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OMG! The prices!


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13 minutes ago, Danner said:

I see this hesitancy in the market lately too.  IMHO, even people with plenty of money, are looking at their brokerage account value each week, and thinking now is maybe not the time to drop $5k-$10 on camera gear.

*Hell 

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Strange thing as prices of Leica.

More than forty years ago, I didn't (yet) have Leica and considered yearly increase in their prices, I said to myself,

Leica would never loose values.

So I took my first pay to buy one M4 second hand and some months credits (what I was able to afford, without any lens).

The M4 was "perfect M" for many years, then came M5/M6 and many others.

Each one bought was very expensive but when I sold after using a while, neither one has lost values.

 

When I think that my M6 from 1985 was about 3,000€ new, and I can (could?) sell about same price, that is crazy.

Crazier yet, replacements of M4 with M-A/MP (less user friendly M ) were good decision ( price of services increased even more).

 

Edited by a.noctilux
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8 hours ago, Tomsmac said:

Which of those two would you recommend and why if you don’t mind? Got me thinking…..thx

I may be the wrong person to ask. My philosophy of life and success (which has worked out very well for me) is - figure out what everyone else does/thinks/wants, and then choose the exact opposite. ;)

All things being equal, I'd recommend the M6. But "things" - including price - aren't all that equal at the moment.

Nor, of course, are preferences. I like using a 75mm lens a lot, so that's one factor that would put the M6 on the top of my list, followed by the M4-P - normally.

But I was intrigued by this weird M2 upgraded to M4 loading and framelines (thus a fairly unique "M2-4" Frankenstein camera) at a regular M2 price (or less, actually).

And it was available right then and there. I don't really enjoy shopping around for photo gear much - so I'll take "whatever the tide brings in," if it is interesting and comfortable and inexpensive and functional (pick any three). In this case with a 50 or 90 instead of a 75.

I'll just use my 75mm on my M10s - and what I use a film Leica for does not have to mirror what I use a digital Leica for. Two different mediums.

I also have a nice handheld, pocketable meter for my other film formats, so the lack of the M6's built-in meter was - for me - less of a factor.

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vor 12 Stunden schrieb LocalHero1953:

I wanted to find the smallest, quality, film camera. My wife has a Rollei B35, and despite the fact that it has survived for years and still works well, I look down my nose at it because of the unfashionable lens. I decided the Contax T2 looked as if it might suit my image, then looked at prices......... I was too hip to realise the Kardashians liked them....... I'll just stick with Barnacks.

The first version of the Contax T,

the one with manual focus and a rangefinder, which does a good job with the 2.8/38mm super-sharp Zeiss lens

is a good camera. 

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3 hours ago, adan said:

I may be the wrong person to ask. My philosophy of life and success (which has worked out very well for me) is - figure out what everyone else does/thinks/wants, and then choose the exact opposite. ;)

All things being equal, I'd recommend the M6. But "things" - including price - aren't all that equal at the moment.

Nor, of course, are preferences. I like using a 75mm lens a lot, so that's one factor that would put the M6 on the top of my list, followed by the M4-P - normally.

But I was intrigued by this weird M2 upgraded to M4 loading and framelines (thus a fairly unique "M2-4" Frankenstein camera) at a regular M2 price (or less, actually).

And it was available right then and there. I don't really enjoy shopping around for photo gear much - so I'll take "whatever the tide brings in," if it is interesting and comfortable and inexpensive and functional (pick any three). In this case with a 50 or 90 instead of a 75.

I'll just use my 75mm on my M10s - and what I use a film Leica for does not have to mirror what I use a digital Leica for. Two different mediums.

I also have a nice handheld, pocketable meter for my other film formats, so the lack of the M6's built-in meter was - for me - less of a factor.

I wasnt aware they could upgrade the loading, but the M2-r is amazing 

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Available at Red Dot Cameras today. A 40-year-old M4, or a brand new, with warranty M-A. £4100 - take your pick!

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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8 hours ago, jakontil said:

I wasnt aware they could upgrade the loading, but the M2-r is amazing 

In the mid 1960s the US military ordered a special run of M2s with the new loading system. When the US bought less than the amount ordered, Leica marked the M2-R and sold them to the general public at the same time it introduced the M4. Also, any competent technician can upgrade a spool loading M to the rapid load.

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6 minutes ago, colint544 said:

Available at Red Dot Cameras today. A 40-year-old M4, or a brand new, with warranty M-A. £4100 - take your pick!

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!

Regarding the M4, you made my point perfectly.

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10 minutes ago, madNbad said:

There is a Craigslist posting in Portland, Oregon with an original black paint M4 for fifteen thousand usd. There haven’t been any takers.

As long as we're making delusional offers to sell, I have a mint used Pentel EnerGel blue ink with 0.7mm ball tip that I'd be willing to let go for a third of that.

Edited by Herr Barnack
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5 minutes ago, Herr Barnack said:

As long as we're making delusional offers to sell, I have a mint used Pentel EnerGel blue ink with 0.7mm ball tip that I'd be willing to let go for a third of that.

Only if you throw in an extra cartridge!

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Am 14.5.2022 um 03:45 schrieb Tomsmac:

Started looking for a good M6 several months ago. The ballpark then was around $1800. The average now is $3200. Yeah, I get the free market but geeezzzz. This has got to burst.

‘On the bright side I don’t have to look for a house although in a few months it may be less expensive then a good p.72 TTL.

Especially when you consider that it's virtually unrepairable if the electronics fail. Then you have an M4-P. .....

 

Or a MP. Or ......

Edited by analog-digital
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On 5/13/2022 at 8:01 PM, Capuccino-Muffin said:

I always wondered what makes people start looking for a M6? I’d understand a M2, M3, M4, M5, MP, M-A, M7... but never understood why M6.

We love zinc bubbles.

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2 hours ago, colint544 said:

Available at Red Dot Cameras today. A 40-year-old M4, or a brand new, with warranty M-A. £4100 - take your pick!

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!

They also have the MP but sadly Leica US will not cover the warranty.

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I just paid $1800 all in for a single stroke, 1960 vintage, M3.  It's in very nice condition cosmetically with excellent rangefinder optics, but it turned out it could use a CLA which will add another $300 or so to the cost.  It's with Sherry Krauter at the moment, hopefully ready sometime this week.  Maybe I overpaid, but after some weeks of looking it's about the best I could find.

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15 minutes ago, DoubleE said:

I just paid $1800 all in for a single stroke, 1960 vintage, M3.  It's in very nice condition cosmetically with excellent rangefinder optics, but it turned out it could use a CLA which will add another $300 or so to the cost.  It's with Sherry Krauter at the moment, hopefully ready sometime this week.  Maybe I overpaid, but after some weeks of looking it's about the best I could find.

If you’re happy with your purchase and even happier when it returns from Sherry, then you didn’t over pay. Have fun with the M3 and welcome to the forum.

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4 hours ago, madNbad said:

Also, any competent technician can upgrade a spool loading M to the rapid load.

Indeed. Mine was clearly done outside of Leica's hands by a (competent) independent tech, sometime during its 60-year life. No M2-R markings, and it also has the M4 framelines installed (includes 135mm).

As madNbad knows (but others may not): outside of a few oddities in the M3 and M5, most parts in a film Leica M have stayed so similar ever since 1954/1957 that they can be swapped around without much problem. Part of what allows them to keep running for so long.

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1 hour ago, DoubleE said:

Maybe I overpaid, but after some weeks of looking it's about the best I could find.

That's about the going rate for one in Ex condition these days, so what you paid isn't far off.  They've probably nearly doubled in price in the past 3-4 years.   

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