Buying a used Leica m8 in the UK?

[chrishayton]

Hi, ive recently sold all my canon gear and have enough for a Leica m8 (once my 40d sells on ebay)
Im of course buying used and was wondering where in the UK I should be looking for one. I think ill buy from Stephens leica dealer in Manchester as its local and their nice guys but as Im a poor student Id like the best possible price.

(btw before anyone states that I claimed Im a poor student and wanting to buy an m8 doesnt add up, Ive saved and bought and sold other camera stuff at a profit for 3 year to fund this lol)

Ill be keeping an eye on the classifieds here but UK m8s are rare.

 

[minhhich]

if you get near London, Aperture at 44 Museum street near British Museum is a great place. You can even sit there having a coffee and look and dream about camera. If you see Richard and Patrick there, tell them Minh say hi

 

[wintoid]

I got mine from Red Dot, but Aperture have some very good prices on M8s, and apparently they have the longest warranty. I think a warranty is worthwhile.

 

[dws21uk]

Ffordes have 3 used M8 bodies at the moment and are an excellent lot to deal with in my experience. https://secure.ffordes.com/

After much deliberation I ended up going for an Olympus EP2 and that wonderful Panasonic 20mm f1.7 lens instead of an M8 though.

 

[chrishayton]

Ffordes have 3 used M8 bodies at the moment and are an excellent lot to deal with in my experience. https://secure.ffordes.com/

After much deliberation I ended up going for an Olympus EP2 and that wonderful Panasonic 20mm f1.7 lens instead of an M8 though.

Took my ages to find them but finally tried digital cameras section and found them lol. Great price on there. high on my list so far.
Aperture also had one for 1650 with low use, shame its now sold. ill keep an eye out there.
Cheers for replys so far

 

[Richard Marks]

There is a nice chrome one in Harrisons Cameras Sheffield at the moment. By the price I suspect it is an M8.2. Looks completely minty.
They are gentlemen and i trust them implicitly. They are also the UK's highest sellingPremier dealer.
Apperture as suggested above are very nice to deal with and quite generous on part ex if that is a factor. The only issue is they are not officially a Leica dealer and this affects the warranty a little if there was a problem.
Ffordes are also pretty reputable but no prospect of part ex, its all comission sales.

Best wishes
Richard

 

[GBR66]

My M8 came from Red Dot in London too - no problems apart from a couple of "battery out and reboot" in 16 months and a good price for a genuinely mint body. I have only used Ffordes for "unseen" purchases of lenses but again have no hesitation in recommending them based on my experience. Guy

 

[chrishayton]

Great. Gonna pop in to Stephens in manchester midweek when money clears from paypal and see what they have if not the plan is ill order the one off ffordes after i find out about warrenty

 

[Richard Marks]

Dear Chris
Any of the dealers mentioned are fine.
Just one thing to add, obviously condition is key, but some idea of the number of actuations may be helpful. This info is not that easy to get as you need to convert the EXIF info from an exposure from hexadecimal to a normal integer. The exposure counter number is NOT the number of exposures. Dealers can be abit hazy about this because its a bit of a hassle to get the info. How you interpret this info is also worthy of consideration. Obviously a high number implies the camera has worked hard but this could imply that its running nicely without faults!!

Best wishes

Richard

 

[Lord Fluff]

Red Dot are fine, but my impression is that they're used to dealing with rich City boys, so you can spend two grand there and they won't blink. Not really a problem as such, but they could do with upping their game in customer service IMHO when dealing with people for whom that's a big chunk of change.

Aperture are really good guys and I've bought most of my gear there over the years - their used Leica gear (I think inc M8) comes with a full 1 year warranty.

Ffordes are also excellent in my experience, as are Richard Caplan.

If your budget will stretch though, you can still find 'ex-demo' (ie brand new) M8 bodies for a little over 2 grand. This then gives you the Leica warranty, passport cover, two free IR filters etc. I went for that option as I need it to use professionally and the peace of mind was worth it for me, especially as this gets you one of the last M8 bodies with all the early wrinkles ironed out.

 

[cidereye]

Aperture are superb to deal with whether in person or by telephone.

Ffordes ditto, very overly honest appraisals I've found which is refreshing.

Peter Walnes is also a fantastic guy to deal with and bought my own M8 from him and like Aperture a "12 month" guarantee + 14 day no quibble full refund without having to give any reasons at all for a return. I do find though that as soon as gear is listed on his site as "expected soon" or "just arrived" it's sold so you have to be quick and he's had a number of mint M8's in of late. He described mine as mint/as new and true to his word my M8 was exactly as described and looked like it had come straight out of the factory.

http://www.peterwalnes.com/

.

 

[tim_c]

I bought a used M8 from RedDot in London a month ago for £1700. I absolutely love the thing. It was the usual deal with used M6/M7/M8 Leicas in the UK- listed as a E+ but was like new but with some dust here & there. Was previously owned by a doctor (his details were listed in on the passport guarantee) who had obviously never used the thing.

Only issue to watch out for is battery life as rechargable cells that have been stored for long periods of time and not charged tend to loose their capacity and OEM batteries are on back order in the UK at the moment. I get about 4 hours out of my battery if I remember to switch it off when I'm not taking pictures. I'm currently hunting for a decent supply of 3rd party batteries...

Make sure you get the UV/IR filters to fit your lenses though, the B+W ones are cheaper than Leica and work brilliantly.

Don't these minor details put you off though, its an amazing piece of kit.