[Leica] The Real Cost of Leicas

[tedgrant at shaw.ca (tedgrant at shaw.ca)]

Bob Adler offered:

>>Just curious if any of the finance wizards in the LUG can calculate the 
>>real
cost of a Leica camera and lenses (say best in class and excluding the
Noctilux) on today's dollars vs 15 or 20 years ago. <<<<<<

Hi CREW,
I suppose I'm learning something about looking after yer money only 50 years 
to late?:-(

After 4X5 Speed Graphics, Nikons, Hasselblads, 2 1/4 Rollieflexes  then 
locking myself into LEICA. I never went through all this cost evaluations as 
some of you lads do and can do. I marvel at your wonderful economic 
abilities and admire your educations to do so when it comes to photo gear. 
And I have to say, "Life in General!"

Leica off to the races? Costs? Never a thought a second about it! Even if it 
required borrowing to purchase!  They were all tools of the trade to capture 
the images I saw and loosing them without the tools? "WAS AN UNFORGIVABLE 
SIN!"

And because I had the right tools and captured the images clients were blown 
away with. They kept giving me more  and more shoots which became money in 
the pocket, not a lot in the bank! :-) I suppose one could say.... "We used 
it without a thought about the FUTURE! :-( But I always had the gear? Or had 
it quite shortly there after.

IE: The assignment required super wide glass for the R camera? Called the 
store and if they had a 15mm Super Wide in stock? "Put it away I'll be along 
shortly to pick it up."
Did you notice there wasn't any "HOW MUCH QUESTION?" Get it, use it, 
beautiful eye shaking images! KISS!  And that's the way it was pretty well 
all the time while I was being assigned to chase about the world and Canada 
on assignments.......... pure magical days they were! :-)

Of course as one's life, age and loss of wife happens? So does the attitude 
to fly about the world carrying a shoulder bag of Leicas and lenses! So you 
get rid of most of them, but never all of them! As they are part of the 
blood flowing through your body when you live by them and with them for 
close to 60 years.

And I can honestly say on some assignments I worked 3 M cameras hanging from 
my neck upon my chest. And 2 R motor driven cameras off the left shoulder 
and another with the longest lens attached on the right ...... "JUST IN 
CASE?" All with different lenses!

Oh yeah and a "Photo-vest" with film and a different lens or two.:-) Kinda 
felt like a pack horse some days! :-) However I never carried more than I 
couldn't run with! Just in case? ;-)

If I were today shooting the number of assignments as in the past?
Yep I'd have an S Leica along with two colour digi M's and two B&W digi M's.

WHY?  Just in case! Have a nice day. :-) KISS! :-)

cheers,
Dr. ted














----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Akhil Lal" <alal at poly.edu>
To: "'Leica Users Group'" <lug at leica-users.org>
Sent: Saturday, January 11, 2014 9:41 AM
Subject: Re: [Leica] The Real Cost of Leicas


> In general, most questions like this one are answered by referring to the
> rate of inflation.  However, I prefer to use an alternative measure when
> assessing the true cost of  hobby or luxury item: the ratio of the  price
> paid for the item to the median value of a house/apartment in your
> city/country at the time of purchase.
>
> I ask Luggers to run their numbers and report back to the group. If you
> haven't tried this before, the numbers will surprise you.
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: lug-bounces+alal=poly.edu at leica-users.org
> [mailto:lug-bounces+alal=poly.edu at leica-users.org] On Behalf Of Bob 
> Adler
> Sent: Friday, January 10, 2014 8:07 PM
> To: Leica Users Group
> Subject: [Leica] The Real Cost of Leicas
>
> Just curious if any of the finance wizards in the LUG can calculate the 
> real
> cost of a Leica camera and lenses (say best in class and excluding the
> Noctilux) on today's dollars vs 15 or 20 years ago.
>
> My gut tells me Leicas have always been exorbitantly expensive. Current 
> LUG
> members are aging boomers who must be, of necessity, more conservative 
> with
> their spending.
>
> Frank? Jayanand? Others? Anyone have MSRP over the years and annual real
> inflation numbers?
> Best,
> Bob
>
> Bob Adler
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
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