To Leica M9 or not

One of the coolest things about Leica film cameras is that they seem to live for ever. My Leica CL is over 30 years old but I had it serviced by Leica recently, and I hope that it will now last another 30 years. The fact that Leica still service the CL, which was not even made by Leica, is amazing.

Leica equipment does not lose its resale value as fast as other brands. Therefore, owning Leica equipment is a sound investment in the long term as you can sell off stuff and get a decent amount of your investment back.

With the digital cameras, of course, this model may not work that well. As soon as the next camera is released, the older model starts loosing value immediately, and in a few years time, is worth a fraction of the original cost. You can already see that prices of used M8s have started falling. Nevertheless, I hope that Leica M8 cameras will hold their value longer compared to other brands. This will be true if Leica continue to service these cameras for several more years. Unfortunately it is hard to imagine that the M8 will be useful 30 years from now.

The problem with owning the M9 is that it is so expensive that you would be nervous carrying it with you everywhere. Certainly for someone like me, it would be big investment, and I would be worried about it getting stolen. Whereas the Ricoh GRD 3 is much cheaper, and pocketable as well, therefore I am carefree when I have it with me. And should GRD 4 come out next year, it would not cost much to upgrade.

For anyone addicted to upgrading their digital camera every year, investing in compacts makes more sense. Of course, when it comes to the quality of images, the large image sensor of the M9 or the DSLRs are much better.

So should I start saving for the M9 or not?

Maybe not. I am content for now with the combination of Nikon D300 and the Ricoh GR Digital 3.

Leica R-E

I have added a Leica R-E 35mm SLR camera to my film camera collection. Leicas have always been so costly that owning one has been beyond my reach. But in recent years prices of used Leica R equipment has fallen significantly. I was able to acquire a used R-E and a 50mm Summicron-R for less than £450. The M series cameras are way more expensive.

The R-E is a cut down version of the R5. It has aperture priority plus manual exposure, and has shutter speeds upto 1/2000 sec. Spot metering is available in both modes, plus average metering is available in aperture priority mode. The camera is relatively small in size.

The 50mm summicron-r is built beautifully. The focusing is silky smooth. I have yet to develop the first film I shot with it, so can't comment on image quality yet. But holding the lens is a pleasure and you can see straight away that these lenses are built to a very high level of standard.

My first impressions are that the Leica R-E is quite well built - though not as good as the Nikon F2 or F3, both of which feel sturdier. The Summicron-R is, however, definitely better built that the 50mm Nikkors.

Here are some pictures of my Leica:

www.flickr.com dibyendumajumdar's Leica R-E photoset