Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/02/14
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]There was an article in Leica Fotografie a year or two ago that credited the manager of Leica's Midland, Ontario works with saving the M line after the M5 didn't exactly burn up the market. His name escapes me at the moment, but he apparently convinced the folks at Wetzlar to resume production of the M camera, in the form of the M4-2, from his plant. I believe the Midland plant had manfactured the last production runs of the M4 before they stopped making that model in 1975, so they already had all the tooling there. The M4-2 was enough of a success to allow the line to continue. Chuck Albertson Seattle, Wash. > -----Original Message----- > From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us > [mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us]On Behalf Of Mike > Durling > Sent: Monday, February 14, 2000 6:45 PM > To: Leica Users Group > Subject: [Leica] The End of the M5 > > > I know several of you are pretty familiar with Leica history. I > am curious > about the 1975-77 period. According to Steven Gandy's site M5 production > stopped in late 1974 or early 1975. The M4-2 was started in production in > 1977. > > Did Leica intend to end rangefinder camera production for good after the > market failure of the M5 only to rethink the decision? Can the gap be > explained by the backlog of M5s and the time it took to retool in Canada? > There were already M cameras made in Canada and apparently none were made > for most of 1975 and 76. > > Thanks to anyone who can shed some light on that period. > > Mike Durling > KD4KWB > http://www.widomaker.com/~durling/ > >