I just bought an M2!

[Kozhe]

Hi everybody,

I´ve been looking for a M3 or M2 for weeks and finally won an auction at ebay for an M2 with an Elmar 50mm and meter for 400 pounds!

I´m not an expert (at all) but I think it´s a good price and the camera seems to be in great shape also. What do you think? 🙂

http://cgi.ebay.es/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140286596409

(My first Leica, btw...)

 

[Ronald_H]

Welcome to the club and congratulations!

Price seems good to me. Put a few rolls through it and let us know how it works. My M2 needed a CLA, shutter was way off. Cost a bit of money, but now it is good for a few decades.

Tom A. is expected soon in this thread, he's the world's No. 1 M2 fan 😉

 

[Tom A]

True, I am big fan of the M2! It looks like a good deal for an M2 with the 50f2.8. Case and manual/meter are really not worth that much - but the manual is fun to read. They spent a lot of time trying to fill it, compared to todays brick sized manuals for Digital SLR's!
The self timer lever is in an odd position! Sometimes they are stuck or after service the tech did not tension the spring properly. Doesn't matter if you are not going to use it anyway.
Shoot a couple of rolls and check the speeds. Just cycle through the speeds and aperture and all the exposures should be roughly equal. The 1/1000 is most likely off a bit - most mechanical cameras are unreliable (to a point) at 1/500 - 1/1000, but usually not enough to worry about.
The 50 mm f2.8 is a good lens, a bit flare prone without a hood and the "rotating" front means that you spend some time chasing down the aperture, but you soon get used to it. With the lens collapsed, the camera will slip into a "largish" pocket - which means you never have to leave home without it. A couple of rolls in the other pocket and you are all set to go.
The MR Meter needs a Mercury type battery, but you can find remade battery covers that allows for the use of silver oxide SR 76 - though you have to figure out the compensation for the voltage difference. Not critical for black/white, but more so with color slide film.
Have fun and resist getting an other lens for the first 50-100 rolls - then start looking for a 35!

 

[literiter]

The M2 is rather special. I had a very good M3 but sold it an bought a M4-P. The frame lines in the M3 didn't suit as well for me as those in the M2 and M4-P.

The only camera that has lasted as well as the M2 is my old Pentax Spotmatic.

Somewhere I even have the manual for the M2 and M4-P but a manual for something as simple as these cameras becomes immediately redundant. Like a manual for a spoon or a table lamp.

 

[helen.HH]

CONGRATS!!
I LUV mine.....
The 50 elmar is a Jewel....tiny, sharp & retro
I cherish my 35 Elmar

Best-H

 

[anoldsock]

Hey, congrats! I just got mine last Monday, and I think I might like it more than the MP.

 

[Debusti Paolo]

Hey, congrats! I just got mine last Monday, and I think I might like it more than the MP.

Do you like it more than your mp?😱WHY?????????????explain please!😀

 

[thomasw_]

Do you like it more than your mp?😱WHY?????????????explain please!😀

I have a BP MP that is very wonderful and functional, but it is not a M2 or M3. The clear and very bright VF of the MP in available light is so effective, and its meter in social circumstances is very discreet. But for most of my shooting I prefer to use my M2 with 35s and my M3 with 50s; these are the 2 focal lengths that account for over 95% of my images. As such, the singular M3 50mm frames or M2 35mm frames are so simple and perfect, in that one needs no more or less. The feel in use is another reason for needing no more or less; for they are so precise and smooth. I know a number of MP owners who also have M2s and they think much the same. For me the M2 is the ultimate user RF. And beyond all this practicality, the M2 is über-cool, too 😉

 

[Baldadash]

I have been looking at M2's for along time. I first started out shooting with a Nikon F2 and a 55/1.2. This was the only camera and lens combo I used. A few years later I got a non-ai 24/2.8. Several years ago I started to get into wider lenses when I started using DSLR's. I like the wider stuff so I picked up a R4M (because I knew I wouldn't have any issues mechanically with a new camera), a cv 35/2.5 pii and a cv 21/4. I'm not sure how a M2 compares to a R4M. I really like all my old inexpensive rangefinders, Argus, Balda, etc... mainly because the are over fifty years old and still work.
Part of my facination may be that I agree with thomasw when he says, "the M2 is uber-cool"
all that said...
What should I expect to pay (USD) for a good clean functioning M2?

