10.25.2023

Spending money on something far removed from cameras and lenses. And cars. And travel. But probably among the best long term "investments."

 I use the word "investments" in quotes because the word connotes that one will have a financial return on their initial outlay of money. In this case, today, nothing could be further from the truth. 

At my last routine, twice yearly dental hygiene visit my (unconditionally adored) dentist discovered that one of my teeth needed a crown. I hate getting dental work done but my dentist has an incredibly gentle touch when it comes to injecting numbing agents and she's really good at keeping me informed and entertained during procedures. This morning I had to be in the dentist's chair at 7:30 a.m. Sharp. 

You probably don't pay what we pay in Austin for various dental procedures. A porcelain/ceramic crown with preparation and build up costs about $ 2,000 per tooth and it's one of the things NOT covered by my health insurance. I'm sure if you live in a rural area where many people don't want to live you'd be able to get the procedure done for much less money. You can probably buy a house there for a fraction of the price you'll pay in Austin, as well. But we live where we live and if we want services provided with the top flight health care professionals in our area then.....we have to pay the going price. 

But to put it into perspective we're talking about 2/3rds the price of a nice but well used Leica M 240 rangefinder camera, first made in 2012. Or 1/14th the price of a brand new Subaru Forester (the base model) so the cost of a crown does give one pause. 

But not taking care of your teeth will age you faster than just about anything else. Keeping all of your original teeth in your mouth and in good working order is also a hell of a lot cheaper than outfitting your gums with implants! And a lot less painful. Or so I've been told. And since one of my clients is a big oral surgery practice I think I'll believe my source on this subject. 

I hate medical procedures but mostly because I am afraid of them. My brain always tends to go to the worst case scenario and set up camp there. Last night my brain was laying out the down sleeping bags and working hard to start up the camp fire so the worst case scenario would at least be comfortable. 

But looking around for a silver lining; any silver lining, I discovered that my medical procedure anxiety is really efficient at interrupting my sleep which, in turn, does a good job of helping me remember the dreams I do  have while getting small snatches of sleep. 

Last night I had a vivid dream. It was about cameras. Specifically it was about Leica SL cameras. In my dream I was whisked away to a lovely hotel in a city that resembled Montreal. I came down from my fifth floor room in the elevator. I was wearing casual stuff. Old, worn hiking boots, a pair of well broken in jeans. An old, faded and rapidly devolving green sweat shirt, and a pair of glasses I'd never seen before.

When I walked into the small and pretentious lobby of the hotel I was greeted and warmly welcomed by several tall, well fed German men, each of whom looked to be about 50 years old and had the bearing of happy marketers. They were there to present to me a test camera that I was expected to use for several weeks or months. The actual time frame was vague and slightly out of focus. 

We walked over to a bright red couch that was bookended by matching, ultra modern, well stuffed chairs, the likes of which would be fun to have in your own living room for maybe all of ten minutes before the insane saturation of the fire engine red fabric started to burn your eyes... Every one took seats and I was bracketed by Germans. Nice Germans. Germans bearing temporary gifts. 

One man stood across a coffee table from me. He reached behind himself and pulled up a stout, bulky black leather case --- about the size of a roll-aboard wheeled case for travel --- but with stylistic touches referencing train travel in the 1930s. The case dominated the light colored wood accents of the table and surrounding  furniture. The same man reached forward and flipped the steel latches on the case and then opened it towards me. In full presentation mode. Sitting in the middle of a black foam cut out was a camera body that looked nearly identical to the Leica SL2 I had sitting in a cabinet back home. At the urging of the assembled Germans I pulled the camera out of the case and examined it. It was outfitted with a 50mm f2.8 compact SL mount lens (which looked very business-like but at the same time quite adorable...). Never seen or heard of that one before...

I brought the camera up to my eye and while I was looking through it the assembled company-men sort of narrated my progress, telling me that the EVF used APO glass for a better defined view while the screen in the EVF was 10 megabytes or ten million dots.. Can't remember exactly which. But I acted as though it was one of the most impressive feats a photographer could imagine. I performed a half press on the shutter button and was amazed at the incredibly responsive focusing action. The "guys" explained that it was a result of the new phase detect AF module combined with three Maestro processors running in parallel for extra speed. I asked about the RAW buffer in the camera and they answered almost in unison ----- "unlimited!!!" I asked about video and they did a dismissive frown and said, "Not on this model. This is a supreme stills camera." 

