First batch MP...?

[250swb]

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7 hours ago, Studienkamera said:

Thanks for your feedback, @250swb . I meanwhile had a chance to read the excellent article, "A little piece of history - How the MP came to be" by Theodore Diehl in the February 2016 issue of "The Leica Society Magazine." The author refers to a MP-6 "pre-series" of less than 100 cameras from 2752xxx to 2752500. This seems close enough to Laney's "MP Nullseries" that I am willing to adopt Laney's number range below. I call these 89 camera the "MP-6 Nullseries." The author also mentions the range of 400 serial numbers allocated to the production of the Japanese MP-6: 2880101 to 2880500. The MP-6 blog article written by the "Japancamerahunter", linked earlier in this thread by @romualdo, claims that only about 250 of these allocated 400 MP-6 cameras were actually produced. But as of now, I have no proof for this claim. 

Based on the information I have collected so far, I am willing to assume the following table for the 2001/02 production for now (I divided the last batch of 2000 cameras into two batches of 1000 cameras each in line with Laney):

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All the serial numbers I have collected from the internet (incl. my own early MP) seem to be consistent with this table. Again, I am always interested in new information that helps me revising this table. Thanks.

That chart makes much more sense to me. Previously I could only put my camera (2880643) in a batch of 1000 (batch 2) but now it's firmly in batch 3.

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[romualdo]

On 4/16/2022 at 9:13 AM, Studienkamera said:

Thanks for your feedback, @250swb . I meanwhile had a chance to read the excellent article, "A little piece of history - How the MP came to be" by Theodore Diehl in the February 2016 issue of "The Leica Society Magazine." The author refers to a MP-6 "pre-series" of less than 100 cameras from 2752xxx to 2752500. This seems close enough to Laney's "MP Nullseries" that I am willing to adopt Laney's number range below. I call these 89 camera the "MP-6 Nullseries." The author also mentions the range of 400 serial numbers allocated to the production of the Japanese MP-6: 2880101 to 2880500. The MP-6 blog article written by the "Japancamerahunter", linked earlier in this thread by @romualdo, claims that only about 250 of these allocated 400 MP-6 cameras were actually produced. But as of now, I have no proof for this claim. 

Based on the information I have collected so far, I am willing to assume the following table for the 2001/02 production for now (I divided the last batch of 2000 cameras into two batches of 1000 cameras each in line with Laney):

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!

All the serial numbers I have collected from the internet (incl. my own early MP) seem to be consistent with this table. Again, I am always interested in new information that helps me revising this table. Thanks.

My MP serial # 2891091 (Batch 5 according to the chart above) has an M6 ISO dial

[Guest]

23 minutes ago, romualdo said:

My MP serial # 2891091 (Batch 5 according to the chart above) has an M6 ISO dial

Thanks, I noticed another one as well. Interesting, because my MP in the fourth batch already has the later dial. But these kind of surprises always happened with Leica, since at least the 1930s.

[TheBestSLIsALeicaflex]

On 5/8/2020 at 11:50 AM, _chris_lawrence said:

Hi everyone,

Recently Leica published a promotional video shot in Hong Kong of a collector of Leica cameras. One of his two prized cameras is an MP used by Magnum photographer Stuart Franklin. He added that it was from the first batch of MP's produced, in 2003.

I just purchased a used MP in great condition recently, and after seeing this became curious of when mine was actually produced. After checking... my MP with serial number 2889XXX is apparently from the very first batch produced in 2002, just after the MP-6 which was for Japan only.

I don't have much knowledge on what's considered "special" or ordinary by Leica terms or collector terms, but was just curious if anyone else had anything to chime in. Was this a stroke of a luck? Either way it doesn't change how I appreciate the camera, but thought it was ironic to find this out.

Best,
C

The first batch or so had the old M6 ISO dial.  I purchased a silver when they were first announced (SN 2890390), a few years later I acquired a second one, used, for a trip, this time black (SN 2880984).  Both had that old M6 dial.  Eventually sold both about ten years ago.  Ha, ha, they've appreciated nicely since then.  

Edited April 18, 2022 by TheBestSLIsALeicaflex

[Sunyforreal]

On 4/15/2022 at 7:08 AM, Studienkamera said:

This is what I have found about early MP (including MP-6) production in 2001 and 2002:

• Erwin Puts lists a larger number of serial numbers allocated to the first (2001) batch than Dennis Laney. All of these 2001 cameras seem to be MP-6 cameras. They might have been prototypes or as Laney calls them "MP Nullserie" models; at least one of these early MP-6 cameras is chrome. From my observation, all 275xxxx MP-6 models seem to fall into the narrower production interval reported by Laney.
• Erwin Puts and Dennis Laney agree on the serial numbers allocated to the 2002 production. The second (2002) batch seems to consist of both black MP-6 cameras and MP cameras with M6 ISO dial. MP cameras produced in the third (2002) batch used the simpler ISO dial found on all later MP models. 

