Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/05/01

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Subject: Re: [Leica] tape my beloved Leica???? NEVER!
From: "B. D. Colen" <bdcolen@earthlink.net>
Date: Fri, 01 May 1998 14:34:21 -0400

At 10:18 AM 5/1/98 -0700, you wrote:
>I think that, in the future, when you try to remove that gummy, old,
hardened,
>black tape, you will ruin the camera much more than any small ding or scratch
>would..

Actually, I regularly replace the tape when it begins to lose its grip -
and "virgin" Leica black crome and red dot emerges

....I would not DREAM of putting any kind of tape or bandage on my
>Leica
>M6!  It would be sacrilege and utter disrespect for the fine equipment we
>all love!

I don't know about you, but I love the equipment because it is the tool
that best suits my photographic purposes. It's small, quite, extremely well
made, and uses great lenses. While I get a charge out of the fact that HC-B
and a number of other greats used Leicas, that's not why I use them. A
number of greats use far less expensive and regal equipment to great effect
- - Eugene Richards, who won Magazine Photographer of The Year this year, two
years ago, and in 1989, and who also won the Robert F. Kennedy Lifetime
Achievement Award this year, uses battered OM3s and Canon F1s. Yes, Leitz
makes terrific photographic equipment, but...


>It is only in photographic circles that anyone would be impressed by my
Leica,
>first of all, and most of my models or friends who see it think I am using
an 
>old clunker, and have no clue that I have $10,000 around my waist.
>Secondly, the average thief on the street would not look twice at my black
>Leica,
>which looks like a cheap P&S from afar, and would be more concerned with 
>acquiring the wallet in my pocket or the gold watch on my wrist.  And even
>if some clown were to steal my M6, that's what insurance is for, n'est-ce
pas?  

You're right - the average thief wouldn't know what a Leica is - but there
are plenty of above average thieves who would. And I would also guess that
most of your friends may not know what bokah is, but have heard the name
Leica. 

And as to the earlier comment that putting tape on a Leica is like putting
bumper stickers on a Mercedes - I suppose it is. But to me, a Mercedes is a
car. A great car, but a car. If I'm the kind of person who puts bumper
stickers on his car - and I don't happen to be one - and I drove a Mercedes
- - and can't afford to drive one but wish I could ;-) - I'd put the bumper
sticker on the Mercedes. After all, it's only a bumper and it's only a car.

And a Leica is only a camera, not our passport to imortality.