I noticed that, compared to my own SL2, that this camera was much lighter even though the body was, as far as I could tell, exactly the same (perfect) dimensions as mine. The company men were downright gleeful. "All of the body parts that can be made so are made of titanium." They rattled off the differences in weight between this camera and the past generation but, hey, in my dreams I am not a 'numbers' guy so I determined not to remember. 

I asked about the resolution and the basics of the sensor tech and was in for a bigger surprise. They had throttled down the overall resolution to 36 megapixels. Something about achieving the optimum look for the files. Something about an on-the-fly interpolation mode possible by the three processors. "If you need more resolution  you can implement it on -the-fly via the menu. Pretty much the same tech as multi-frame res. but done at a speed that can keep up with any shutter speed up to 1/8000th of a second. Seamlessly." They then added, "After exhaustive experiments and analysis we discovered that 36 megapixels is the absolute sweet spot for a full frame digital camera sensor and, with the new processors running in tandem, we can also give you up to 142 megapixels of actual resolution with the real time multi-frame. The benefit? At 36 megapixels the high ISO lack of noise is breathtaking." 

I nodded a vague understanding. Just as they were about to hand me the camera and invite me to use it for an open-ended length of time my medical anxiety ejected me from dreamland so I could conjecture a bit about how often it might be that a novocaine injection hits and kills a vital nerve in the gum line... making it all but impossible to drink hot coffee in the future without dribbling it down the front of my shirt...

But I think, really, my subconscious was preparing me for the first quarter announcement, in 2024, of Leica's new generation of cameras. They will be priced more expensively, pound for pound, than an Hermes scarf or a Piaget watch. Only insane people will consider buying one. They'll be on backorder for at least a year. But after my visit to the dentist today I called Leica in Germany to see if I could get on a waiting list. The person answering the phone in Wetzlar was very, very confused....

Now slowly sipping lukewarm coffee while wearing an old, coffee--stained t-shirt, waiting to be able to feel the rest of my mouth. 

When someone builds a time machine I'm heading back in time to tell my college age self to brush and floss our teeth, maniacally, so later in life we can spend outrageous sums of hard US dollars on German cameras. Most needed for a happy retirement. Right? Of course, from what little I know about time travel I will risk disrupting the time/space continuum in some dangerous way. But ya gotta take a few risks if you wanna play with the new SL3. What's a little ripping of the fabric of time?

So. Teeth. Money. Tragic loss of potential capital for cameras. Oh the humanity!!!

And just a few days before my birthday....sniff....

19 comments:

Mark Bridgers said...

Can you have them put a little red dot on the crown?

JC said...

Since the Big Cheese here lives in Austin, and is posting (in part) about money, I thought I would drop this note:

Isabel [membership person at a Santa Fe County Club] recently attended a conference for Platinum Clubs and learned that the average Club cost to join is greater than $150,000. In Austin, TX, most Clubs’ cost to join exceeds $200,000.

That's a lotta Leicas.

Anonymous said...

Mind. Blown.

Bob

Roland Tanglao said...

neglected my teeth for 6 years when i lived in europe so i have some sense of what you are feeling :-) sadly i am younger but i have 2 implants and more than a few crowns

Kirk, Photographer/Writer said...

JC, I'd hate to tell you what my little, private swim club costs to join....

Eric Rose said...

So every two days your dentist brings in enough to by a Subaru. So that would be 182 full sized Subaru's and one go-cart. Obviously I'm poking fun as he has to pay rent, salaries, materials and taxes. So guess he could skip the go-cart.

One of my photo buddies is a retired oral surgeon. Years ago I did a website for him and he requested a crap load of info on it about how bad dental hygiene effects your body and even your brain. I learned way more than I ever wanted too but I sure changed my oral care habits!!

My buddy never worried about the cost of a new ULF lens, custom camera or the best digital gear. That aside he is one of the most generous people I have ever been fortunate enough to meet.

Interestingly his son does the same work in Austin.

