Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2009/02/14
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]My own first Leica was a model D with a collapsible 2.5/50 Hektor lens that I picked up at a Providence pawn shop when I was a college freshman. Its only drawback was that it had no strap lugs, so had to live in and out of a compact leather case. It went missing from my car while I was stationed at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in 1959, but I recently found a sibling that has a 3.5/50 Elmar but is otherwise about the same. My first camera was not the Leica D but a ~1937 Rolleiflex that I seem at the moment to have misplaced. Ah, well... Its most memorable feature was a sports finder with a concave mirror at the center of the metal viewing frame. Focusing your eye in the mirror ensured that the field of view was what the camera would see. Brian and I worked together during an early and successful attempt to prove that computers (or, rather, programmers) could out-perform professional rate agents and analysts when it came to complex domestic and international air fares and airline scheduling. Brian moved on to even more esoteric endeavors a couple of years later but I have always valued his friendship and his tireless efforts to see and perform beyond any reasonable expectation. Needless to say, Leica cameras have always been part of the formula. On 2/14/09 6:06 PM, Brian Reid wrote: > It was 40 years ago today that I got my first Leica. > > My friend (and boss) David Labovitz mentioned to me that he'd seen a > decent selection of used Leicas at Industrial Photo in Silver Spring, > Maryland. I went in on Friday, 14 February, 1969 just minutes after > retiring photographer from the Baltimore Sun had put up his IIIf kit > on consignment. I bought the whole thing (body, 3 lenses, 3 finders, 3 > metal lens caps, leather case) and have had it ever since. He was its > first owner and I am its second. > > I mostly use my M8 these days, but the IIIf is still a damn fine camera. > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >