If you checked my In My Bag page you might have noticed that I’ve added a couple of lenses to my SLR kit. Is it another GAS attack? I don’t think so, or certainly hope not! I recently purchased the smallest and slowest 180mm lens Leica made and the so-called Version 1 of Leica’s 28mm lens. I had a 180mm years ago and if I remember correctly I used it only one time. I don’t think I ever used a 28mm lens before.

I made sure I purchased copies manufactured close to end of their production runs. Hopefully they benefited from the latest lens coatings of the time. I didn’t spend a king’s ransom compared to what I could have, had I chosen to go with the latest and spiffiest versions of those focal lengths (well perhaps a prince’s ransom … this is Leica after all). Why? Because I don’t expect to use them very much.

Ok, so what possessed me to buy them? A need for more uber precision mechanical/optical devices made by German elves? No. A desire to fill the remaining space in my camera bag? Not really. An obsession to part with over a grand that was burning a whole in my pocket? Not at all. Post mid-life crisis? I hope not! It turns out that I’m working on and/or about to embark on projects where I expect to use theses wonderful optics, if only occasionally, to produce images I would not otherwise be able to make without them! Sounds convincing doesn’t it? Seriously, that’s the only reason I did the deed, although I must say the lens shade that comes with the 28mm Elmarit R is work of art itself!

As I’ve said before, the vast amount of my photographs have been made with just one lens or its equivalent, or near equivalent based on format – the 50mm. A few percent have been made with the 35mm, and even less with a 90mm. And while I agree that too many choices can create a whole set of unintended problems we all know about, trying to shoehorn the picture you have planned to make into something else because you don’t have the right lens is just foolish and self defeating.

So I don’t think I’ve gone crazy.

And if the plan doesn’t work out, then off they will go. It won’t be the first time that’s happened. Just ask my wife!