[Leica] 2500 ISO

[henningw at archiphoto.com (Henning Wulff)]

>Frank,
>The top end Canons and Nikons are the not the competition for an M8, 
>it is the mid level SLRs. I cannot imagine someone who needs a D2X 
>or an IDS Mk2 for his professional work ever buying a M8 in lieu of 
>either - it is just not flexible enough, (Tina and Ted excepted).
>Cheers
>Jayanand

True; the M8 isn't as flexible as the SLR's.

Sometimes you don't need flexibility, but a better tool.

I could justify Leica film cameras for certain work in years past, 
although I don't think they ever really produced a reasonable income 
above their cost. But I always enjoyed using them. My Mamiya 645 
stuff probably had the best income/cost ratio, even above the 4x5 
stuff, but I rarely took them out for fun.  I once calculated that in 
one year in the 80's my fairly extensive Mamiya outfit generated 6 
times the profit that it cost, and I used the equipment basically 
unchanged for 20 years.

Now I use a Canon 5D for the majority of things that I expect to get 
paid for, with some film cameras like the Roundshot or 4x5 doing 
things the Canon can't. If I got an M8 I could probably make it pay 
for itself for certain things over 3 years or so and I have a lot of 
Leica glass, so I'll probably get one. I use Leicas to take shots of 
architectural models, close up and at or near eye level where an SLR 
won't fit. If a P&S comes out with a 21 or shorter focal length, that 
would be preferable, as the dof would be a lot greater.

In general, if you're not addicted to the rangefinder way of 
shooting, it doesn't make a lot of sense from a cost point of view.

So... some things I'll be rational about, some things I'll just 
rationalize. :-)

-- 
    *            Henning J. Wulff
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