From Burnout to the Red Dot: My Journey to Becoming That Leica Boy
Self-Portrait: The Red Dot Fever
Hey everyone, welcome to the first post of That Leica Boy.
I’m finally doing this. After years of carrying cameras around and staring at screens until my eyes turned blur, I’ve decided to document my journey. If you’re here, you probably know the feeling—that itch to find the "perfect" gear that just clicks.
But before we talk about the Red Dot, we need to talk about how I almost gave up on photography entirely.
The Burnout is Real Sia
I’ve been in the game for more than 10 years. I’ve done it all—leisurely shooting on weekends and doing it professionally to pay the bills. But honestly? The "pro" life started to kill my soul a bit.
The constant 4:00 AM call times for make-up shoots, the late-night editing marathons, and that self-imposed pressure to make every shot "perfect" for the client... I burned out. Hard.
I thought switching to videography would fix it, but wah lao, that was even worse! More gear, more data, more headaches. I had developed my own style over the decade, but I stopped chasing it. My "hobby" became a "delivery service." I was just a factory producing photos, not a creative deepening my craft.
The TikTok Poison (The Fuji Phase)
After a 5-6 year hiatus where I barely touched a camera for fun, I was scrolling through TikTok (as we all do) and saw the Fujifilm X100V.
I saw people using these "Film Recipes," and my brain just went ting! Wait a minute... you mean I can get the look and feel I want straight out of the camera? No need to sit in front of Lightroom for hours?
The idea of just focusing on the shot and the composition without the "post-processing tax" was damn attractive. I started digging deep. I watched every single YouTube review and was camping on Carousell every day checking prices. I was even debating between the X100V and the older IV. I was this close to buying one.
The "Poison" Spread to Leica
I went down to a shop just to hold the Fuji and see if the "feel" was there. And that’s where the trouble started.
The sales person casually brought the Leica D-Lux 8 on display out for me to “compare”. I started asking about it, and he told me about the "cult following" and how it was selling like hotcakes. I went back to my drawing board. Now it was Fuji Recipes vs. the Leica Look.
When I saw the Leica samples online, it wasn't just a "click"—it was a whole soul-searching moment. The colors popped, yet there was this signature fade. It was contrasty but smooth. I don't know how to explain it, but it just spoke to me. Like, “Eh, this is what you’ve been looking for for 10 years, leh!”
The SBQ Heartbreak
I shifted my focus entirely to the D-Lux 8. I even went down to the Leica store at Leica Singapore, South Beach Quarter just to have a feel. I was ready to throw my money at them, but... Out of Stock. Sian.
But maybe that was a blessing in disguise. While waiting, I found out the deal-breaker: The D-Lux 8 doesn't let you fully customize or download all the Leica Looks (like "Leica Contemporary") through the app like the bigger brothers do.
That’s when I saw it. The Q3 and the Q3 43.
And well... that’s where things got really "expensive" and my life changed.
I’ll stop here for Part 1. In the next post, I’ll tell you how I ended up jumping down the deepest rabbit hole of my life and whether my wallet survived the "Red Dot" tax.
Catch you guys in the next one!