Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/10/29
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Dear Newbie :-) I own a Noctilux and for my purposes I can't offer a single practical reason for spending such a huge amount of cash on a lens. Taking into consideration my annual earnings against other list members, who by and large seem to be well educated members of various 'professions', the ?1000 I paid for the Noctilux makes me borderline insane. Do I regret the purchase? Not for a nanosecond. Do I use f1? Four times at most since I bought it. Johns' practical point of view is certainly more rational than mine but rationality has never been my strong suit. If I owned a Ferrari I wouldn't feel obliged to drive it at 150mph or whatever the top speed is. If I had a country house I wouldn't worry that it had more rooms than I could possibly use. If I was into Morris Dance music albums I would still go with the 100 watt speakers. Question is, how practical are you? Before you answer consider the received wisdom on this list (thanks Ted it works) and picture yourself changing film with a camera baseplate held between your teeth. For anyone contemplating the purchase of a Noctilux and is in need of justification I would recommend a visit to the virtual pub on IRC Leica. They advised? me that if the purchase was a disaster I could always get my money back. Even in todays' collapsing marketplace the Noctilux sells in the UK between ?1250 and ?1500 pounds so Sonny and the gang are right on that at the time of writing. However, the current value of the Noctilux is academic as far as I am concerned. I wouldn't part with mine if it had quadrupled in value. When my time comes I may have it buried with me to stop any arguments about who gets it :-) To summarise. Splash the cash :-) Just my 2 cents --Graham (down to my last 2 cents) Battison