Another project Leica fell in my lap - M2

[Mudman]

It seems I cannot help myself. I traded straight across for this sight unseen M2. It arrives in the mail next week, provided USPS does not go weird.

The good: It supposedly works! Rangefinder is bright and the shutter does what shutters do for the most part. Slow speeds are fast. Never had them go fast before, only slower, so that is interesting.

The bad: cosmetics as the original vulcanite is done for, and there is pitting to the chrome. The shutter button requires force to activate. That I find a bit worrisome.

That I have been told is pitting, not just gunk.

While DAG has my M3 for another week or two, I think this one will go to Youxin as it sounds like it is not nearly as beat up. Mostly cosmetic and a cla should do the trick, versus a full overhaul. I will have Youxin recover the camera too.

Not as bad on the back side.

The base looks clean too

Full shot of the top

Before getting it fixed up, I am in it under $450 with what I had in the gear I traded. I think that is darn good for an M2 nowadays. $220 plus shipping to Youxin should have it buttoned up and looking presentable, as long as it all goes well.

 

[splitimageview]

hopefully a good, contrasty rf patch.

nice deal!

 

[Deleted member 65559]

Well done... That's a nice one.... no big dents

 

[Mudman]

Another project Leica fell in my lap - M2

hopefully a good, contrasty rf patch.

nice deal!

I hope so! That was the biggest letdown of thr M3 that DAG has. Thankfully he says he can clean that one up. It will be one of the first things I check on the M2 before shipping to Youxin.

 

[Mudman]

Another project Leica fell in my lap - M2

It arrived! Moved quickly through the mail thankfully.

Good news: the chrome cleaned up fantastically. What the seller thought was pitting was grime. I can see why he thought so as it felt pebbled to the touch.

Before is up above, after is an hour with 6 q tips.

So that was a nice surprise. It has the normal MR meter scrapes, but so be it.

The rangefinder is sharp and contrasty, also welcome. There is definitely haze in there, but not terrible. I have seen far worse.

The bad:

Anything below 1/15th of a second does not work. Expected and noted by the seller.

The shutter release is definitely a tad sticky, but not crunchy as I expected. Just grease or dirt gumming it up, given the outside of the camera. Also noted by the seller, just not as bad as I thought.

The unexpected bad: there is definitely balsam separation to the viewfinder. How he did not see it I do not know. I saw it the first minute of unboxing the camera. It is not a deal breaker for me since I am in it so low, and it may never even be an issue. The rangefinder works and has good contrast. But I am bummed I was not told about it.

Overall, I am tempted to run a roll through it before sending to Youxin, but it should probably just go back in the mail to him asap.

 

[Mudman]

Another project Leica fell in my lap - M2

Please note this is Not For Sale. Just documenting getting it back in fighting shape. If or when I do sell, it would be in the classifieds.

Talked with Youxin, and he said not to worry about the edge separation. Deal with it if/when the finder actually blacks out. Good enough for me.

 

[benmacphoto]

Tyler is a great guy.
I got to see this M2 in person and knew whoever got it would be lucky to have it.
Hard to find a real user at a user price when it comes to Ms now.

 

[Mr_Flibble]

Nice! I'm a little green with envy 🙂

If the slow speeds are all fast than it's probably not engaging the slow speed escapement at all, and just running the curtains unretarded at 1/30th of a second. Might just be slow from lack of use and might come back to life with some exercise.

 

[Mudman]

Tyler is a great guy.
I got to see this M2 in person and knew whoever got it would be lucky to have it.
Hard to find a real user at a user price when it comes to Ms now.

Yeah, Tyler has been great to work with. He bought my Nikon S2 kit a while back, and got me the replacement back for my banged up M3.

He was very apologetic over the balsam separation and offered to reverse the transaction immediately, no quibbles. I appreciated that. Once I was able to get the gunk off of it and see that it was otherwise pretty dang clean, I decided to keep it. He's also going to replace a hood that I got from him that had a slight issue. So far no complaints with how he's handled things.

Did he tell ya where he found it? From the amount of hardened on gunk I thought it might be an actual barn find, lol.

Nice! I'm a little green with envy 🙂

If the slow speeds are all fast than it's probably not engaging the slow speed escapement at all, and just running the curtains unretarded at 1/30th of a second. Might just be slow from lack of use and might come back to life with some exercise.

I'm sure it's not engaging the slow speed escapement. There's a discernible difference between 1/15th and 1/30th, but anything below that isn't activating. I've found that to be pretty common with cameras that have sat and/or just never used those speeds.

