[Leica] An obsession sated

[vroger at gmail.com (Victor Rubin)]

Hi All:
Got to thinking- and that's always somewhat dangerous. When I was a kid,
quite a while ago, I wanted a Leica. Boy, did I want a Leica!Futzing around
with a great many good little cameras, I wanted the ultimate. So for one
birthday, my dad took me down to Willoughby's Camera on 32nd Street in
Manhattan. Little did I know then that I would work there for about eight
years through high school and college- while trying to keep body and soul
together as a commercial photographer.  Anyway, for $50.00 we got a Leica
IIIc body. It had a Komura 80mm lens attached, and we bought an accessory
viewfinder. I still have the camera and lens. Years and Leicas, Canons,
Nikons, Minoltas, Konicas (all in my cabinet) later, I wrote the LUG just
after getting a Digilux 1 (my first digital camera) and asked- how about a
digital M? NO WAY! was the reply- physical impossibility. Well, we all know
the rest of the story- RD-1 and M8. So yesterday it was my turn to look at
and handle an M8 at the *Photoexpo* show at the *Javits Center* in NY. What
I have, of course, used in the past, before my conversion to digital was the
M3 and M6, to say nothing of the CLE. Here *finally *was a nice matte body,
with a wonderful viewfinder and NO wind lever. My thumb was "lost". I didn't
ask the price- how much is it?- $5,000- are you kidding? The M8 is nothing
more than another digital gimmick. I love "dem" digitals- I have eight of
them - 5 of which, including the DSLR, have been lovingly placed back in
their boxes and put away. Their results, are fine. The images are fun to
make, fun to manipulate in the computer, fun to print and fun to display. I
am now concentrating on using just 3 digital cameras that do everything I
want them to do. But $5,000.00 for WHAT?? For cache?? Never!  I have come to
the conclusion that this is then end of digital buying for me. I have
absolutely everything I need to make images that please me and if I am
lucky, those to whom I display the photos. The $5,000.00 Leica offers
nothing- absolutely nothing for me.In five years or so,  (giving the
industry the benefit of the doubt), it will be outdated. Never "obsolete",
but definitely outdated. $5,000.00???  My obsession with Leica has been
sated. My obsession with digital purchases has been sated. I will now enjoy
myself making images digitally and look askance at those who deign to
purchase the M8. In the words of Bugs Bunny: "What a maroon!"
Below is Niels Thorsen representing Leica and a really lovely person to
know- at the show.
http://vroger.smugmug.com/gallery/1837739/10/107628521