A recent trip to Mexico with my family reminded me of a few things... mainly how much I love rangefinders and how much I really enjoy shooting film. Ektar 100 and XP2 are what I took, but I've always had a sweet spot for Tri-X and TMax too. Being a rangefinder fan (I have three, an Olympus XA, Olympus 35RD, and cut my teeth on a Yashica 35 GSN), there's an obvious elephant in the room: Leica. Couple that with finding a great lab to work with (the FIND Lab), and getting some fairly large prints from my 35mm shots on the trip, I'm feeling like Alice falling down the rabbit hole. Additionally I'm fortunate/cursed to live in a town with a great repair/second hand camera shop. He always has a couple older M's and screw mount Leica's, contax's, Canon's, and more in the cases or in back if you know to ask.
The totem in the case on this trip? A pretty well-loved Leica M2 that is mechanically sound but will never be a collector's piece, with a Canon 35mm f1.5. It's a lot of damn money... but it's a well regarded lens and a body that I wouldn't be devastated to use in the field and drop accidently. The price being asked is about what the lens alone is going for on eBay. I think if I add a 90mm initially and eventually a 50 I'd be very very happy with this setup based on how I shoot. It won't replace digital for me, as I'll keep a Pentax around for film scanning and telephoto work in the short term, possibly migrating to a Sony a7ii. And I can't really lose money on it unless it gets stolen or the market for Leica crashes permanently. But it does represent a different direction than I've been going with my photography.
Thoughts, comments, insults, encouragement? Do I sip from the well-brassed German cup?
