for those who have an m4-2.....

N

northeast16th

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i'm wondering what you think of it. i'm thinking about getting one. i wear glasses, and i'll shoot with a 50mm and maybe a 35 down the road.

i want to learn to shoot without a meter by intuition, so no worries that the m4-2 doesn't have one.

any impressions would be greatly appreciated. thanks in advance!
 
M4-2

M4-2

I had one for years. With a Canadian Summicron 2/50 and an MR4. Unfortunatly I had to sell it. Very nice camera. Dispite what was said about it. I wear glass and the 50 frame is just fine. Very more comfortable than M4-P and M6 because there is no 75 frame. Even the 35 is ok. If you find one, go for it.
 
The problems surely must have all been fixed by now. My flash sync went out under original warrantee, but Leica fixed it and installed 75mm frame lines free.
 
I just got one recently, but like it a lot. I did add a Leica MR meter though, since I've been using it indoors/after sunset quite a bit and I'm not too good at eyeballing exposures there...

The 35mm framelines might be a little hard to see depending on what type of glasses you were. 50 I would not worry about.
 
Hi,
Great camera, I had a late model which I traded for an M6, big mistake! Don't take too much notice of the hype of lower quality that seems to play on people's minds, you'll be hard put to notice it in the real practice of taking great shots. Unless you are in the habit of stripping them down it's just a black M4 with no self timer. The first batch had problems which caused some anxieties, susequent batches and the M4-P are generally well regarded.

Best,

normclarke.
 
I bought my M4-2 used in '86 and am still shooting a lot with it, no complains!

When I bought it I bought the Canadian 50 Cron too, plus a MR4 meter, all are functioning well after all these years.

I think the M4-2 are the best buy around, if medium focal length you are adhere to, the VF/RF are just great for all round shooting, not like those that comes with the 50mm frame no more than 40% of the VF.

Go get one and start shooting !

Regards,

Hermann
 
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normclarke said:
Hi,
Great camera, I had a late model which I traded for an M6, big mistake! Don't take too much notice of the hype of lower quality that seems to play on people's minds, you'll be hard put to notice it in the real practice of taking great shots. Unless you are in the habit of stripping them down it's just a black M4 with no self timer. The first batch had problems which caused some anxieties, susequent batches and the M4-P are generally well regarded.

Best,

normclarke.
Click to expand...

The upside to the poor quality rep is that they can usually be had for a nice price. :) I paid $400.01 for my M4-2 and another $80 for Youxin to do a CLA on it. Good luck finding a sub-$500 CLA'd M body of any other sort!
 
I've had mine for several years and use it a lot. I can see the 35mm frame with glasses. A 40mm Summicron-C works really well on my M4-2.
 
cmedin said:
The upside to the poor quality rep is that they can usually be had for a nice price. :) I paid $400.01 for my M4-2 and another $80 for Youxin to do a CLA on it. Good luck finding a sub-$500 CLA'd M body of any other sort!
Click to expand...

it might be a bit off-topic, but I got my good ole M2, which was CLA'd not too long before I bought it (even got new levers and stuff), for 250€ (~360$) on ebay :D
as I see it, user M2's in perfect working order usually go for less than the M4-2 and are therefore (given the better built quality as well) the biggest bang for the buck, imho.
if you want a not-so-expensive black body though, the M4-2 is the way to go.
 
I've been using my M4-2 for 30 years now.
Never had more troubles with it than with M3, M2 or M4...
Great M camera for general use.
My choice of body depends mostly on the lens that I feel like using: M3 for 90mm and 135mm, M4-2 and M2 for 35mm, and so on.
I never thought about the M4-2 as a "cheaper" or "not so worthy camera"...
When I think about it, I maybe even used it more often than the other models.
That said, the engravings and finishing look better on the other versions (I find the M4 to be the "nicest" Leica!).
As a picture taking apparatus: nothing wrong with it!
Greeteings,
Rui
AL-MOST-LY PHOTOGRAPHY
 
I'm the newcomer here... Mine has been in my possession since August 08 only.

Now... there's a serial # cutoff (allegedly) for the bodies riddled with problems (apparently, frame counter; never heard of anything else), and it's somewhere in the 150,000. My camera is a 152,000 so I think I'm "safe".

It is just an M6 without meter or an M4 without self-timer. And the 35mm framelines are perfectly visible when you wear glasses. Just make sure to get something for around the metal eyepiece, because it may scratch your glasses. Otherwise, it's the least expensive Leica I've ever got. It only costed me about $866, along with a T-E 90mm f2.8 which I sold (I have a 'cron 90 already).

As for exposures... as long as you remember the values for certain types of light, you can always play around them without so much as glancing at a meter. Use only print film and you'll be always in the safe zone.

Good luck and have fun shopping! :)
 
In the early 70's I had a couple of M4's (consecutive serial numbers; didn't think about collectors at that time) and sold one to get an M5 when those came out. That was a mistake. Nice meter, liked the shutter speed dial and the readout, but hated the bottom rewind and the clunky wind necessary for the meter. The three lug version hadn't come out yet and I didn't like the way the camera hung and got in the way of other equipment either.

So when the M4-2 was announced, I got one and a winder. About a month later I was standing on some boulders in the mountains. I had already had the camera back twice (Leica had a service centre here in Vancouver at the time) for adjustments. In any case, I was shooting with the other M4 and had the M4-2 on a strap over my shoulder, when I suddenly felt the strap give way and the camera bounced and crashed on the rocks. One of the strap lugs had come out of the body and both the camera and the attached 35 Summicron were trashed. I got a new camera and lens from Leica, but sold the body immediately (along with the horrible winder) and got another M4 body again. I stayed with those and didn't get another M body until 1990.

It was a very early M4-2, but it was the worst built M body I've had without a doubt. I'm sure all bodies of that batch have by now been serviced to the point of respectability or have self destructed.
 
I was looking for an M4-2, but an M4-P BGN grade popped up at KEH at a good price, so I ended up with an M4-P. Both of these seem to sell at a discount, and they're perfectly good users.

+1 for the DAG platic cover. Also, I can see the 35 frame with glasses, well enough anyway.
 
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