Good video. In 1995 I bought a used Leica R4s from Leica dealer Jim Kuehl for $600, as a “cheap” platform to the R lenses, which are as good as M-series lenses. Today a brand new (not used) R4 is about $400. Great cameras, and R-series lenses are cheap now. If you get sick of film, just mount the R lenses on a Canon DSLR (with exceptions) or just about any mirrorless digital camera and shoot in aperture priority mode. They will not eclipse a modern Zeiss lens but they are still pretty good. I still have my R6 but don’t use it anymore.
I have a 90mm Elmarit lens that came with my Leica R8 when I bought it. amazing lens that can render photo's that have an almost 3D look in the right conditions.
Well, they weren’t that cheap when new 😋 I switched from Leicaflex SL2- mot to R4 when it was introduced. The R3 was never a Pro Camera. The SL2-mot was built like a tank, you Could litterally hammer nails in with it, but the motor had a tendency to short circuit. The R4s were smaller , lighter , faster and worked perfect, as long as you stayed in manual mode. In any auto mode being shutter or Aperture priority, they broke Down. And you Got a new one from Leica. I had more than 40 ! R4 bodies. One of them in less than an hour!. Then came R5, full electronic and with the same electronic problems. I settled Down with the R6 until C anon took over with the Eos and autofocus. I did love my reflexs (when they functioned) and lenses. The best lenses being the 24/2,8 ( minolta) and 280/2,8 for sport. But cheap, never.
I enjoyed the video and use both the M and R systems by Leica. I began shooting with the original Leicaflex and over a year purchased a few lenses. A couple of years later I purchased a Leica M1 and purchased a couple of lenses. I have M adapters for my R glass. I must say that in terms of quality, I do not see a difference. However, the weight of the cameras and different shooting philosophies and ergonomics of the systems are the difference not the quality of the lenses. I typically use a Leica M for street photography, whereas I use the Leicaflex for more controlled situations such landscape and portraits.
Great vid! I had an R4 before I realized I could buy Nikon f bayonet mount to fit my Leica r lenses for 12 bucks on eBay, and yes they reach infinity focus. you should look into that man!
You're right, the price of a R3, R4 or R5 body isn't insane (yet) but the price of the lenses is. $400 (starting price) for a 50mm Summicron-R or a 35mm Elmairt-R is crazy.
Hate to say this but lenses is what really costs in this hobby... Camera bodies come and go all the time but lenses are the real investment for life... Cheers! 🍺😉👍🏻
Hey man, really enjoyed the vid! Also big fan of the humbleness & humility lol, I am also not worthy of such a brand quite yet but very interested in getting the R6.2 one day and found this video very helpful. Keep it up man!
If you want a Leica rangefinder your best bet is the M5. It’s actually incredibly good and even nicer to use than the M6, if you can handle the slightly larger size and weight. It has the most accurate TTL meter of any Leica to this day and very good ergonomics. You can get cheep Russian lenses for less than a hundred bucks or the quite good 7Artians lenses for less than $500. If you want to get close to Leica quality level: Voigtländer glass is incredible at $700- $1.2k and while it’s not quite as flawless as the Leica equivalent. It’s still amazing with very comparable colors.
Last time I looked R-8's could be found for under 600 bucks, it's the glass that will set you back some money.. The 90mm, 24mm, 50mm are all great glass.. The 60mm macro is awesome.. The R-9 even has a Digital back for it, it's likely the first digital SLR..
