Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/02/19

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Subject: RE: [Leica] Two quick questions, please
From: "goldframe" <goldframe1@yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, 19 Feb 2001 16:09:16 -0700

You sure have a great girlfriend.  You have a great kit to begin with!! -
the 90mm f2.8 is a super lens for the Leica, size and performance.  For
general use where you're traveling and shooting people and places - the M's
strong points are is smaller size and lighter weight.  If your addicted to
low-light; then the super-fast lenses are the *addiction* of choice but
they're heavier and larger - wonderful in the shallow DOF.  In travel the WA
are almost essential - I like the 35, 21 and then 28 - for the general
surroundings and the 90 to get selective.  When it's a powerful scenic the
21 is the way to go, for me - it does take some practice though - great
shooting indoors in homes and descriptive interiors.

gold
- -----Original Message-----
From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
[mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us]On Behalf Of George Kenney
Sent: Monday, February 19, 2001 3:41 PM
To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
Subject: [Leica] Two quick questions, please

Hi,

My name is George and I'm a new Leicaholic.

Tho I don't take pictures much, recently I bought an M6 .85 after
looking at it in a store. Another M6 (.58) and a few lenses later
(50/2; 75/1.4; 35/1.4; and Voigtlander 15/2.8) I'm getting ready to
take a photography class to learn how to use all this great stuff. I
haven't, however, been able to get the acquisition bug to be still, so
I'm wondering what other lenses might be good/useful. (After this
wild spending spree my girlfriend has imposed a limit of one new
lens per month, so a full set of further acquisitions will take a while.)

Anyhow, here're two questions for those with patience enough to
tolerate newbies:

1) Would the Noctilux; the 28/2 (when it comes out); and the 24/2.8
make sense? And tho I'm not much interested in longer lenses,
would the 90/2 ASPH give much greater/different coverage than
what I get with the 75/1.4 (which I love -- it takes better snapshots
for me than I've ever taken in my life)?

2) In terms of finding dealers, I've appreciated the list at teach.net
(http://teachnet.edb.utexas.edu/~leica/dealer.html) very much. I'm
wondering, though, about ordering from a German dealer I found on
the internet. He seems quite reputable, but all that kind of thing
aside, just how exactly does one go about handling duty taxes when
getting a shipment from Germany? I can't seem to get thru to ask
any live person at US Customs. From the Customs web site it
looks as though the duty on new lenses (I'm only talking lenses
here, not other camera equipment, which is probably assessed
differently) is either 2.3% or 2.35%. Does anybody know if this is
correct? Or if not, what the duty actually is? If it's only about 2.3% it
would make sense, economically, to give a German dealer a try.
OTOH, if it's something like 30%, it wouldn't. And one other
question (I know, this is way more than two now) -- the dealer says
these are not grey market goods, that is, they come with a Leica
international warranty; so is this correct, and would they therefore
be eligible for service (if needed) by Leica repair in the US?

Thanks much for any help.

G.

Replies: Reply from "B. D. Colen" <bdcolen@earthlink.net> (Re: [Leica] Two quick questions, please)