 

[anoldsock]

Do you like it more than your mp?😱WHY?????????????explain please!😀

You know what...I don't really know. I went from an M6 to the MP only a few weeks ago, and I thought it would be the ultimate Leica. I had a 5D that was sitting in the corner of my room that I wasn't using for the last few months so I took the opportunity to trade it in for an M2 + 35mm Summilux, and you know what? I don't know which M body I prefer more. My mind tells me that the MP, with internal meter, bright frame lines and rf patch makes the ultimate rangefinder, but for some reason I gravitate towards the M2.

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that there's more history behind the M2. Maybe it's because the MP feels a little bit too polished. I've always felt that the Leica was something build to stand up to any job and should be in the field, whether it's behind enemy lines, hitch hiking across the US, or backpacking across Europe. In short, a Leica should be kind of warn and used, and not meant to sit in perpetuity behind a display case. The M2 definitely feels that way, and I suspect other M2 and M3 shooters feel the same way.

 

[maddoc]

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that there's more history behind the M2. Maybe it's because the MP feels a little bit too polished. I've always felt that the Leica was something build to stand up to any job.

... now that is interesting ! I owned an MP for half a year or so and felt the same way. The MP was a little bit to "perfect" (despite all the problems I had with mine) and I much more preferred the "underdog" M4-P over the MP. Now that I have an M2, I think it is the camera, the MP should have been ... some signs of wear, a small dent, a not to smooth film advance but an uncluttered VF, no disturbing LEDs and ~ 46 years of history.

Still, I have and like my M4-P but the M2 has something special. 🙂

 

[nobbylon]

Interesting regarding preference over MP. Not wishing to hijack an M2 thread with an M4 but as I have posted in another thread, I prefer my newly aquired M4 more than my old MP or M6's. I think the perceived history in these older M's has something to do with it and in 40 years maybe the MP's will feel the same!
As Tom says, just use a battery adapter which reduces the voltage down to 1.3 in the MR and use a silver oxide sr44 battery.

 

[mike kim]

I bought an M2 a year and a half ago because I couldn't afford a later model. I have to agree that it feels really smooth and sturdy... but I don't really get the comments about the "history" behind the camera. I just take photos. Does someone want to trade an MP for my M2? 😉 Just kidding. It would be hard to let this camera go, even though the MP is still my dream camera.

 

[johannielscom]

@ Lightspeed

@ Lightspeed

...Tom A. is expected soon in this thread, he's the world's No. 1 M2 fan 😉...

Within the hour! Remarkable! 😀 The man must have a radar set to M2's! 😛

 

[johannielscom]

...the Leica was something build to stand up to any job and should be in the field, whether it's behind enemy lines, hitch hiking across the US, or backpacking across Europe...

I'll do all that to your MP, no problem, PM me for postal address 😎

 

[Kozhe]

Great to see so many great comments about the M2. I hope mine won´t need an urgent cla. I also bought a Zorki 4 w/Jupiter 8 which is comming the same day, can´t wait to compare 😉

 

[kmerenkov]

I also bought a Zorki 4 w/Jupiter 8 which is comming the same day, can´t wait to compare 😉

I can't praise zorki but J8 is definitely great lens.
I don't know what to say about it besides that all my lenses sit in shelf and I shoot with J8 most of the time.
Enjoy your gear 🙂

 

[John Lawrence]

Congratulations - from the ebay pictures it looks like a nice set up. Have fun with it.

 

[photorat]

Without a doubt the best choice M! Welcome to the club. I am considering getting a M3 as a second body for use with my nikkor-P 8.5cm/2 portrait lens, only for the slightly increased focusing accuracy. Otherwise, the M2 has the best viewfinder (uncluttered!), especially if you wear glasses. M2 + 50 cron (and a 35 in the pocket and maybe a faster classic LTM 50/1.4 or 1.5) and a M3 + 90 whatever is the ideal kit for me at the moment. Enjoy and above all, post the pictures you get out of it!

 

[Tom A]

Within the hour! Remarkable! 😀 The man must have a radar set to M2's! 😛

Naah, no radar -just unseasonably cold outside so I was lingering at the computer. We better watch it with M2 praise - prices might go up! All these M2 posts is having me considering buying an other one or two. No idea why as I have plenty!