M6
It is a difficult exercise to write about a love story because it’s both personal, completely biased and out of any logical reasoning. I’ll try anyway to separate facts from feelings.
THE FACTS
I bought a Leica M6 2022, brand new, with a Voigtlander 50mm f2.2 at first. As of today's money, a brand new black M6 goes for CZK 140,000 (~5,800 EUR). After a few rolls on the 50mm, I quickly decided to commit to a Leica 35mm Summilux, adding another CZK 150,000 (~6,200 EUR). This puts my total above 12,000 EUR, or the price of a used car in other words.
This amount of cash buys me a 1/Analog, 2/Manual focus, 3/Parallax Framelines, 4/Manual Roll Installation black box that won't make better photographs probably than a used Minolta.
One shot, one development, no editing, it's analog and expensive.
Adjust the focus ring, match the rangefinder frame, in focus or out of focus is on me.
Frame inside the quite imprecise lines, even corrected, it has a parallax effect and the subject might not end where you see it.
Put in a new roll, miss to catch it with the wheel and you will make the newbie mistake of advancing the count without advancing the roll inside. Yes, this happened to me.
This camera is stupidly expensive and makes no sense whatsoever, so why one would buy it?
MORE FACTS
You can't argue against the build quality. The M6 is compact but heavy, the commands make a satisfying click that transpire quality and robustness. What about the Leica M 35mm? The focus ring has that smooth glide with just enough resistance, the Aperture ring clicks are precise and controlled.
Then, you pull the lever and shoot, and you hear the M6, or more of, you hear the absence of it. It doesn't move a mirror away because there is none, thanks to the engineering marvel of a self-corrected rangefinder. It doesn't make an awful noise when a roll is full and resists a new photo and rewinds automatically, it forces you to rewind manually, silently.
These can already sound like feelings, but these are facts, put the M6 against an SLR and prove me I'm wrong.
A LOVE STORY
With all of that said, with its inherent quality, it is still difficult to justify the expense. But there's something irrational about the Leica M6 that no other camera can give you, at least that no other camera can give me.
You feel quality, this comes with its price tag and one who prefers to buy one rather than many will understand that going from good enough to the greatest is not a linear curve. The last mile of quality you get comes with an exponential impact on the price, it's the reality of mass production versus craftsmanship. Be lucky if you don't see the difference, you will save yourself from a lot of financial trouble and demons.
You feel the manual experience, this comes with slowing you down, with finding your muscle memory on the focus ring, by forgetting that it has to be f5,8 or f2 or f11, you abandon yourself to pick the speed that matches the light of the moment that your film ISO can afford and make the final adjustment by sacrificing on aperture, or vice versa. It talks a different language where compromise is the absolute freedom, when the silence of the tool lets you immerse yourself in the beauty of the world surrounding you. It is visceral and the experience of capturing a moment completely manually and looking at the photograph coming out of development weeks after gives you a reward than no other camera will ever do. You captured that, you were there, you lived that moment. It is not a photograph, it is a memory. No price tag can be attached to that, a memory has no price.
And finally, you feel the heritage, you take it with you everywhere. In some ways, you are your own Henri Cartier-Bresson (what a cliche), you are your own Photo reporter (the ones you saw on the TV in the 80s), you are your dad. An old brand can give irrational emotions, they prove the test of time, they let you take with you a bit of their legacy. Are you at peace to pay extra to have this legacy in your hand, to experience it? it's all personal.
THE SUMMILUX
It's all about the M6 but a camera body is not complete without its lens. Is a Summilux justified on an Analog camera? Absolutely yes when you need that extra stop on low light conditions, and absolutely yes when you want that photograph with a delightful bokeh. This is factual.
One day, someone stopped me to look at my camera and noticed the Summilux attached to it, his only words were: "oh, a Summilux, wow". I saw sparkles in his eyes, he smiled at me, gave me a thumbs-up and left. I don't take pride in having the red badge (maybe a little to be honest, just a little), but I do feel the same way that man felt, I have the same sparkles in my eyes every time I look at my M6, every time I go out with it, every time I turn its aperture, every time I take a photograph, every time I remove the bottom plate and change the roll for a new one. I have sparkles in my eyes and sometimes tears in my eyes when I receive the memory of the moment I captured with it.
I cannot explain that with logic, the same way you can't explain why you love someone, it is between you and that person.
The M6 is a melting pot of quality, simple joy and childhood memories that I can experience roll after roll, and that's all there is to say actually.