the venerated quotes of eric bigelow
“Never leave meat on the table.”
“By any means. At any cost.”
Humanity disappoints. That is the nature of humanity. Our job is to break that cycle at all costs, and castigate, vilify and destroy all who attempt to refuse or resist this.
“Let our lives be full, Our choices noble, Our weapons sharp, Our hearts contented and our deaths meaningful. But above all, let us show no fear.”
“A nation’s greatness cannot exceed the greatness of those elected to lead it.”
A nation’s greatness cannot exceed the amount of violence her people are willing to perpetrate upon any tyrant, at any time.
“Don’t let our written language fool you. Mankind is as blunt and as brutal as any other ferocious animal.”
“We have confirmed that Flavor Flav got problems of his own.”
“At no time shall a man, when goverened by his lessers, do so without enmity.”
“Our virtue is not tolerance, but insistence upon excellence. Something closer to the opposite of tolerance.”
“The misanthropes are correct to hate us, for there is much to hate, and little to love. Each of us shall do our part to reverse the trend. That we are guaranteed to fail, is no reason not to try.”
Why I spent $8000 on a camera that doesn’t even have a removable lens system.
by Eric Bigelow
5 December 2025
In November of 2025, I bought a Leica Q3 43, and I paid just under $8000 for it, Brand new, full price, and at the Leica Store in Miami, Florida. I brought my daughter, my nephew and my sister along for the trip to Miami and we made a weekend out of it. Matilda wasn’t sure what to make of a retail store that offered you espresso or mineral water just for walking in, and this store didn’t even have a single item you could pick up and hold. Everything in there was behind glass, in wallset vaults with locked glass doors. Antiseptic. Minimalist. German. Utterly uninviting. Just like home. Nothing wasn’t either matte black, or glass. It looked more museum than store. The sales personnel were just as nice as could be. I had already paid via wire transfer, so I didn’t even have the experience of “purchasing” anything, in the more traditional sense. I simply walked in, showed my driver’s license, and, after an hour of setup, battery charge, firmware update and good conversation, I was on foot in Coral Gables, La Calle Ocho and Downtown Miami, taking photos of all the interesting things.
Why did I do this? First of all, this lens, that isn’t removable, is arguably the finest camera lens ever made by man. The F2 APO/Summicron ASPH is the absolute height of clarity, considered “one of the absolute best fixed prime lenses you can put on a camera in the modern age.” Absolutely shocking clarity. Incredible sharpness, color and contrast, and epic precision at the corners. If you can live with ONLY a 43mm focal length, you’ll never need another lens. That said, F2 isn’t “the fastest” lens ever made, but coming from an F1.7 on an APS-C sensor (Fuji X-Trans CMOS III), it’s on par with an F1.4 after conversion from crop sensor to full frame. I’ve never been happy with the shots I took with my Fuji camera when it was equipped with a telephoto (up to 120mm). When I shot interchangeable lenses, I *always* came home with the 35mm F1.7 attached, and the best photos of the day were always, *always* taken with *that* lens. There was not a single exception to this. Incidentally, 35mm on a crop sensor translates to a little over 50mm on a full frame. F stops and focal length, after conversion, fall right into desired tolerances.
The Q3 increased my capture palette to full frame (the sensors that yield this are never cheap). Once done, I’m basically shooting a 60mp monster that can be zoomed in to well beyond 120mm with zero detectable quality loss in picture. The focal length is just right, the lens speed is faster, the glass is clearer, more accurate, and closer to the natural view of the human eye (exactly, in fact). So if I don’t need to zoom (or can easily zoom in post) and the lens is already the best on the planet, why would I need to switch lenses? I decided six months before purchase that I wouldn’t ever need to. I’ve only owned the camera for a week as of this writing and have already taken it out on three major shoots, so far collecting exactly zero regrets over the purchase.
Once in a while, a man needs a Ferrari or a Rolex. Or a Ferrari and a Rolex. Usually he’s fine with a Toyota and a Seiko, but this was my time. Don’t hate. Celebrate.
MAINGATE.GROUP 