Hardly any professionals followed the Leica R line in photojournalism. They pulled out after the SL2. With a couple of MOT Leicaflexes and even a regular chrome SL, I find them to be highly robust. The motors can be a little problematic. The people buying up the R glass today are using mirror less digital bodies, like the Sony or the Leica SL or SL2S. With a simple adaptor you can run M series lenses or with an M to R adaptor, run any of the R lenses. One of the best by far is the APO Macro Elmarjt 100mm f2.8 lens which provides incredible macro capability. It’s on a par or better than the Nikkor 200mm macro ED AF lens. Leica was slow on the uptake in the SLR world and quickly eclipsed by Japanese manufacturers like Nikon and Canon. The Leicaflex SL2’s claim to fame was being dropped out of an F104 Star Fighter at about 20,000’ with its 50mm lens and being found reparable by Leica once they pulled it out of a snowbank. I don’t think they bothered to repair it because it still worked! But they liked the bragging rights. The Leicaflex bodies (pre-Minolta) were built to extremely exacting standards and ultimately cost Leica more to assemble than they got in the sale price. Leitz thought it would make up in body cost losses with lens sales. The R lenses do get somewhat complex with the various cams integrated over the intervening years. By the time the Leica R8 and R9 came out everyone was done with the SLR. My go to non auto focus camera is the digital Leica SL2S, although I still have at least 50 Nikkor lenses from 7.5mm to 1000mm. All can be mounted on the mirror less SL2S. The R lenses are still a bargain for digital shooters, compared to their prices when new. The most important thing to keep in mind are (1) ensure it is multi coated and (2) feature APO glass when the focal length is over 150mm. (APO glass is very similar to Nikon’s ED glass). This is a good start for folks interested in Leica, but keep in mind that these bodies are getting old. Keep your self on top of optics over bodies. Optics change very little while the older bodies simply cannot keep up today. Optically, the R lenses are the same as the M glass, but they are physically larger-that’s a plus for the M lenses-smaller physically.
The best living pro photographer alive today and ex Magnum President used R6. Sebastiao Salgado's images made with the simple Leica R system are just out of this world.
I have the R4 with the Sumicron and a few other lenses (35-75, 135), and it's a very nice camera body, the Sumicron being the standout, and yeah, I think it's as good as the M mount Sumi. It's a very nice system, and not too big, but also not the smallest camera, but the lenses OOOZE quality in throw, handling and IQ. I am also a big Olympus OM user, and find the R4 to be less troublesome than my OM's...they haven't aged as well, but glass-wise, I find them to be very very similar in IQ but OM lenses are MUCH cheaper than even R glass any more, but they are nowhere close to feeling as good as the Leica glass in the hand and in quality.
Agree! But difficult to find one in really good shape. I settled for a Leica R6.2 but honestly I don't think it is worth of the praise it gets online, granted it is built like a tank but something quite doesn't jive with this camera as a Leica branded machine.
The bodies are cheap but the lenses cost the usual high ass Leica prices. Quality of the R lenses is good but they're not better than the lenses from the Japanese vendors.
The elmarit-r 90mm f2.8 is the cheapest r lens that I found when shopping for r lenses. The next cheapest would be a50mm f2 or 35mm f2.8. I just bought an elmarit 35mm f2.8 for my R5. Be sure to get a 2 cam or 3 cam if you want metering.
i have m4 but i dont feal like bannana boy. Leica isnt a good camera at alll. I think best camera is this witch suits you. You have fun using it and thats all. In my opinion Canon f1 is one of the best camera for geting fun from shooting but this is my opinion ;34 Find Yours ;3 Ps: Sorry for english, not native english speaker and i replay in car as pasanger
It was FAR from being the "poor man's Leica" back in the day mate! In the 1980s, for instance, the Leica Rs and the lenses were the most expensive SLR products you could buy!
Definitely would never recommend an R3 or a SL2. The R3 is known for having lots of problems with electronics. Just google it. The SL2 on the other hand could probably fall out of a plan and still work. And if you know how to use a light meter, you can use it without batteries. Pure mechanical camera that will still be working fine in another 50 years. Unlike the R3.
The R3 of my Grandpa that was used all over the world since 1978 and is still working after 44 years of use and abuse. The good thing is that the R3 prices are low because of comments like this from people who never even owned the camera. You could easily buy 4-6 R3's for one R6.2 and repair anything that might break.
@@Sebastian-jf5cp In fairness to me, a simple google search will show that what I've said is accurate - on average. And of course getting an R3 repaired isn't childsplay,. Leica dealers won't fix them, parts are no longer made, etc.
