Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/02/10

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Subject: RE: [Leica] Leitz red dot shortage - sorry Walter, no sale!
From: "B. D. Colen" <bdcolen@earthlink.net>
Date: Wed, 10 Feb 1999 09:54:08 -0500

The title of my original posting made it clear that the message was
addressed to LUG members who are collectors. However, Walter S
Delesandri <walt@jove.acs.unt.edu> wrote:

>I'll soften the blow by offering $900 US for your 'violated and
molested'
camera....it'll be disassembled and used only for parts, of course,
to keep such a horrendously modified beast out of circulation........
and my friends wonder why I'd rather paint houses than go back into
camera repair..... :)

Sorry Walter, it's not for sale - as one of the last cameras to leave
the production line bearing the Leitz name, it's a prized possession.
(I love using classic Leitz-era cameras for work - it sometimes freaks
the clients!) As "fitting for a princess descended of so many royal
kings" she has now been refitted with what I'm told was the last Leitz
red badge available at Leica UK. The "cunning workman" who did the job
even removed the minute mark which his predecessor had made in the
front plate when removing the original badge - how's that for
craftsmanship? A camera-repair technician with that level of skill and
attention to detail is in no danger of having to earn his living as a
house painter!

Regards,

Doug Richardson

- ---------
This and the post by a LUGer asking whether the new snake skin platinum MG
is TTL or not, raise a couple of interesting points...

First - While I am not a collector, and - sorry - do believe that collecting
has something to do with the high prices for used equipment, it certainly
makes sense for a collector to be concerned about something like this red
dot problem. If I had a restored 1954 Thunderbird and took it in for work, I
wouldn't want to get it back and discover that it had, say, a 1958
carburetor stuck in it. And, frankly, I don't think there's any valid excuse
for what happened to the camera in question...

Then, however, comes the question of the snake's skin pillbox camera...IMHO
LUGers should boycott the sale of this atrocity. The more cameras like this
that Leica sells, the more they see this as their market, rather than
catering to working photogs...This doesn't commemorate anything...It would
be one thing if they were turning out numbered reproductions of specific
cameras and lenses from specific eras - clearly marked as repros. But to
simply take an M6, wrap it in the skin of a dead snake, stick what is
technically an obsolete lens on it, and charge sixteen cagillion dollars?
Come on...And by the way, if they've got the time and resources to plan and
pull off all these special editions, they've got the time and resources to
come up with an R8 motor drive that works....You all in the R camp are far
too kind to Father Leica when it comes to putting up with the nonsense you
get handed about why they can't provide you with some really basic
accessories for their vaunted machine....

B. D.