Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2012/10/14
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Well, one would expect 'middle class' to be country dependent, of course, but surely an M3 would not have been out of reach for a UK based middle class household? In 1955, shortly after the M3 was introduced, we lived in Germany where my late father was a management trainee (note: trainee, not exactly a high paying position) for a German multinational. After looking at the M3 he decided to buy a Contax IIIa instead as he felt the Contax metal shutter would hold up better in the Indian climate than the rubberised cloth of the Leica. In the event this was not the case, for the well documented shutter tape problems on the Contax rendered the camera unusable by the mid 60s. I remember that the Leica M3 with 50 summicron was just under 1100 DM new, while the Contax IIIa with the 2.0 Sonnar was about 50 DM cheaper. This was certainly within reach. The Retina IIIc was around DM 500. One more example, In '76 when I was a post-graduate student on a fellowship here in the USA, I got my first M3, a clean second hand example, complete with DR Summicron, eyes for DR, MR meter, ERC, lens shade, and, yes a UV filter, for $ 330. K'chrome was 4 bucks a roll them, with Kodak processing. BTW, around the same time a good friend who had just got his first job bought a new M4 with Summicron for around $ 800. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Frank Dernie" <Frank.Dernie at btinternet.com> To: "Leica Users Group" <lug at leica-users.org> Sent: Sunday, October 14, 2012 5:12 AM Subject: Re: [Leica] D800E pixel-peepers > Not in England they weren't! > FD > > On 13 Oct, 2012, at 23:38, A. Lal <alal at poly.edu> wrote: > >> Indeed. >> >> Back in the day the M2/M3 were cameras that middle class wage earners >> could afford to own without stressing the family budget.