I have, for a while now, been dreaming of acquiring a digital rangefinder camera that would make use of my existing set of M-mount lenses thus avoiding the expense of building a whole new system.
There is a catch to this however and that is there is only one maker of digital rangefinder cameras, Leica.
So if wanted the latest digital M the M10-R I would need to fork out £7,100 for the camera body. Wow! As an alternative I could continue to use my Zeiss Ikon ZMs with my set of Leica lenses using Kodak Ektar and Portra film, having it scanned, producing pictures like the one above.
Currently the cheapest I can find a 36 exposure roll of Ektar 35mm film is £9.50 and the cost of developing it plus a high resolution scan is £12.00 giving a total cost of £21.50 per film. Divide the cost per film into the cost of new M10-R and I can buy 330 rolls of film for all that money.
In a non pandemic year if I used the typical average of five rolls of film per month then I would have five and a half years worth of film for the cost of one new M10-R body. Interesting isn't it? So Zeiss Ikon with film it continues to be then, was there really any doubt?
Plus for digital I prefer my lovely Olympus Pen-F in the MFT format anyway... but, wistful sigh, the gorgeous M10-R... aaaah!