Farewell, Q2

I bought my Leica Q2 in a very peculiar, troubled, uncertain time. It was the most extravagant thing I'd ever done relative to my life circumstances at any given point,  and I think that colored everything I thought about it, from my first week of "why did I mock the gods by presuming to buy this thing" to an ongoing sense of chilliness toward it over the ensuing years.

It was relatively discrete, or as discrete as I could make it with a piece of black gaffer's tape. It felt pretty good to hold because it was just so solid. The controls made enough sense that I had a period where I felt very fluid with it.

There were definitely annoyances, including an uncanny knack I developed for inadvertently putting it in video mode with my nose.

The cost of accessories was, predictably, astronomical.

The black gaffer tape couldn't protect me from being spotted by other "Leica People," some of whom seem chill and nice, and some of whom felt very intense feelings about being Leica People, which sort of deepened the sense I had that I had no business owning that thing.

I did take some pictures with it that I loved very much, but I don't think I fully appreciated it, and that probably contributed some to the sense of remove I felt toward it: It's no fun to walk around with an object that exercises a lingering sense of philistinism.

So, over time I used it less and less. Even though I got comfortable enough to get good pictures out of it, I felt more comfortable with my other cameras. As much as I try not to identify with my things too much, I really felt the ways in which I did not identify with that particular thing, I guess.

So I finally got around to finding a buyer.  I am using the proceeds for a few other photography-related things that I've wanted to do, but also a bit of compensatory and sober adulting to reflect a little bit of lesson learning.  In my heart of hearts, I know I could probably be doing just fine with that first X100S I bought years ago, or the X-T2 hanging out over the monitor in my office. I could proooobably be doing just fine with the Pentax K100D I had when Ben was still in preschool, but I'm also not made of stone.