Am I crazy?

[Andy Kibber]

You'll never recoup the money you sink into refurbishing an M3. If you're fine with that, carry on as planned. Also, a Konica Hexanon 50mm lens is at least as good as a current Summicron and it costs half as much. A couple of things to think about from someone who's been down this road before.

Anyhow, it's your money you can do as you wish. 🙂

 

[LeicaFan]

Wes,


Buy the M6 and get the MP finder upgrade from Youxin Ye. He can also replace the winding mechanism with a brass gear and it will just purr like an M3. I've just done this and although I backed into the repair I am very glad now and the finder upgrade makes me feel stupid I haven't done this sooner. The cost of the upgrades plus a very nice M6 body would be over a $1000 savings over the MP decision. Seems like a no-brainer to me. Enough green money to buy almost any Leica, CZ, or CV 50mm of your choosing.

Just my 2600.00 dollars worth of advice 🙂

Thanks for the advice. It is definitely something that I'll keep in mind if the right M6 pops up.

Quick question about the brass gear replacement that you mentioned... Is that related to the rough (if you would call it that) feeling of the film advance? It is supposed to be much better on the M3 and MP.

You'll never recoup the money you sink into refurbishing an M3. If you're fine with that, carry on as planned. Also, a Konica Hexanon 50mm lens is at least as good as a current Summicron and it costs half as much. A couple of things to think about from someone who's been down this road before.

Anyhow, it's your money you can do as you wish. 🙂

Funny that you mention the Hexanon. Just the other day I was reading about the Hexanon 50mm on Ken Rockwell's site. In short, he said that it was a rip off of the Summicron and that the build quality and optics are inferior.

Of course, I take anything that Ken Rockwell says with a grain of salt... 😀

 

[Andy Kibber]

Funny that you mention the Hexanon. Just the other day I was reading about the Hexanon 50mm on Ken Rockwell's site. In short, he said that it was a rip off of the Summicron and that the build quality and optics are inferior.

Of course, I take anything that Ken Rockwell says with a grain of salt... 😀

Yeah, I don't pay too much attention to KR.

I owned one copy of the Hexanon and used it almost exclusively for a couple of years. In my experience the Hexanon was optically as good as any other modern 50mm lens. The build quality was great -- better than the few Zeiss M and modern Leica lenses I've owned.

 

[Roninman]

Quick question about the brass gear replacement that you mentioned... Is that related to the rough (if you would call it that) feeling of the film advance? It is supposed to be much better on the M3 and MP.

Yes. See this thread for some great advice from Tom A.

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/for...88756&highlight=film+advance+gear+replacement

 

[Nomad Z]

I see absolutely no point in shelling out money to get an M3 refurbished so it's "like new". For one, it might not even be possible to do that without rechroming it, and I believe vulcanite is no longer available. Secondly, in a couple of years, it won't look like new anyway. Far better, in my view, to look for a nice, clean example and budget for a CLA and possible curtain replacement, should either/both be needed.

 

[LeicaFan]

Yes. See this thread for some great advice from Tom A.

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/for...88756&highlight=film+advance+gear+replacement

Great, thanks.

If I do buy an M6, I would definitely do the MP finder upgrade as well as the brass gear upgrade.

For purely cosmetic reasons, I would also be interested in the MP/M3 film advance lever. On flickr, I saw a picture of an M6 that had the MP/M3 film advance lever as well as the classic rewind knob/top plate. I can only imagine how much that cost.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vincentli/3761784143/in/photostream/