Well, that's done. I've sold Lili - my Leica X-U - online to mpb.com. I've been offered £895. That's their preliminary offer, based on my saying her condition is 'excellent' according to their Terms and Conditions, and I expect to find that knocked down a bit after they actually inspect the goods, which are being collected by DPD tomorrow. Hopefully not by too much. Lili, her accessories, her documentation, and her original packaging, were all looking as pristine as they were when I bought her from Park Cameras last August. But I'm wise to how these things are done now. Almost certainly they will find some small flaw and offer a lower amount. But so long as it isn't a ridiculous reduction, I'm not minded to quibble.
To be honest, I want her gone. Our honeymoon is now over. It was a blast while it lasted, but I can see that I was wowed too much by the notion of owning a Wetzlar-made Leica (which had seemed forever unlikely, as such cameras are so expensive), and the promise of distinctly better pictures than my little Leica D-Lux 4 could produce - or my phone, for that matter. I enjoyed Lili's prestige looks, build and handling, and did indeed get some lovely pictures from her. I'm grateful for those. But it's time to let go and pass her on.
The sale proceeds will be a useful top-up for one of my depleted savings accounts. This is not a 'forced sale' in the same way as selling my Nikon D700 and lenses back in 2011 was necessary to keep myself solvent. But all the same the cash will be handy.
If she realises £895, then I'd have used her for 199 days at a net cost of £929. That works out at £4.67 a day - far less than the current daily rental cost for a mirrorless camera. I feel I've paid fairly for the privilege of using a nice camera from a top maker. And I've taken 14,797 shots with her in those 199 days. So 6p a shot. Yes, I'll be £929 out of pocket; but I don't feel I wasted my money. And I do know now what it's like to handle and use a 'real' Wetzlar-made Leica for a few months.
I also have the many pictures! They were so good that I kept most of them. Lili was a wonderful producer of nice shots. I have to thank her for those.
So what happened? Why did the honeymoon come to an end? And why have I gone back - yet again - to the little Leica D-Lux 4 that I've been using since June 2009?
In the end, I had to admit that Lili's usability was limited. She had no zoom, just the one focal length, the equivalent of 35mm in full-frame terms. A nice compromise focal length, suitable for most subjects, and particularly for town or city picture-taking. Not so good for big skies and sweeping views. Nor for confined spaces indoors. But the ancient little Leica did have a zoom, and could manage all focal lengths from 24mm to 60mm, and to that extent was inherently more versatile.
Lili was fast to use, because her controls were so simple and direct. But it was niggling not to have some customisable buttons to give me quick access to extra functions, or different picture-taking setups. The nimble little Leica had those shortcut buttons, dials and sliders, and scored better for sheer convenience.
I will miss Lili's fixed prime lens - a fast f/1.7 Summilux. It was extraordinarily good, and made her super-capable in poor lighting conditions. I will also miss Lili's modern 16 megapixel APS-C sized CMOS sensor. It was a revelation. The little Leica's small 10 megapixel CCD sensor seemed primitive by comparison, even though it was considered pretty good in its day.
But cameras have to be practical tools; and the little Leica was, all told, a better compromise between size, weight and picture-taking ability than Lili was. In the end, this is what mattered. Gradually I saw that, as an equipment upgrade, Lili wasn't the right answer for me. And recently I have switched back to the little Leica for most of my shots, with Lili relegated to special duties, which effectively means no duties at all. So I felt she should go to another home.
For all her refinement and technical excellence, Lili did nothing that the much less illustrious but more versatile little Leica D-Lux 4 couldn't also do. To be sure, it was always possible to see noticeably sharper detail in Lili's shots, and better tones, and far less noise in deep shadows. Lili was a night-time queen. And yet in good light, and especially in bright sunshine, there was nothing much to choose between them. The little Leica did very well.
Crucially, the little Leica could take very wide-angle shots, full of depth and dynamism, with everything in focus. That's the kind of shot I most like to take! Lili just couldn't deliver those. That inability gradually eroded my liking for her. Lili's unalterable 35mm view was - to my personal taste - too confining. I always wanted to get more into the picture. And to have a steeper perspective. Something I'd already concluded early last year, when I put together a long and fully-illustrated post called A long-awaited walkabout in the streets and alleyways of Brighton, published on 5th April 2021. It dealt comprehensively with the use of the 35mm focal length - and why it would be daft for me to abandon the versatile little Leica. Yet four months later I went against my own conclusions!
Oh well, you live and learn. And the experience that teaches one the most is often the most expensive! I'm better informed now about what would really suit my needs, when the little Leica does finally croak its last. It can't go on forever.
Some farewell shots of Lili. Courtesy of the little Leica. It had no qualms recording Lili's boxing-up. The Leica X-U had been a serious rival, nearly enforcing the little Leica's permanent retirement. This is the sweet revenge of an older generation.
