[Leica] bitten by the SL bug

["Patrick G. Sobalvarro" <pgs@sobalvarro.org>]

So, I'm just back from Boston (well, mostly Cambridge), where I'd gone on
business, but managed to get some leisure time in.  Sunday my wife and I
were walking in Harvard Square and passed by Ferranti-Dege, where I saw in
the window a Leicaflex SL, the 72 Munich Olympics commemorative version,
with a 50/2 and hood, for $299.95.  Of course I went in, although I don't
need another reflex body, but there's just something so nice about the SL
and the SL2 -- they really resemble an M camera in a way that an R camera
doesn't (and I really like my R6 and R6.2).

Anyway, this SL was somewhat worn, and the meter was out, but the shutter
was spot on according to their speed tester and the lens was in good shape,
and so of course it was worth a bit more than $300.  My wife, seeing me
handle it lovingly, urged me to buy it (she's a real sweetie).  I didn't,
thinking that I really can't use it and that I didn't want to get involved
in an older camera that needs work.  Also I thought, "Gee, these Olympic
models are just more of these damned commemorative things," and I knew I'd
seen pictures of them in every R book I had, so I thought they were common
as rocks.

So I didn't buy it yesterday.  But then today after dropping my wife off at
the airport (she was flying to Southern California for her job, and I was
coming back to Northern California on a later flight), I went and bought
the damned thing anyway and now it's here in my study.  Apparently it's one
of the 1,000 numbered models of the first commemorative series Leica made
- -- it's number 728 of the 72 Olympics series -- so I suppose it might be
worth more than the average SL.

SL's are nice to hold.  I guess I'm about to sink some money into repairing
this one.  Unfortunately I think this is the first time I've bought a
camera without having firmly fixed in mind the circumstances where I'd use
it to make photographs.  I just liked it and didn't want someone to buy it
because it was cheap and then use it to drive nails.  Of course, when you
start having rescue fantasies about inanimate objects, you know you're a
candidate for the funny farm.

- -Patrick