A piece of crap, the R4! I have never met anyone where it worked 100%. The lenses need different cams, very expensive! So Leica R lenses may not work..Minolta version way less expensive, work better.. Better than crap! Geez, tha's lousy. Mine work in non auto exposure. It's very wrong to push crap for newbies to film.. My Minolta lenses are awfully similar tp Leica-R ! same flares, same lovely images..
show some respect to SL2 !!! you describe like SL2 was failure but it wasn't. SL2 is kinda upmost mechanical SLR in camera history. they cooperated with Minolta to know how to make some profit by make products in less perfect way than SL2, because they made some loss from the way they made SL2. -makeing perfect thing cost much.
Good video. In 1995 I bought a used Leica R4s from Leica dealer Jim Kuehl for $600, as a “cheap” platform to the R lenses, which are as good as M-series lenses. Today a brand new (not used) R4 is about $400. Great cameras, and R-series lenses are cheap now. If you get sick of film, just mount the R lenses on a Canon DSLR (with exceptions) or just about any mirrorless digital camera and shoot in aperture priority mode. They will not eclipse a modern Zeiss lens but they are still pretty good. I still have my R6 but don’t use it anymore.
I have a 90mm Elmarit lens that came with my Leica R8 when I bought it. amazing lens that can render photo's that have an almost 3D look in the right conditions.
Well, they weren’t that cheap when new 😋 I switched from Leicaflex SL2- mot to R4 when it was introduced. The R3 was never a Pro Camera.
The SL2-mot was built like a tank, you Could litterally hammer nails in with it, but the motor had a tendency to short circuit.
The R4s were smaller , lighter , faster and worked perfect, as long as you stayed in manual mode. In any auto mode being shutter or Aperture priority, they broke Down.
And you Got a new one from Leica.
I had more than 40 ! R4 bodies. One of them in less than an hour!.
Then came R5, full electronic and with the same electronic problems. I settled Down with the R6 until C anon took over with the Eos and autofocus.
I did love my reflexs (when they functioned) and lenses. The best lenses being the 24/2,8 ( minolta) and 280/2,8 for sport.
But cheap, never.
I enjoyed the video and use both the M and R systems by Leica. I began shooting with the original Leicaflex and over a year purchased a few lenses. A couple of years later I purchased a Leica M1 and purchased a couple of lenses. I have M adapters for my R glass. I must say that in terms of quality, I do not see a difference. However, the weight of the cameras and different shooting philosophies and ergonomics of the systems are the difference not the quality of the lenses. I typically use a Leica M for street photography, whereas I use the Leicaflex for more controlled situations such landscape and portraits.
The R 6.2 was a super camera.The R-lenses are also high quality and can easily be used with an adapter on a M240 or M10 as I do. Nice review!
Thanks for the valuable additional info!!
do you know by chance, is it possible to use the opposite - m-mount zeiss with R-body?
Great vid! I had an R4 before I realized I could buy Nikon f bayonet mount to fit my Leica r lenses for 12 bucks on eBay, and yes they reach infinity focus. you should look into that man!
Woahh. I'm trying to use Leica R lenses on my Nikon F3! What are these adapters?
Great video. Thank you.
RS. Canada
You're right, the price of a R3, R4 or R5 body isn't insane (yet) but the price of the lenses is. $400 (starting price) for a 50mm Summicron-R or a 35mm Elmairt-R is crazy.
Hate to say this but lenses is what really costs in this hobby... Camera bodies come and go all the time but lenses are the real investment for life... Cheers! 🍺😉👍🏻
Thanks. Love the video. Waiting for my R4 in the mail.
Thx for the watch! Appreciate it 🖤
How are you liking your R4?
A helpful video on my way to become a lowlife Leica owner
I just ‘liked’ and subscribed! 🎉
Lots of great food for thought.
Dude this is impressive! Super interesting! -Christian
Hey man, really enjoyed the vid! Also big fan of the humbleness & humility lol, I am also not worthy of such a brand quite yet but very interested in getting the R6.2 one day and found this video very helpful. Keep it up man!
