Godfrey
Well-known member
I agree, this has been a fun discussion. I'm glad Jono started it.
I'm homing in on what I want to keep and what I want to sell too. Now that I have the A7 and the kit of Leica R lenses, it's quite clear to me that given a competent sensor and a decent viewfinder, lenses trump bodies.
While I like the rangefinder experience, the Leica R lenses*on the A7 body produce nicer performance to my eye than the Voigtländer lenses on the M9 body, and I prefer the TTL viewfinder experience for most purposes. Only a few of my M-mount lenses work particularly nicely on the A7, where all my R and Nikkor lenses work beautifully on it. So my plan is to sell the M9 and most of my M-mount lenses other than the ones that work well on the A7 (which seems to be the M-Rokkors and Hektor 135). And since the M-Rokkors are the natural fit to the Leica CL, I'll keep that body and one wider Voigtländer (28 or 21mm), sell off the M4-2 body.
The lens kit i have is biased to the wide end for the A7 (18mm to 180mm EFoV), and the lens kit I have for the E-M1 is nicely biased to the tele end (21mm to 560mm EFoV). And I have just the right compatibility between E-M1 and E-1 to keep the (almost worthless to sell, but delightful to use) E-1 body. The E-M1 is a fantastic shooting kit, particularly when I want speed, responsiveness, auto-focus, etc. Terrific lenses, excellent sensor. If I post PDFs optimized to print to 13x19 inch from both A7 and E-M1, you will NOT be able to tell the difference.
The GXR kit (that I bought the Voigtländers for in the first place) will get sold too. It's a great camera that I've gotten a lot of good photos out of, but in the end I'm happier with the A7 and E-M1.
The Leica X2 is my biggest question mark. It's nice to have a small, fixed lens, auto-mostly camera which makes such nice photos. Question is will I use it enough to be worth keeping it.
I can also likely sell one of the Leicaflex SL bodies and one of the Nikon F bodies. And a whole bunch of much less valuable film cameras. I'll keep the Polaroids and the Hasselblads for the moments when they motivate me (surprisingly often for the Polaroids), and maybe a Minox submini or two. One Robot and the Rollei 35S stay too, for sentimental reasons.
There are inevitably a whole bunch of bags that I'll sell or give away. And a couple of new ones I want to buy.
Decisions, decisions indeed...!
G
"Equipment is transitory. Photographs endure."
I'm homing in on what I want to keep and what I want to sell too. Now that I have the A7 and the kit of Leica R lenses, it's quite clear to me that given a competent sensor and a decent viewfinder, lenses trump bodies.
While I like the rangefinder experience, the Leica R lenses*on the A7 body produce nicer performance to my eye than the Voigtländer lenses on the M9 body, and I prefer the TTL viewfinder experience for most purposes. Only a few of my M-mount lenses work particularly nicely on the A7, where all my R and Nikkor lenses work beautifully on it. So my plan is to sell the M9 and most of my M-mount lenses other than the ones that work well on the A7 (which seems to be the M-Rokkors and Hektor 135). And since the M-Rokkors are the natural fit to the Leica CL, I'll keep that body and one wider Voigtländer (28 or 21mm), sell off the M4-2 body.
The lens kit i have is biased to the wide end for the A7 (18mm to 180mm EFoV), and the lens kit I have for the E-M1 is nicely biased to the tele end (21mm to 560mm EFoV). And I have just the right compatibility between E-M1 and E-1 to keep the (almost worthless to sell, but delightful to use) E-1 body. The E-M1 is a fantastic shooting kit, particularly when I want speed, responsiveness, auto-focus, etc. Terrific lenses, excellent sensor. If I post PDFs optimized to print to 13x19 inch from both A7 and E-M1, you will NOT be able to tell the difference.
The GXR kit (that I bought the Voigtländers for in the first place) will get sold too. It's a great camera that I've gotten a lot of good photos out of, but in the end I'm happier with the A7 and E-M1.
The Leica X2 is my biggest question mark. It's nice to have a small, fixed lens, auto-mostly camera which makes such nice photos. Question is will I use it enough to be worth keeping it.
I can also likely sell one of the Leicaflex SL bodies and one of the Nikon F bodies. And a whole bunch of much less valuable film cameras. I'll keep the Polaroids and the Hasselblads for the moments when they motivate me (surprisingly often for the Polaroids), and maybe a Minox submini or two. One Robot and the Rollei 35S stay too, for sentimental reasons.
There are inevitably a whole bunch of bags that I'll sell or give away. And a couple of new ones I want to buy.
Decisions, decisions indeed...!
G
"Equipment is transitory. Photographs endure."