A little over a year ago, I found a mysterious post on Facebook Marketplace for a “Vintage Camera”. The primary image was just of a bunch of old camera accessories, but as I dug into the post a little further, I saw that someone was selling a Leica M3. A camera that I was just starting to learn about.
I reached out the seller and found that the camera was originally asking over $3k for the kit. I asked a few questions and put the idea aside for a bit because I wasn’t ready to spend that kind of money on a film camera I knew nothing about… a day later she responded saying that someone offered her $1800 for the kit and if I was willing to pay that “because I reached out first” I could take it for that price. She sent me some images of the M3 and 50 Summilux Rigid and it was so clean and well kept that I dropped everything I was doing at the studio, raced to the bank and off to Wahiawa.
It’s been a point of pride to own that camera and lens kit for the last year and a half, but I sometimes wonder if the romanticism of owning a camera with that legacy is even more compelling than using it regularly.
I do really love shooting with it. I do love the way it slows me down to make sure exposure is correct, choose the focus of the story within the frame lines, hear the mechanical sound of the shutter actuating, but I rarely touch it.
It could be the rising cost of film. It could be the lack of immediacy. It could be because I have another digital Leica M camera that replicates some of the slowness without the finality or uncertainty of film… I’m not sure what it is, but I am certainly conflicted about wanting to shoot with it more, but not committing to capturing life on film.
This is a video I made when I first picked it up full of giddy and optimism.