[Leica] R8 user spotted

[Gerry Walden <gerrywalden@cwcom.net>]

I went across on the ferry to the Isle of Wight which is a small island 
near us on Friday so that I could photograph the yachts taking part in 
Cowes Week which is an internationally famous yachting regatta.   The best 
way to photograph them easily is from the deck of the ferry as it goes into 
Cowes Harbour and out again.   The total trip one way is an hour through 
the yachts for around $12!   Any how, I was shooting with my R8 and 350mm 
together with everything from 28mm upwards as we got in close.   Film was 
Provia 400F.   It is times like this that I wish Leica made a 15 - 500mm f2 
zoom!

Sat at the front of the open deck was a guy who later told me had been 
retired for 28 years so that puts him around the late 70's.   He was 
cradling an R8 so I just had to say 'Hi!'.   During the course of the 
ensuing conversation he told me that he bought his first Leica just before 
the outbreak of WWII in 1939 and had used Leica ever since apart from a 
short period when he tried the very first Contax SLR, which he traded for a 
Leica SLR when it came out.   He was shooting on the 180mm which I tried - 
hat a nice lens!   He told me he now seldom uses anything else and for the 
last 14 years he has shot mostly wild flowers and butterflies using the 180 
and tubes if needed.

I asked him how he liked the R8 and he found it a fabulous camera that had 
never given him a moments trouble with a great exposure system, but it was 
now too heavy for his arthritic hands (and that was without the 
motor!)   He said that he wished he could go back to an RE but he was 
finding the whole photography thing a little beyond him now as he got 
older.   He evidently puts his slides together for illustrated talks with 
multi-projectors and music, but age is catching up on him.

I spent a very pleasant time with the guy who certainly made the less 
interesting part of the journey pass quicker.

Gerry