English newspaper article.

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Here is an article about the German economy slowing down. The image at the top of the article is of a Leica M series body being constructed.
Now just about everything today is electrical. Three of my four Nikon cameras have died, not worth any repair cost. One a 35TI can not be repaired because they ran out of parts for it.
My Hasselblads and M3 and 6 Leicas still perform beautifully, virtually no electronics.
The M body in the article is literally pure electronics and seemingly over engineered in my opinion.
Anyhow here it is.....

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...sion-fears-business-confidence-europe-economy
 
Your Leica will lasts as long as spare parts available.
Some Leicas has some parts already not available.
On top of it and few people are in the world knew how to service Leica.
Only few, including Leica. Any many if not most of them are the old. Physically old people.

So, for now if you tend to actually use cameras, it is months; even year + to get Leica fixed.
While any of your Nikon could be replaced with working one under the proposed price of Leica CLA.

End of reality check.
 
Reality check 2.0:
There is also such a thing as environment... repairing broken stuff is more sustainable then buying new stuff which has shorter and shorter life spans.
The globalized economy doesn‘t like that, but resources are limited and there is only one earth. Off course repairing broken stuff shouldn‘t be more expensive that cheapo new stuff..
 
You didn’t get it. Once Leica Camera AG will stop supply parts for trained decades ago well aged technicians; it is over.
Leica M is not Zorki which you could fix without training and which has half a million copies for parts.
Global economy has nothing to do with it.
 
Ko.Fe. said:
You didn’t get it. Once Leica Camera AG will stop supply parts for trained decades ago well aged technicians; it is over.
Leica M is not Zorki which you could fix without training and which has half a million copies for parts.
Global economy has nothing to do with it.
Click to expand...

I think Ko.Fe has a valid point. At least three of the most often mentioned Leica repair people here in North America (Sherry, DAG, and YYe) must be getting on in their years. Do they have apprentices that they are training to take over the business and craft, for the inevitable day when they retire? Perhaps there will be a new crop of quality technicians, but I haven't heard of many. Not saying they aren't out there, but perhaps lesser known, and probably increasingly rare.

And not just for Leica cameras, likely a lot of other mechanical camera techs are a dying breed (if you'll pardon the figure of speech). Many reputable techs for other major brands have run out of parts for certain cameras, or will only repair certain models. Think Eric Hendrickson for Pentax, John Hermanson for Olympus, etc...
 
Where I'm at least two known Lieca technician went to another world. One was ready to close his business. For now here is only one old person left, who knows how to fix film M.
Nobody else. Here is no Leica service for entire Canada either. We have to ship it to those in USA now.

All of these talks how Leica will lasts comes from those who seats at dozen of them and rotates them or just exposing few rolls per year.
To me, who has film M for some years now as everyday camera it is totally different.
Anything which is in daily use needs periodical service. My sixteen years old bicycle and my M from seventies both needs it, because I use, ride every day.
Not sure how many this regular film users has left, either...
 
santino said:
Reality check 2.0:
There is also such a thing as environment... repairing broken stuff is more sustainable then buying new stuff which has shorter and shorter life spans.
The globalized economy doesn‘t like that, but resources are limited and there is only one earth. Off course repairing broken stuff shouldn‘t be more expensive that cheapo new stuff..
Click to expand...

I took Ko.Fe.’s Nikon comment to mean that there are large quantities of working used Nikon’s out there that are readily available. Those purchases would also serve as recycling. Maybe I misunderstood.
 
I read that article the other day and thought the photo was an odd choice to illustrate it as, by all accounts, Leica are doing quite well financially. I'm sure they're suffering some collateral damage in the trade spat between the US and China, but nothing like the German auto manufacturers.
 
Ko.Fe. said:
You didn’t get it. Once Leica Camera AG will stop supply parts for trained decades ago well aged technicians; it is over.
Leica M is not Zorki which you could fix without training and which has half a million copies for parts.
Global economy has nothing to do with it.
Click to expand...


Have you heard of Ye Youxin? I believe he is an accountant by trade. He taught himself Leica repair 15 years (?) ago and is recognized as a very good Leica repairman. There is nothing complicated in the non-electrical Leica bodies. There are lot's of good repair people out there. Repair persons become very well known, especially on the internet, because they've done it forever. You don't hear of all the repair shops out there because they lack word of mouth on the internet.
 
I'm no doctor (and don't want to appear presumptuous as there are a lot of things out of our control) but all of the times I've been to Youxin's home, he appears pretty healthy to me and I predict will be around for some time. I wouldn't worry about Youxin at least :).
 
As long as someone wants to fix a mechanical camera, there will be a way that camera will get fixed. These things were not gifted to us by German speaking aliens with technology known only to them. They were built by people and those of us who are curious will go on to repair cameras for the foreseeable future. I repaired the winding and transport mechanism in my Leica M4 with a Swiss army knife, a set of jewelers screwdrivers, a pair of channel locks and a rubber band. In Iraq. This while I had another full time job as a combat photographer in the Navy. I'm not worried about the future of camera repair.
Phil Forrest
 
Phil_F_NM said:
As long as someone wants to fix a mechanical camera, there will be a way that camera will get fixed. These things were not gifted to us by German speaking aliens with technology known only to them. They were built by people and those of us who are curious will go on to repair cameras for the foreseeable future. I repaired the winding and transport mechanism in my Leica M4 with a Swiss army knife, a set of jewelers screwdrivers, a pair of channel locks and a rubber band. In Iraq. This while I had another full time job as a combat photographer in the Navy. I'm not worried about the future of camera repair.
Phil Forrest
Click to expand...


Fully agree. I have some camera repair books I enjoy reading but I'm too much of a klutz to actually do something. Almost any mechanical camera can be repaired, even if the repair person has to "make" parts. Any camera with electronics are a different story. A small resistor, capacitor, etc that was commonly available a decade ago may not be available today. Their might be a replacement today with the correct electrical properties but a different physical size that won't fit. Then in any repair you have to add the repair person's labor cost which may make repairing an old camera or searching electrical catalogs impractical.


The top names in the industry are top names because they've been doing it for decades and doing it well. I think any camera shop with decent techs could repair a Leica screw mount or M model.
 
jmpgino said:
Here is an article about the German economy slowing down. The image at the top of the article is of a Leica M series body being constructed.
Now just about everything today is electrical. Three of my four Nikon cameras have died, not worth any repair cost. One a 35TI can not be repaired because they ran out of parts for it.
My Hasselblads and M3 and 6 Leicas still perform beautifully, virtually no electronics.
The M body in the article is literally pure electronics and seemingly over engineered in my opinion.
Anyhow here it is.....

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...sion-fears-business-confidence-europe-economy
Click to expand...

Don't they post "slowing down" articles few times per year?

I'd rather sell my film M and keep my film EOS. It is Canon, not Nikon and it just works. :)
 
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