Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/08/09
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]on 10/8/00 12:18 AM, BOB KRAMER at BobKramer@COOPERCARRY.com wrote: > but nine M cameras sounds like > gluttony to me, even if you need a spare in case one fails on you. I think > I would be embarrassed to own nine M's Hi Bob, Given that there is no global shortage of Leicas what does it matter if a photographer has 2 or 2000 Leicas? Or even a non-photographer? If you know a starving photographer what are you doing about it? I doubt they are starving because they do not have a Leica. If they cannot earn a living with a lesser camera they are not likely to with a Leica either. I feel I can justify owning the cameras I have since I use them to earn a living and unlike the vast majority of people on this list I live in a country with no Leica service available. I also have more than a thousand rolls of film in my fridges and several thousand sheets of paper: is this gluttony or is it perhaps a professional necessity? All of this has been handcarried from overseas. It is also not practical to FedEx equipment to or from China due to the bureaucracy and customs problems (120 percent import duty being just one of the problems, even for returned repairs from overseas). In fact FedEx refused to ship my R8 from Beijing, saying it was too valuable... The actual cost of owning Leicas is not that high: in most cases I have sold the equipment I bought for near or even above the price I paid even after years of professional use. I have however sold quite a bit of my old equipment at very low prices to other photographers to help them on their way. It helped some and didn't others... The repair costs and the hassles and expense of getting the equipment to places I can get it fixed are another matter. I have now a few friends who very kindly help me out with carrying broken equipment to and from Hong Kong or elsewhere to get repaired but it still takes as long as 6 months to get Leica things fixed. When I started out I had to take a 36 hour train trip to Hong Kong (and the same back) each time I needed something fixed or to buy a needed piece of equipment. There is no rental service here. The time for such train trips and the huge expense of flying means it is more efficient for me to have a lot of spare material. My wife understands this and so should you! I don't want to sound smug but it seems to me that you are the one that needs to justify spending hard earned dollars on equipment, not me! Bests Adrian P.S.. of the 9 Ms I have two are M6s which are basically worn out after 15 years hard use and irreparable: meter, shutter and wind mechanism are on their last legs. One other camera is being fixed now, two are M3s I use for Noctilux and long lenses and the other four are in daily use: two BW and two colour slide, ready at any time. - -- Adrian Bradshaw Corporate and Editorial Photography Beijing, China tel/fax +86 10 6532 5112 mobile +86 139 108 22292 e-mail apbbeijing@yahoo.com OR adrianpeterbradshaw@compuserve.com Please note my new mobile number (as of August 1st) _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com