For you Leica Lovers...

Quite beautiful cameras. I love photography, but haven't exactly stepped up my game as of yet. I have a Canon film camera that I bought about 6/7 years ago. I bought a book on Leica Photography, but I haven't read it yet. I look forward to exploring that world in the not too distant future.

MJM

 

I saw a Leica convention in Lexington one year, and they had some gold plated models, as well Leicas with swastikas on them from the war years. Beautiful and strange.

 

Wow you got the MP. That is on "things to get" list. I must say that my Leica has, in no uncertain terms, allowed me to get profoundly better pictures of my work.

 

The MP looks great in that finish; like it's indestructible. That M3 has definitely seen some service!

 

That looks a bit like the M4 that was stolen from me.
Man, I miss that camera. I don't know if it was so much the camera as the Leitz lense, but it took the sharpest, most well-define pics I'd ever seen. Whoever gets the camera, forget the outside looks. Outside of a large format Hasslebladd, it'll be the best camera you've ever owned!

 

I've been a Leica user for 25 years. First an M3, then M-4 (a couple), M-2, M4-P, M-6 (a few), then SL, SL2, SL2 MOT (had 4 at one time), R4, R6, and R7. The best part of owning Leica for me has always been the lenses - they are actually designed more for contrast than sharpness. Much like analog as compared to digital, the Leica optical formula of glass and design produces a more gradual differentiation in the various layers of shading in a Leica photograph which gives it a more 3 dimensional quality. The cameras are certainly special - the M-3 I still own has the smoothest shutter advance of any camera I've experienced - but it's the optics that are what do it for me. I also own an original black enamel M3 and M2, and that laquer is very fragile and easy to wear through to the brass - much harder to do that with the current cameras. Great cameras, the best optics.