Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/06/02

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Subject: [Leica] number of black SL's made
From: "Patrick G. Sobalvarro" <pgs@sobalvarro.org>
Date: Tue, 02 Jun 1998 12:13:11 -0700

I've been thinking of getting another SL body, not because I need one,
but because I'm a simple tool of our consumption-oriented capitalist
society.  (Please.  You didn't think I was going to attempt to
rationalize this, did you?)

In keeping with my usual practice (I use body color as a quick reminder
of what film is in which camera when I'm out making photographs), since
I already have a silver chrome SL, I thought of getting a black SL. 
They show up often enough in photographs in back issues of Leica
Fotografie.

However, to my distress, I find that there aren't so many up for sale as
I might like, and those that are for sale seem to cost about 30% more
than silver chrome bodies.  I wondered why this might be.  Neither
Rogliatti nor Sartorius give numbers of black SL's versus silver chrome
SL's.  Any idea where I might find this information?  If you were buying
Leicas in the late sixties and early seventies do you remember if black
chrome Leicaflex SL's were more rare than silver chrome ones?  (I was
not in the market in those days, because my disposable income was
usually exhausted after the ice cream truck made its rounds of our
neighborhood.)

- -Patrick

P.S. About six months ago I was offered a beat-up SL MOT at a fire-sale
price.  Fool that I am, I didn't buy it.  Now I have something to feel
glum about when I go to bed each night.