I’d be happy with a Leica R series camera.
Miss you man, great video brother.
-Andres
Andres!! Miss you man! Let's catch up sometime soon!
@@AlecLangton yes, after this godforsaken quarantine!
If you want a Leica rangefinder your best bet is the M5. It’s actually incredibly good and even nicer to use than the M6, if you can handle the slightly larger size and weight. It has the most accurate TTL meter of any Leica to this day and very good ergonomics. You can get cheep Russian lenses for less than a hundred bucks or the quite good 7Artians lenses for less than $500. If you want to get close to Leica quality level: Voigtländer glass is incredible at $700- $1.2k and while it’s not quite as flawless as the Leica equivalent. It’s still amazing with very comparable colors.
Last time I looked R-8's could be found for under 600 bucks, it's the glass that will set you back some money.. The 90mm, 24mm, 50mm are all great glass.. The 60mm macro is awesome.. The R-9 even has a Digital back for it, it's likely the first digital SLR..
great video mate you deserve way more views and subs
Nice video!
Thanks!
The Leica mystique resides safely in the mind of the beholder.
You’re like the photography Shane Fazen. Dope
I dont like cameras but I do like you ❤️
Hardly any professionals followed the Leica R line in photojournalism. They pulled out after the SL2. With a couple of MOT Leicaflexes and even a regular chrome SL, I find them to be highly robust. The motors can be a little problematic. The people buying up the R glass today are using mirror less digital bodies, like the Sony or the Leica SL or SL2S. With a simple adaptor you can run M series lenses or with an M to R adaptor, run any of the R lenses. One of the best by far is the APO Macro Elmarjt 100mm f2.8 lens which provides incredible macro capability. It’s on a par or better than the Nikkor 200mm macro ED AF lens. Leica was slow on the uptake in the SLR world and quickly eclipsed by Japanese manufacturers like Nikon and Canon. The Leicaflex SL2’s claim to fame was being dropped out of an F104 Star Fighter at about 20,000’ with its 50mm lens and being found reparable by Leica once they pulled it out of a snowbank. I don’t think they bothered to repair it because it still worked! But they liked the bragging rights. The Leicaflex bodies (pre-Minolta) were built to extremely exacting standards and ultimately cost Leica more to assemble than they got in the sale price. Leitz thought it would make up in body cost losses with lens sales. The R lenses do get somewhat complex with the various cams integrated over the intervening years. By the time the Leica R8 and R9 came out everyone was done with the SLR. My go to non auto focus camera is the digital Leica SL2S, although I still have at least 50 Nikkor lenses from 7.5mm to 1000mm. All can be mounted on the mirror less SL2S. The R lenses are still a bargain for digital shooters, compared to their prices when new. The most important thing to keep in mind are (1) ensure it is multi coated and (2) feature APO glass when the focal length is over 150mm. (APO glass is very similar to Nikon’s ED glass). This is a good start for folks interested in Leica, but keep in mind that these bodies are getting old. Keep your self on top of optics over bodies. Optics change very little while the older bodies simply cannot keep up today. Optically, the R lenses are the same as the M glass, but they are physically larger-that’s a plus for the M lenses-smaller physically.
The best living pro photographer alive today and ex Magnum President used R6.
Sebastiao Salgado's images made with the simple Leica R system are just out of this world.
Nice. Have an M. Still want an R.
They're out there and they're not too bad! The glass is so much cheaper but no loss of quality!
Subbed. Nice video!
Could u tell me how the timer is suposed to work on a R4 also the aperture leaver over it ?
interesting video, came up while I was looking for M10R videos... poor mans? That thing sells for over 8 grand!
Nice summary of the history! It definitely helped me get it sorted out better than I usually understand the R-mount story. Thank you!
Nice video, Thank you, where did you get the music, love this. Grocery store music!! D
Some of the M and R lenses are optically identical.
i Saw some of them in Munich, but the thing is that the camera body might not break my bank account but buying a Lens will. :(
It's true, the lenses are the best part visually, and the worst part economically.
