Buying a black M6 with brassing

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kniveswood

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Would you do it? Someone's selling locally a black M6 with heavy signs of usage. It is being priced at around US$1,050, which is quite a bit cheaper than mint ones in my area.

Is it wise to do so? Is it a steal? Or am I safer to go for a mint-looking one (in terms of it breaking down)?
 
wontonny said:
You can find a mint looking one for $200 more, i'd wait for one of those.
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Thanks. In my area, the trend seems like it would require at least $300 more for a mint-looking one. Would you still suggest a mint one? Or should I spend that $300 on a nice lens and just keep shooting? 🙂


I know this can be a very subjective question. But I just want to see what the majority feels. 🙂
 
Depends on just how worn it is. If it's just surface scratches and stuff, it's probably fine, but it takes a lot of beating the hell out of a Leica to tear it up, so it might have been through a lot.
 
Brassed black chrome? Hmmm... the thing with black chrome is that it doesn't brass easily.

However, if you can look at it more carefully... and determine that the dealer will give you a chance to return it if you're not happy, I'd go for it. The additional $300 for a minty one won't buy you a Leica lens, though.

Check meter condition (responsive with new battery), shutter curtains, shutter, light baffles (see to shine a flashlight through the curtains in case there are light leaks)... and that's all I can think of right now.

Good luck! 🙂
 
SolaresLarrave said:
Brassed black chrome? Hmmm... the thing with black chrome is that it doesn't brass easily.

However, if you can look at it more carefully... and determine that the dealer will give you a chance to return it if you're not happy, I'd go for it. The additional $300 for a minty one won't buy you a Leica lens, though.

Check meter condition (responsive with new battery), shutter curtains, shutter, light baffles (see to shine a flashlight through the curtains in case there are light leaks)... and that's all I can think of right now.

Good luck! 🙂
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Thanks for the suggestions. I'll have to read up in detail on what and how to check. Yeah the $300 alone can't buy a Leica lens, but it sure helps.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that the owner had sent it in for CLA. Does the CLA mean it is pretty safe from mechanical faults?
 
kniveswood said:
Thanks for the suggestions. I'll have to read up in detail on what and how to check. Yeah the $300 alone can't buy a Leica lens, but it sure helps.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that the owner had sent it in for CLA. Does the CLA mean it is pretty safe from mechanical faults?
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Brassing is okay. Dents, no.

$300 won't buy you the best of the best nor the fastest but it can buy you a slower lens that will still get the job done really well. Check out the 50 F3.5 Elmar. Many people use this lens and are very satisfied by it.

You should only trust that it got a CLA if he has documentation to prove it.. and even then, it still might have faults. If he dropped it really hard the day after it got CLA'd, it can have an affect. Always check a camera thoroughly before accepting it. Make it clear to the seller that you want to be able to put at least a roll or two of film through it to make sure everything is in working order. ETC ETC ETC.
 
sounds too much for a beater to me...quite a bit too much in fact for that money. I would only buy a beater for another $ 700 or so and even then with the docs to prove it had been seriously well serviced on a regular basis ie a pro who has used it well but had it perfectly maintained so the guts are perfect. Some people just abuse kit and think it makes them look like a pro.....

On the internet there are loads of minty ones about for that price.
 
SolaresLarrave said:
Brassed black chrome? Hmmm... the thing with black chrome is that it doesn't brass easily.
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More like impossible because the only M6 (non-TTL) with brass top plates are those in titanium finish. 😎

Leica's black chrome finish does wear faster than you might think. The discolouration looks much uglier than real paint wear. 🙁
 
magus is correct. i would go further however; for since you desire to know how the majority 'feels', i will tell you how i feel about a M6: and i did own one which i sold. the m6 is newer than Ms i prefer, and it is this 'more-recently-produced' quality which some seem to think makes it preferable to the earlier M5, 4 etc.. Now back to my feelings: I feel that this notion is horse-hockey-pucks. Of all the Ms I own I love my M3 the most and my M3 was made in 1958. Does this make it less preferable to a M6? For the type of shooting you do a M3 would be smashing...>5cm FL.. But you should seriously consider the M5 if you are wanting top notch recently produced bodies. The M5 is so cleverly designed; the wetzlar boys really scratched their collective heads and came up with a fabulous tool. when i contrast my m6 to my m5, the m6 was not in the same league in terms of build quality and functionality. and when you talk about style? just remember two words: no dot :>

those are my feelings. i hope that was helpful?
 
I have seen a lot of m6's that are reasonably clean (little brassing, not overly used or abused) for anywhere from 1100-1300, I would get one of those.
 
Is this the sort of marks yours has? This is from my recently acquired M6ttl which I picked up for an excellent price just because of such marks. The camera is no more than seven years old and takes excellent photos. I'm delighted to be able to have such a camera - besides, I'll probably add more marks than this to it over the coming years if past experience is anything to go by...
 

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No brassing for the vanilla M6

No brassing for the vanilla M6

Artorius said:
I thought the M6 and TTL were zinc. I didn't know the tops were brass. Am I wrong here?
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You're mostly correct ... like I said, only the Ti M6 (and very late M6 TTL) have brass top plates. The rest don't.
 
The black chrome won't "brass" but my M6 classic has gone a sort of matt dark green/black with age very noticeable when i look at it against my BP MP. M4 and M4-2 have gone the same way.
 
I think the term 'brassing' is being used here as a coverall for 'heavily worn', but I'd still give a badly worn M6 classic a wide berth (especially at that price).

While I think there's generally a load of bunk talked about the superiority of brass over zinc (if anyone can demonstrate to me that a brass top-plate takes better photographs I'll happily eat my own eyeballs), the one major issue with zinc is its tendency to oxidize. So any exposed zinc is only going to get way worse over time – the white zinc-oxide will tend to spread and lift the chrome plating as it goes. Not nice.
 
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