quote:

Which model did you have? What did you think of it?

I had M3 toward the end of my facination with the 80s-90s era autofocus Nikons. It was part of my attempt to learn better photo skills of the pre-electronic and coming digital age.

Along with a pair of Rollei 2 1/4s in wide angle & mild telephoto, a 4x5 Black Beauty from 1920, & the Leica M3, I was striving to understand the basics of "stick shift" driving.

The Leica was a pleasure to wrassel with, as the controls were satisfying to handle but worked IIRC in the opposite direction from the Nikons.

I had 3 bags of regularly used bodies & lenses before giving it all up. While some prints came out really nice from the M3, it was a lot of work and I could actually get better images on the autopilot Nikons.

Of course this was all just a hobby, and time very limited for really learning the tricks to making the venerable gear shine. Did managed to win the State Fair Photographic Contest one year, but that was with the Nikon & an old 500mm telephoto.

I built my own film develop darkroom but this was just as the digital revolution was taking over. I ran out of spare time to continue hobby.

Got a couple nice B&W 4x5 prints but they've wandered away in the last 25 years.

Good luck with your endeavor.

I remember when I was 14 yo, I wanted to be this guy, Jim Marshall. He lived in a dingy San Francisco apartment, didn't make much money, but the guy was an icon in the rock world.



The guy was almost as famous as the subjects he photographed:





Back then, I loved the fact that he exclusively used Leica rangefinders for his work, while everyone else were using Nikon F/F2s with huge ass motor drives, etc.

I'm considering getting an M4 or M2 one of these days.

quote:

Originally posted by Bxshooters45:
I'm considering getting an M4 or M2 one of these days.

I never got the M4 I wanted, black of course, it had an angled film rewind crank that made so much sense.

I'll also add the M series Leicas were b&w shooters -- street, candid and news were their thing. Not a lot of color M series stuff came down through history.

 
I acquired an M Leica back in 1964. It was used at the time I got it. Worst thing I ever did, in retrospect, was to get rid of it. I also owned an Asahi Pentax SLR at the time.