Any other M4-2 Love out there?

[johntobias]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

I've had an M6, currently have a Q2 but my new(to me) M4-2 is just sublime...it handles like a dream and produces such nice results....seems a not very common model...why is this?, am I missing something??  especially as they are one of the most reasonably priced models around!

 

[Advertisement]

The Leica Q3 is available for pre-order at B&H Photo Video and Adorama

[a.noctilux]

Some older lovers, of M4-2 here

...and there

Not the loveliest M, but as old time user, M4-2 (I used to have some units) have the job done 😉.

With about 16,000 units, one of the rariest work horse ...

[Yaakov]

I really enjoy mine, it feels good in the hand and the weight it’s very well balanced , some dismiss them because they were not made in Germany and the materials used were not the same as in previous Ms but I could not care less I found them to be very reliable 

[adan]

On 8/28/2020 at 1:59 AM, johntobias said:

[M4-2] seems a not very common model...why is this?, am I missing something??  especially as they are one of the most reasonably priced models around!

The backstory is that in 1976, the Leitz board in Wetzlar decided to abandon the entire M system altogether. Because of rising production costs in Germany. That being the heyday of the 35mm SLR, and the M5 not selling well (23000 over 4 years). It seemed the day of the professional interchangeable-lens rangefinder was over.

However, Ernst Leitz Canada (ELCAN) was very dependent on designing and making........M lenses. So the ex-pat German management at ELCAN (the "Three Walters"*) put forward a case for reviving the classic, less-complex (unmetered) M4 camera, with other revisions to reduce costs (no self-timer, zinc top/bottom plates, stamped rather than engraved "Leitz" script on the top, "any color you want, so long as it's black chrome") with a couple of pro upgrades - hot shoe and steel motor connection. And with lower-cost Canadian labor. And they showed they had orders in hand for at least 9000.

Based on that, Leitz Canada was given permission to see what they could do. And thus the Canadian-made M4-2 was born in 1978.

With the camera revived, Dr. Walter Mandler of Leitz Canada immediately started upgrading most of the M lens designs, which hit the market in 1980 - 50 Summicron v.4, 21mm Elmarit-M, 35 Summicron-M v.4, compact 90mm Summicron v.3 - but also including the revolutionary 75mm Summilux-M and improved 28mm Elmarit-M v.3.

And those latter, especially the 75mm, meant new framelines were needed. Thus the M4-2 was replaced by the M4-P(rofessional) - identical to the M4-2 except for adding the new 75 and 28 framelines (and on most units, the new red-dot Leitz/Leica logo). The M4-P was available to pros-only for the 1980 Olympics and US political conventions, and then released to the general market in 1981, replacing the M4-2.

So the "pure" M4-2 was only in production across 3 years 1978-80, and part of that was ramping up production of the new design with new people in a different factory (thus only 2100 made the first year).

The M4-P went on to sell 22000 more copies of what was essentially still an M4-2 in all respects except the framelines available (M4-2s could get factory upgrades to the M4-P framelines). And the MD-2 - the finderless "technical" microscope/telescope version of the M4-2, sold another 2600 or so. Thus a total of over 40000 Canadian "revival M4s" were made between 1978 and 1987, being phased out for the metered M6 (with M4-P framelines) starting in 1984.

Anyway, an M4-2 was the first film Leica M I actually kept and used, starting in 2001. (Incidentally, from the first batch of 1978 - 1502xxx)

And also the one I kept longest, until finally selling it after I transitioned to M-digitals (2008-ish). I loved its plain "industrial/functional" finish and character. A tool, not jewelry. It also was the last Leica M to use the more-complete 90mm frameline "box," which I still miss dreadfully.

Some criticize(d) the M4-2 for not being as silky-smooth-feeling as the original Wetzlar M4s, or predecessor M3/2s, or just feeling/looking "cheap" generally. Possibly due to the motor-tolerant steel winding gears. Me, I just wanted a Leica box that input film and output pictures. It is brilliant at doing that.

On a side note, I can just barely remember walking into a St. Louis camera store in 1978 and noting a new M4-2 in the case. "Oh," I said, "I thought those had been discontinued." Just shows what Walter Kluck was up against - Leica rangefinders had really fallen off many photographers' radar at that point. I was carrying my super-fancy pro-system Canon F-1 at the time.

___________________

*Walter Kluck, general manager & marketing; Walter Mandler, head of optical design, Walter Bauer, head of production.

https://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-wiki.en/index.php/Walter_Kluck

Edited August 31, 2020 by adan

[FDS]

Leitz-Midland was also known as the 'Walter Works'!