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Which film m's appreciate


PaulJohn

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There are lots of fake Leica Is, IIs and IIIs around, but I have never heard of a fake M

 

The screw thread ones are faked from cheap Russian copies and some are quite hard to tell apart from the real thing. Some are just plain awful.

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Fake Leicas?!

 

Andy Barton answered regarding the early model fakes, but I refer to chrome Ms that have been painted black. Most are represented fairly as re-paints, or painted-over, but there are some sellers who try to misrepresent or are simply self-deluded. Beware.

 

I understand if a person wants a chrome converted to a re-painted black. That's certainly rational. For me, however, having never, ever done a durable black paint for other things (motorcycle parts), I am just skeptical regarding durability - not that Leica ever made a durable black enamel body.

 

Black powder coat is another story and I still wonder (from my ignorance) if it would work better for Leica. Comments welcome!

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Black powder coat is another story and I still wonder (from my ignorance) if it would work better for Leica. Comments welcome!

 

 

Isn't the black 'paint' finish of the digital bodies a form of powder coating? It is certainly more durable than the enamel type paint used on the modern black paint film bodies like the MP, LHSA and Millennium M6TTL. That said I do prefer the latter finish which, whilst less durable than the coating of the digital bodies, is more resilient and seems to wear more organically than the old paint used on the original M2/3/4 bodies. I'm definitely a sucker for a black paint Leica but I'm not totally sold on the old paint that seems to blister and turn ugly pretty quickly.

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Ergh! Im thinking of buying an LTM from someone. How am i supposed to know if its a fake? LOL 

I mean when you look at ebay, how are you supposed to know other when they write something like "russian corp" etc?

 

There are several good sites showing how to identify fake Leicas. I am posting only one because it describes a fake M that the author claims was better than the real thing, and certainly more valuable.

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Here is a way to think about it, in 1960 an M3 was advertised body only at a price of $270. In 2016 money that would equate to $2,205. You can buy a used M3 today for around $500 or so? A loss of $1500 over 56 years for something that still works as well. Not bad in my book. How you want to value it is up to you.

 

 

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There are several good sites showing how to identify fake Leicas. I am posting only one because it describes a fake M that the author claims was better than the real thing, and certainly more valuable.

 

That is a humorous site!  The most entertaining fake seems to be the "Gold Luxus"

 

rusluxus.jpg

 

Ergh! Im thinking of buying an LTM from someone. How am i supposed to know if its a fake? LOL 

I mean when you look at ebay, how are you supposed to know other when they write something like "russian corp" etc?

 

My advice, if you're buying on eBay is to simply buy the seller, or go for the sellers with highest feedback as sellers.

 

One of the nicest M7s I was fortunate to find was on Popflash's eBay site.  I contacted them and found that their ratings were very conservative.  In fact, I took some skyline shots of Boston tonight, many years later.

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