Eric

PS I feel your pain Kirk.

JC said...

I have no idea which swim club you belong to, but it's not at the Platinum Club level. According to Google, the most expensive swim club in Austin is considered to be at the "Aluminum Foil" level.

Robert Roaldi said...

The most expensive club I ever joined cost $150 per year.

Craig Yuill said...

Coincidentally, I am going to my dentist this afternoon to have a permanent crown installed. All crowns I have are on teeth that previously had fillings and had a piece break off. Go figure. Fortunately, I have extended dental coverage. Sadly, I can only afford used, non-Leica kit lenses at the moment.

I had stopped going to see a dentist for several years. I started going again after researchers had discovered a link between bacteria in the mouth and heart disease. Regular dental checkups and cleanings help keep that bacteria in check, along with the usual brushing and flossing.

Richard said...

I believe it’s been shown experimentally (in humans) that anticipation of pain makes the actual pain worse. Just saying …

Kirk, Photographer/Writer said...

Richard, I think that's so true. If only we had better control over our own brains...

Kirk, Photographer/Writer said...

JC, overlooked is the fact that several golf-based country clubs ($$$) in the area also have masters swimming clubs available to their members.

My club is swimming and tennis only. The current cost to buy into a membership is around $30,000 and the yearly dues (not counting masters swim dues/separate) is about $1500. The masters swim program adds another $90 per month.

So, not the platinum membership of a full service country club but still a bite out of the wallet. You would have to supplement with membership in a full service (dining, golf, social, etc.) club if you needed/wanted those services.

But why anyone would pay $100,000+ for the opportunity to play golf is far beyond my understanding....

How much are you paying for your membership in a Santa Fe club?

karmagroovy said...

I'd never join a club that would allow a person like me to become a member. (Woody Allen)

JC said...

If you pay $100,000+ to join a club, you're not there for the golf. My club has two Jack Nicklaus designed courses, and about ten years back, the company that owned it went bankrupt. The members bought the club and offered new memberships at bargain levels. That's when I joined, at the same level as your club. To join now would cost me about three times what I paid. (And frankly, I wouldn't pay it.) I recently joined a second club which is $2400 a year, for golf only; an executive course, nine holes, par 31. And it suits me fine.

Edchromenose said...

Paying to be in an exclusive club whether for golf, swimming, pickleball or cornhole, is not really about getting exercise or tuning your game as JC noted, but more as karmagroovy observed, to gain or maintain contacts among the lumberjacks. For pure exercise there are munis or public facilities. Oddly one jogs on public trails instead of joining a club to chug along.

Now about that 100mm SSC, I love my 100 Chrome nose…as much for the looks as its excellent performance. Even my older FL 100 3.5 is excellent. The interesting thing about the 90-105 range, you can get superb optics for much less cost than the 85mms from the same brands, as if 85 were the magical or only focal length for pleasing portrait rendering. As for f1.4 or 1.8….phooey, as Nero Wolfe would say. Chances are one stops down to 2.8-5.6 or more to get a bit of depth of field. Sufficient lighting to use modest ISOs is usually there. Noteworthy also, in this focal range, are the macros, like the justly famous Bokina.

Jim said...

Happy birthday.

Kirk, Photographer/Writer said...

Thanks Jim.

Kirk, Photographer/Writer said...

"....Paying to be in an exclusive club whether for golf, swimming, pickleball or cornhole, is not really about getting exercise...."

Or, maybe well run program at a private club buys you entry to a world class facility. Access to former Olympians as coaches. A tight knit program of like-minded athletes. A schedule that fits your needs. Location, location, location. Maybe not in golf but in swimming...sure.

Roland Tanglao said...

happy birthday week :-) !

Post a Comment

We Moderate Comments, Yours might not appear right after you hit return. Be patient; I'm usually pretty quick on getting comments up there. Try not to hit return again and again.... If you disagree with something I've written please do so civilly. Be nice or see your comments fly into the void. Anonymous posters are not given special privileges or dispensation. If technology alone requires you to be anonymous your comments will likely pass through moderation if you "sign" them. A new note: Don't tell me how to write or how to blog! I can't make you comment but I don't want to wade through spam!

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.