I found a Leica M3 in my parent's basement one summer day in 1967. Dad said
my grandfather bought it in Heidelberg in 1954 along with a 50mm Summarit,
35mm Summaron and 135mm Hektor. Dad also said I could use it.
When I took it to local Stern's Camera and Sound Center to buy film for it,
owner Harry Stern offered me a job as a stock boy. I was 12, and Harry
Stern's son Michael had yet to write his restaurant directory "Road Food".
So I learned photography with that M3. Somewhere in there I switched to
Canon FD and Nikon autofocus SLRs since the Leica couldn't give me
affordable ways to capture the backcountry travel pictures I wanted.
Photographing cross-country mountain bike races spelled the demise of my
manual-focus Canon FD equipment, though I loved the F1n camera and FD 200mm
f/2.8 lens. Nikon's 80-200mm f/2.8 ED-IF zoom and N90 took its place,
though, and worked well until the digital revolution. At 2001's Sea Otter
Classic, virtually every photographer had either a D1-series Nikon or EOS
1D. Heartily sick of waiting for 'chrome developing then scanning the best
100 or so race images, I bought a D1H in early 2002.
Then came my wildlife epiphany: nesting birds and furry critters are cool,
especially when they (mis)behave. But Nikon made very few VR lenses at the
time, and Canon had the best line of big IS telephotos. So I bought an EOS
1D and 400mm f/4 DO IS with EF 1.4X II teleconverter.
Today I use an EOS 1D mark II, EOS 20D and various EF lenses - usually the
500mm f/4L IS on the 1D mark II and 400mm f/4 DO IS on the 20D for birds
and other wildlife, also the 24-70mm f/2.8L for people and products, and
70-200mm f/2.8L IS for bike races.
I'd also kept up with Leica's M-series since I liked the sparkling
'fingerprint' of Leica images. But the recent loss of my M7, 90mm
APO-Summicron and Tri-Elmar on a trip to New Mexico has me re-evaluating my
equipment. Insurance has reimbursed me enough to replace the M7 and
Tri-Elmar, and insurance cash for the 90mm APO-Summicron is coming. But
what do I really use most, and is digital SLR quality enough?
Leica purists will say using anything else is photographic heresy. Leica
has been very slow to the digital market. Yet digital gives the quickest
workflow and high enough quality for a more reasonable price. With the EOS
1D mark II, the camera's image quality starts to demand Canon's L-series
lens quality: http://tinyurl.com/3zoq6 shows what's possible with 1D mark
II and 500mm f/4L IS. The feather texture knocked me out when I first saw
this image on my computer screen.
Many pros have liked images from the full 35mm frame-sensored EOS 1Ds mark
II and L-series lenses so much they've replaced their medium-format film
gear with them.
Yet Leica's just now releasing the DMR for the R8 and R9, and a complete
R9/DMR digital camera will set you back $7500 for a 10MPixel camera with
admittedly great manual-focus optics and APS-sized sensor with 1.37X crop
factor. If you have a bag full of Leica R-lenses this may make some sense.
But for the same price you can have a Canon 1Ds mark II with more pixels
and a full 35mm frame-sized sensor. And Canon's autofocus EF lens line
costs a bit less.
Epson's RD-1 takes Leica M-lenses, but is a bit pricey at $3000 for a
6MPixel camera with a 1.5X crop factor. And there's no firm date for a
digital M-camera from Leica.
So I'm left with a quandary: what lost M-series gear (if any) do I replace?
And with what?
Expecting a digital M with APS-sized sensor next year, I could purchase a
75mm APO-Summicron to replace the 90mm and give roughly the same angle of
coverage. A 75mm lens would have more depth of field than a 90mm, but I
could live with that. The 90mm APO-Summicron gives great images, but
becomes a 135mm lens with a 1.5X cropping digital sensor. I have the
Tri-Elmar's focal lengths covered with EF zoom lenses, so I probably won't
replace it. And I may buy another M7 since I love its features and quiet
operation, even if it won't justify itself with images I can sell.
Leica's missed the digital boat, to the alienation of their customer base.
They're a specialty camera line without much hope of expanding their market
share. I have a sentimental attachment to M-series equipment, but I can't
justify the expense of gear that won't pay its way. And that's too bad.
Mark Bohrer
Mountain and Desert Photography
www.mountain-and-desert.com
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