The shutter button is just sticky. It activates fine for the first shot, but if you do multiple in a row it gets slower and slower to return and to fire. I'm sure it's just dried up grease & dirt mixed together.

If the viewfinder didn't have a touch of haze, I'd probably just use it as-is for a few months before sending it off. Can't remember the last time I shot slower than 1/15th of a second with my Leica. Indoors at a concert in NOLA about 8 years ago maybe?

Everything combined, I'd rather it get a clean bill of health from Youxin.

 

[martinb0820]

How are people shipping cameras these days?

I'd like to send my M2 (that I have had for 48 years, so it has a great deal of sentimental value) out for CLA/repair.

I have had problems lately with USPS, UPS and FedEx that include delivery to incorrect addresses, lost items, six week delays, etc. (I realize that all of them are working under great stress and at 100+% capacity under difficult conditions, and deserve a lot of credit for continuing to provide essential services.)

Any recommendations on the safest most reliable way to ship? Or should I wait until things settle down a little?

 

[Deleted member 65559]

How are people shipping cameras these days?

I'd like to send my M2 (that I have had for 48 years, so it has a great deal of sentimental value) out for CLA/repair.

I have had problems lately with USPS, UPS and FedEx that include delivery to incorrect addresses, lost items, six week delays, etc. (I realize that all of them are working under great stress and at 100+% capacity under difficult conditions, and deserve a lot of credit for continuing to provide essential services.)

Any recommendations on the safest most reliable way to ship? Or should I wait until things settle down a little?

Martin, although i've shipped cameras, my high dollar shipments have been guitars. My insurance agent tells me they process less claims with Fedex than the other carriers. My experience in the last 3 months....Fedex has been on time to the right address....(& of course signature required)

 

[splitimageview]

My choice: Fedex, or UPS, as if there is a problem, you can get someone on the phone immediately and get answers.

Not so with USPS, calls go to a call center and they promise to get back in touch. They don't always do so...

I say this after shipping thousands of packages, many of them Leica Ms, through all three of these shippers over the past few years.

 

[Mudman]

Fedex is great, but I usually just use usps since the local fedex is a 1.5 hr round trip drive.

 

[Mudman]

Another project Leica fell in my lap - M2

It is off to Youxin! And DAG should have my M3 buttoned up within the week.

 

[MrFujicaman]

It arrived! Moved quickly through the mail thankfully.

Good news: the chrome cleaned up fantastically. What the seller thought was pitting was grime. I can see why he thought so as it felt pebbled to the touch.

Before is up above, after is an hour with 6 q tips.

So that was a nice surprise. It has the normal MR meter scrapes, but so be it.

The rangefinder is sharp and contrasty, also welcome. There is definitely haze in there, but not terrible. I have seen far worse.

The bad:

Anything below 1/15th of a second does not work. Expected and noted by the seller.

The shutter release is definitely a tad sticky, but not crunchy as I expected. Just grease or dirt gumming it up, given the outside of the camera. Also noted by the seller, just not as bad as I thought.

The unexpected bad: there is definitely balsam separation to the viewfinder. How he did not see it I do not know. I saw it the first minute of unboxing the camera. It is not a deal breaker for me since I am in it so low, and it may never even be an issue. The rangefinder works and has good contrast. But I am bummed I was not told about it.

Overall, I am tempted to run a roll through it before sending to Youxin, but it should probably just go back in the mail to him asap.

Mudman, on really grimy cameras, I generally use a bunch of Q-tips and Everclear. It's safer than lighter fluid. I've had a few cameras that took over an hour and 20-30 Q-tips and a film can full of Everclear. Those cotton pads women use to remove makeup are also helpful.

 

[Mudman]

Mudman, on really grimy cameras, I generally use a bunch of Q-tips and Everclear. It's safer than lighter fluid. I've had a few cameras that took over an hour and 20-30 Q-tips and a film can full of Everclear. Those cotton pads women use to remove makeup are also helpful.

Hadn't heard of everclear before, thanks for that tip and the cotton pads too!

Hope you're well, haven't heard from ya in ages. Miss the popphoto forums and the crew that was there.

 

[MrFujicaman]

Everclear is also good for cleaning lenses-learned that from a camera repairman.

Mudman, tell YY not to recover the camera-order some "Grip-Tac" from Cameraleather.com and recover it yourself. I was amazed how much it improved camera handling when I put it on my M3 and my GAF L-ES ( a vastly underrated camera).

 

[ray*j*gun]

Do you mean Everclear the grain alcohol?

 

[MrFujicaman]

Yes-Everclear from the state store.

 

[ray*j*gun]

ok, thanks