You deserve more subscribers
I have the R4 with the Sumicron and a few other lenses (35-75, 135), and it's a very nice camera body, the Sumicron being the standout, and yeah, I think it's as good as the M mount Sumi. It's a very nice system, and not too big, but also not the smallest camera, but the lenses OOOZE quality in throw, handling and IQ. I am also a big Olympus OM user, and find the R4 to be less troublesome than my OM's...they haven't aged as well, but glass-wise, I find them to be very very similar in IQ but OM lenses are MUCH cheaper than even R glass any more, but they are nowhere close to feeling as good as the Leica glass in the hand and in quality.
R8 ftw
The Leicaflex SL and SL2 are my favorite out of Leica’s SLR’s
Agree! But difficult to find one in really good shape. I settled for a Leica R6.2 but honestly I don't think it is worth of the praise it gets online, granted it is built like a tank but something quite doesn't jive with this camera as a Leica branded machine.
Leica D Lux 7 (Series) Brief History Please. Also consider a baby Leica (Poor Mans Leica?)
What about a long history with the Leica R lenses ;)
The bodies are cheap but the lenses cost the usual high ass Leica prices. Quality of the R lenses is good but they're not better than the lenses from the Japanese vendors.
Sure, the bodies aren't priced out of reach... the lenses are another matter... Even for R series lenses
This is a very fair point 😅
What about R5?
the m3 goes for between 800-1600... over 2k with a lens, sure.
R3 cool camera😊
Yoo whats wrong with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches - elvis
Is it too late to ask ? I found a Leica r4 body only what kind of (not too expensive) lens can I purchase?? Please please 🙏 💗
The elmarit-r 90mm f2.8 is the cheapest r lens that I found when shopping for r lenses. The next cheapest would be a50mm f2 or 35mm f2.8. I just bought an elmarit 35mm f2.8 for my R5. Be sure to get a 2 cam or 3 cam if you want metering.
Instead of calling it a poor men's Leica, call it rich men's Minolta.
i have m4 but i dont feal like bannana boy. Leica isnt a good camera at alll. I think best camera is this witch suits you. You have fun using it and thats all. In my opinion Canon f1 is one of the best camera for geting fun from shooting but this is my opinion ;34 Find Yours ;3
Ps: Sorry for english, not native english speaker and i replay in car as pasanger
Leica is the best
It was FAR from being the "poor man's Leica" back in the day mate! In the 1980s, for instance, the Leica Rs and the lenses were the most expensive SLR products you could buy!
Definitely would never recommend an R3 or a SL2. The R3 is known for having lots of problems with electronics. Just google it. The SL2 on the other hand could probably fall out of a plan and still work. And if you know how to use a light meter, you can use it without batteries. Pure mechanical camera that will still be working fine in another 50 years. Unlike the R3.
The R3 of my Grandpa that was used all over the world since 1978 and is still working after 44 years of use and abuse. The good thing is that the R3 prices are low because of comments like this from people who never even owned the camera. You could easily buy 4-6 R3's for one R6.2 and repair anything that might break.
@@Sebastian-jf5cp In fairness to me, a simple google search will show that what I've said is accurate - on average. And of course getting an R3 repaired isn't childsplay,. Leica dealers won't fix them, parts are no longer made, etc.
A piece of crap, the R4! I have never met anyone where it worked 100%. The lenses need different cams, very expensive! So Leica R lenses may not work..Minolta version way less expensive, work better.. Better than crap! Geez, tha's lousy. Mine work in non auto exposure. It's very wrong to push crap for newbies to film.. My Minolta lenses are awfully similar tp Leica-R ! same flares, same lovely images..
show some respect to SL2 !!!
you describe like SL2 was failure but it wasn't.
SL2 is kinda upmost mechanical SLR in camera history.
they cooperated with Minolta to know how to make some profit by make products in less perfect way than SL2, because they made some loss from the way they made SL2.
-makeing perfect thing cost much.