Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/10/26
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I'm no expert on the pricing of used Leicas, but from what I've seen it sounds like you paid a reasonably fair price for the condition. If the seal is intact this camera hasn't been serviced in probably 35 years, give or take a year. That's good news and bad news. The bad news is if you want to use it it should probably be overhauled. The good news is, it was never worked on by an incompetent person. A full overhaul will cost you about $250 or so. If, by "too much", you mean that you will have more invested than you could sell the camera for, the answer is probably yes. For $1200 you could probably find a newer body (M4-P for example) that has a few more features than the M2 and if it's been well-treated, might not need an overhaul for quite a few more years. I have seen late-model M6's for about $1500 or so in great condition, now that the price of new ones has dropped to under $2000. But if you are like me and happen to appreciate the quality of finish and construction that the M2 has, and love to use a 3-decades-old camera that functions like a dream, and plan on keeping it for another couple of decades...I vote for keeping it and having it overhauled. Doc