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M-D (Type 262) production numbers?


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28 minutes ago, MLeica said:

that is weird, that my production number is repeated with person #7 in Japan

 

Not the same number, but one digit difference from yours.

"...4998695 has been noted (post #7) as being in Japan "

( have a look at post #7, in the poster list of serial numbers)

 

Strange indeed.

As side note, mine IS also one digit from one of the poster here: his is x xxx xx6 and mine is x xxx xx5 😉

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I'm so glad to find this forum, and had tons of fun reading through the threads written by the Leica users around the world. The pain of spending so many years learning English is finally justified. 

My M-D purchased in China has serial # of 4982402, which seems to be the earliest production found so far.  

It doesn't matter to me if Leica had produced 6k or 60k copies. I would keep this camera till thief do us apart. 

 

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Welcome here JonathanSi,

Indeed, the lowest number seen so far of M-D (typ262).

I only bet that production of M-D about few thousands made would make this screenless more and more scarse,

even with "replacement " by more "advanced" M10-D or M11-D to come.

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5142XXX - USA

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

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On 10/10/2020 at 12:57 PM, roydonian said:

If we were to ask Leica how many M-D were made, is there any reason why they should not tell us? 

None of us, here, can possibly answer that question knowing, 100% without a doubt, the actual answer - unless, of course, someone from Leica themselves decides to reply in an official capacity. Companies, it would seem, rarely like to put out production figures for 'regular' fare.

You could always write to Customer Support and inquire but I'd be surprised if a figure - even an approximate one - was forthcoming.

Philip.

 

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It was basically a rhetorical question, but I was hoping that someone from the company might read it and realise how silly it is to keep such information secret. The security of the West and the future prosperity of the Leica company will not be affected or downgraded by revealing how many M-D cameras were made.

Let's take an example of something from another field that could perhaps be considered sensitive - production numbers for the Lockheed Martin F-35 stealth fighter. One can imagine that the US Department of Defense might not be keen to see such figures released, while the numbers might be of great interest to the Russian military intelligence service. But according to Lockheed Martin, 131 were built last year, 91 the previous year, 66 the year before that....

There is a saying in the computer world "Information wants to be free". 

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1 hour ago, roydonian said:

It was basically a rhetorical question, but I was hoping that someone from the company might read it and realise how silly it is to keep such information secret. The security of the West and the future prosperity of the Leica company will not be affected or downgraded by revealing how many M-D cameras were made...

I agree with you, roydonian. It does seem a bit...if not quite 'silly' then perhaps a bit unneccessary and I cannot for the life of me work out the rationale unless it is to keep 'competitors' and customers in the dark in case the health of the company - sales-wise - might be of concern?

But Leica is hardly the only 'prestige' firm who adopt this approach. I'm a bit partial to certain models from the Gibson guitar company and they, too, choose not to release production numbers. No idea why not.

Perhaps it's all to do with the perceived value / attraction to collectors of the various "Limited Edition" versions as opposed to regular production cameras (and guitars)? After all; if there were 600 examples of the M Edition 60 produced and only 500 examples of the M-D Typ-262 produced...

It's been a long-ish time since I had a scan of the serial numbers posted here so it might be worthwhile having another shufti.

Philip.

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Just a little update.

Going through the thread here is the current state of affairs compiled from serial numbrers listed by those members who have listed the first five digits;

49824xx

49826xx

49830xx

49871xx

49875xx

49876xx

49986xx

49987xx

49988xx

51429xx

51501xx

51504xx

51505xx

51537xx

Assuming there to be 100 cameras per listed batch we are now at the 1,400 mark for unit production.

Philip.

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2 hours ago, boojum said:

48891xx

Wow!

I do doubt that you will have made a mistake, boojum, and apologies in advance for what might seem an impudent question but are you quite sure about the second digit? That's 93,000 camera-bodies earlier than the next oldest number recorded so far which does raise quite a few questions such as to exactly what happened / what bodies were produced between Ser. # 4 889 100 and # 4 982 400.

Philip.

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Thank you for checking.  I put on my eyeglasses, swiveled the camera around for a better view and got the same result. I will post a photo if you wish further proof.   48891xx

But I have to run right now and will be back later.

Are the numbers consecutive or do they jump?

Edited by boojum
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36 minutes ago, boojum said:

Thank you for checking.  I put on my eyeglasses, swiveled the camera around for a better view and got the same result.....Are the numbers consecutive or do they jump?

Thank you for taking the trouble to check, boojum; it is much appreciated!

Yes; they jump.

As far as I can understand it Leica has always allocated serial numbers to various cameras in production as a series of batches so, to take some examples from the list in post #55, there was a batch of M-D 262 cameras which (presumably) started 4 987 500 and another from 4 987 600 so each of these runs had (presumably) 100 examples made. The next known (here) run starts at 4 998 600 so there is a gap of 10,000 camera serial numbers (from 4 987 699 to 4 998 600) which (presumably) were allocated to different Leica camera models such as the M240 / M246 / M262 and so on.

The reason your serial is so interesting is that all the rest of the numbers listed are from batches usually only a few thousand apart. There is one break of 15,000 between two particular batches but yours is almost 100,000 earlier than the next known number. Nor has any other M-D 262 from the 48891xx batch ever been mentioned and that is to me, quite frankly, very interesting indeed!

Philip.

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