of the earliest photos of my daughter were taken with the Summilux-M
75mm and the M6 0.85. However, with the increasing digitization of my
workflow, and the economic calamities that affected me severely, I
gradually began unloading less frequently used ones.

The Summilux-M, 1:1,4/75mm went to another LUGer, Marty Deveney who took
some wonderful photographs with it. I lost all of my photographic equipment
(actually, pretty much everything of any value for that matter) in a
divorce.

I had told my son that the M3 was intended to be his. It appears that he
asserted that it is his camera, so his mother did not get to get rid of it.
He still has it, with just one lens. He has used it in his high school
photography class, where he learned BW photography. He still has it, and
will likely keep it forever.

After the divorce, I was left with nothing but one Olympus micro fourthirds
camera with a couple of lenses, which allowed me to continue shooting. I've
acquired a couple of Leica-branded lenses but I yearned for the optical
quality and the user experience of a Leica system again.

It wasn't until 8 years later that I decided I could afford to get back in
the game. Instead of an M body, I acquired an SL with two lenses:
Summilux-SL 1:1,4/50mm and Vario-Elmarit 1:2,8-4,0/24-90mm just before a
trip to Iceland in December. The decision was largely influenced by Tina
Manley's work, and certainly my aging eyes. Also, having used the Olympus
for several years made me realize the benefits of working with such a
system, and it was natural to invest in an SL system.

But alas, the SL system was stolen out of my car on our third day in
Iceland. I was fortunate to have also brought my Olympus system that I
could continue shooting, and brought back some memorable images.
Fortunately, the loss was covered by insurance, and the replacement cost
policy covered more than my original investment. I bought another SL and
24-90, used.

A Q2 and an SL2 recently joined, and the replacement SL is now hibernating
in a box. My Olympus is hardly used, except for taking close-ups of
flowers, where it excels. The Q2 is fantastic for 80% of my use cases, and
the SL being ideal for 16%. The Olympus probably takes the rest (4%).

Pareto principle applies.

It would be nice to have a prime lens or the SL2, though. But it certainly
won't be a 24, 28 or 35. The Q2 covers these use cases quite well.

-- 
Ken Iisaka
first name at last name dot org or com