Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/07/24

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Subject: Re: M use
From: Detlef Beyer <d.beyer@hermes.de>
Date: Thu, 24 Jul 1997 12:51:18 +0200

>On 24/07/1997, Oddmund wrote:
>
>In France too, and it's a shame! I sold my last M6 when I had to pay $320
>for a new bottom plate (cover)... I was fed up with this decadence for
>quite a while. Then someone gave me a M4. Now I am toting around with this
>one and a couple of old lenses (with metal lens hoods). I hope this outfit
>will last for some time. If I feel that I am being plucked again, just
>because it is *Leica*, I don't know what I will do...
>
>I like the Leica M as well, but I am not religious about it. It is very
>good for what it is, a 35mm camera. Pretending that it may compete with MF
>and LF, as I have seen in some messages here, is carrying things too far, I
>think.
>
>My Contax cameras are also rather expensive, but they have been developed
>quite recently, and Kyocera needs to amortize them. Leica Camera are
>squeezing the juice out of a 50 years old lemon, riding upon a legend.
>Collectors are maintaining this system, and hundreds of Leica cameras are
>dying in show-cases. Thus a lot of young, talented photographers cannot
>access the Leica Karma. What a waste...
>

Hi Oddmund,

I totaly agree with you. When I travel around the world taking my M6 with
me, I allways cover the red Leica point with black tape. After doing this
nobody ever ask to talk about my camera. When I walk around showing the red
point I get in contact to several people a day. The dialog typicaly starts
with "ohh what a expensive camera" and as I wrote before: here is the main
reason for most of the Leica owner.

I went through several cameras over the years (Nikon, Leica, Linhof,
Rollei, Yashica, Plaubel...). After getting the first M6 I stop searching -
I found what I allways looked for. But using the camera and not putting it
to a showcase could get a very expensive task. My M6 went for three times
to repair. Allways the same problem: the shutter does not close completly
at low speeds. Now the M6 has the same problem again and I have to bring it
to repair again. Everytime I have to pay "Leica" repair prices and I have
to wait for some weeks to get the camera back. My bottom plate is scratched
from the use of the camera - if I would have to replace this little metal
plate for =A7320 I would get a little bit angry...

Cheers,

Detlef

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