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Hey there, 

 

time for more M2's! Here is my christmas present for myself! Can't wait to shoot (my first film-M). Unfortunately no lense available as my M-P 240 is in service with all three lenses. 

 

Mary Christmas for all!

Steffen

 

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And even younger (not an original black paint). I've posted it up before but hey, it's good to keep the thread alive. The M2 has beaten the M5 and M Monochrom to become my absolute favourite M.

 

Best wishes all,

 

Colin

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My early black M2 has the button rewind, and it has a smoother advance than the M4-P, M4, M7 and certainly a better shutter button than the M9 which I can bear with a grudge. :) But the M9 is digital and an entirely different thing

 

The M2s, at least mine, are great machines.

.

Edited by pico
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Beautiful these black paint M2 bodies guys ;-)

 

I've been surfing the black M2s and find an enormous range of asking prices, from understandable to insanely high prices - up to $23,000 USD.  Very many are not original blacks, but repainted chrome bodies. Such is life, eh?

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I've been surfing the black M2s and find an enormous range of asking prices, from understandable to insanely high prices - up to $23,000 USD.  Very many are not original blacks, but repainted chrome bodies. Such is life, eh?

.

Black paint M2 prices are all over the place. The very high prices in the 5 digits you see are demanded for proven, genuine black paint bodies that left the factory as black paint bodies.

Then there are the black paint conversions, done either by the factory in Wetzlar or even by authorized dealers worldwide (Leica actually shipped unmarked, new black paint components to their authorized dealers, so they could perform the conversion at site including engraving the correct serial number of the silver chrome body and destroying the old silver chrome top deck as part of the conversion.

These official conversion bodies are a lot lower priced on the market then the ones that left the factory in black, yet much higher priced then "unofficial" conversions or even repaints.

 

Then there are the repaints, done by skilled craftsmen and at the very bottom there are the franken-cameras, cobbled together and repainted with a broom.

 

Generally black paint bodies are worth more when looking like new, being of a proven batch of rare factory cameras and maybe even having some connection with a famous person.

Ratty looking ones (the ones people liking black paint on brass generally cherish) are actually worth much less, if they have no famous person connection to them.

 

My body is a factory conversion (listed as of its birth in Wetzlar as a silver chrome body, yet with a genuine factory sealed black paint top deck with it's SN being engraved through the paint as would have been done on the blanket black paint decks when doing a conversion). It is not one of the 20K + USD bodies but nevertheless growing on me.

Yours, if the serial number is correct is among a 1958 batch of 500 genuine factory BP M2 bodies, so you likely shouldn't use this one other than winding it through it's speeds with white gloves once every few weeks on your visit to the bank vault ;-) It could very well be worth the equivalent of a new Volkswagen today.

 

Technically there is no difference between a franken-camera, a beautifully crafted repaint, a factory conversion or a genuine black paint factory camera - they are all M2 bodies and take images the same way, last the same way and work the same way.

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Yours, if the serial number is correct is among a 1958 batch of 500 genuine factory BP M2 bodies, so you likely shouldn't use this one other than winding it through it's speeds with white gloves once every few weeks on your visit to the bank vault ;-) It could very well be worth the equivalent of a new Volkswagen today.

 

Wow...no kidding. There is one from 1958 on Ebay right now for $35,000

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Yours, if the serial number is correct is among a 1958 batch of 500 genuine factory BP M2 bodies, so you likely shouldn't use this one other than winding it through it's speeds with white gloves once every few weeks on your visit to the bank vault ;-) It could very well be worth the equivalent of a new Volkswagen today.

 

:) A used diesel VW selling in Los Angeles, maybe. The collectible market is downright frightening to me. Any good fortune I've had was just dumb luck.

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I agree with Pico on this :

"The collectible market is downright frightening to me. Any good fortune I've had was just dumb luck."

 

Shot with a 1963 BP M2 and recent BP 50 Summicron Rigid (see my earlier posts):

 

 

 

23960219826_4ed7a85b89_b.jpg

Au Cap Sicié by JM__, on Flickr

Edited by jmanivelle
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