Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/08/30

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Subject: Re: 15mm R lens
From: Jim Brick <jim@brick.org>
Date: Sat, 30 Aug 1997 15:32:25 -0700

At 12:23 PM 8/30/97 -0400, you wrote:
>
>I'm jealous of Ted because he has a 15mm Leica R lens and knows how to use
>it.  Maybe I could afford one if I stop feeding our two dogs...
>
>
>Richard

I was very lucky. A few years ago, a camera shop bought out the inventory
from a small camera shop chain that went out of business. They didn't pay a
per item price, they paid a single price on the lot. The manager of the
buying camera shop is a good friend of mine. I got a new 15mm R lens for
$2500 and a new 180mm 2.8 for $1200. Every once in a while the lens gods
smile at you. Make the gods happy, keep feeding those dogs.

I know we've been down this road before, but the 15mm R lens is an amazing
lens. It's very hard to explain, to someone, the possibilities with this
lens. The fact that it's rectilinear makes it a dynamite tool. In one of my
books, I have a picture taken with the 15mm. There is absolutely no way to
tell that it was taken with the 15mm lens. Used correctly, it can make a
closet look like a ballroom, a small recital at a local civic park, look
like a rock concert in NYC Central Park. Even though it's not a lens that
you use daily, it's a lens that can make you look like a genius. It's also
a "how did you do that???" lens. To me, this lens is not a novelty (like
the 16mm fisheye), it is a real lens. A real tool. Awesome is the only word
that can describe it.

Jim