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Is this correct? In other words, does anyone have an MP with M6 ISO dial that falls in the first or third batch or an MP with standard MP ISO dial that falls in the second batch? Thanks for any additional information.

I’ve got a “3rd batch” MP with the M6 ISO dial. 
 

Edit: or 5th batch actually lol. 

Edited April 18, 2022 by Sunyforreal

[romualdo]

pretty close (18 apart) from the previous post (Sunyforreal)

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Edited April 19, 2022 by romualdo

[lookbook]

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... I'm not going to read through all this now -
but maybe someone can say conclusively which of these cameras is said to have magical powers that affect image results?

[250swb]

1 hour ago, lookbook said:

... I'm not going to read through all this now -
but maybe someone can say conclusively which of these cameras is said to have magical powers that affect image results?

I think you are confusing magic with common sense. They have been around longer so logically they must have made more great photos than newer MP's, and this karma is stored in the early M6 style dial, and it's a feature Leica had to drop because of the expense when they introduced the new dial. It's all explained on page 301 of the MP (with M6 dial) manual.

[lookbook]

vor 12 Minuten schrieb 250swb:

I think you are confusing magic with common sense. They have been around longer so logically they must have made more great photos than newer MP's, and this karma is stored in the early M6 style dial, and it's a feature Leica had to drop because of the expense when they introduced the new dial. It's all explained on page 301 of the MP (with M6 dial) manual.

... you have overlooked the irony -
this page-long discussion cannot be explained with common sense.

[dtcmmr]

On 4/16/2022 at 1:13 AM, Studienkamera said:

Thanks for your feedback, @250swb . I meanwhile had a chance to read the excellent article, "A little piece of history - How the MP came to be" by Theodore Diehl in the February 2016 issue of "The Leica Society Magazine." The author refers to a MP-6 "pre-series" of less than 100 cameras from 2752xxx to 2752500. This seems close enough to Laney's "MP Nullseries" that I am willing to adopt Laney's number range below. I call these 89 camera the "MP-6 Nullseries." The author also mentions the range of 400 serial numbers allocated to the production of the Japanese MP-6: 2880101 to 2880500. The MP-6 blog article written by the "Japancamerahunter", linked earlier in this thread by @romualdo, claims that only about 250 of these allocated 400 MP-6 cameras were actually produced. But as of now, I have no proof for this claim. 

Based on the information I have collected so far, I am willing to assume the following table for the 2001/02 production for now (I divided the last batch of 2000 cameras into two batches of 1000 cameras each in line with Laney):

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!

All the serial numbers I have collected from the internet (incl. my own early MP) seem to be consistent with this table. Again, I am always interested in new information that helps me revising this table. Thanks.

Hello, my MP has serial number 289011x, so according to your table it would be in the 5th batch; however, it has the M6 iso dial, so something is incorrect...

[Guest]

4 hours ago, dtcmmr said:

Hello, my MP has serial number 289011x, so according to your table it would be in the 5th batch; however, it has the M6 iso dial, so something is incorrect...

Thanks. Yes, you are correct. I meanwhile I have collected at least 7 MPs with serial numbers in the last batch of the table that still have the M6 dial. The table certainly does not show the full picture. 

[Thibaut]

On 4/16/2022 at 7:13 AM, Guest said:

Thanks for your feedback, @250swb . I meanwhile had a chance to read the excellent article, "A little piece of history - How the MP came to be" by Theodore Diehl in the February 2016 issue of "The Leica Society Magazine." The author refers to a MP-6 "pre-series" of less than 100 cameras from 2752xxx to 2752500. This seems close enough to Laney's "MP Nullseries" that I am willing to adopt Laney's number range below. I call these 89 camera the "MP-6 Nullseries." The author also mentions the range of 400 serial numbers allocated to the production of the Japanese MP-6: 2880101 to 2880500. The MP-6 blog article written by the "Japancamerahunter", linked earlier in this thread by @romualdo, claims that only about 250 of these allocated 400 MP-6 cameras were actually produced. But as of now, I have no proof for this claim. 

Based on the information I have collected so far, I am willing to assume the following table for the 2001/02 production for now (I divided the last batch of 2000 cameras into two batches of 1000 cameras each in line with Laney):

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!

All the serial numbers I have collected from the internet (incl. my own early MP) seem to be consistent with this table. Again, I am always interested in new information that helps me revising this table. Thanks.

Well I was going to be convinced by the range of 2880101 - 2880500 as the SNs for Japan market MP-6, untill today, I see this 2880516 MP-6. This is so annoying…

[andybarton]

Leica have always been flexible with serial numbers.

TBH, there are far more things to get annoyed about than this, IMHO.