Leica M6 out of sight

[Beemermark]

If you think the price for an M6 is bad check out the M4-P prices on eBay.

 

[Rayt]

The M6 is certainly outta sight! I have the Ti M6 and for some reason despite having the coveted brass top is unloved and is still priced at around $2k for a mint copy. The MP finder is better but I rarely experience the M6 patch flare. When the MP fetch crazy prices I’ll sell it.

 

[Skiff]

Leica must be working on an M6-2 at this point... 😉

They have already done that 17 years ago 😉. In 2003 they had introduced the Leica MP. That is your M6-2 🙂.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

I dont like using the "hipster" term in a pejorative way, many of us use Leicas and other brands, we buy and sell and not because of that someone is a "hipster".
About prices, I recently sold my Mamiya 7+65 for 2000€
I think prices are increasing because those who want to try or use film photography, they got tired of crappy cameras giving them headaches and a bad photography experience, so they go for the best, the best compacts are the only ones increasing, the best rangefinders and the best SLRs.
I'm not selling on eBay for all the scams we as sellers have to deal with but for the prices you have mentioned above I haven't found a new owner for my M3 on Facebook groups, you can still find M3's in ok condition for less than $1000

I have same town ex professional photo journalist and the owner of two photo studios and weeding photog with bunch of free lancers. All done on film.
Then digital came, he quit and used consumer DSLRs and later on added some fancy SLRs. According to him everyone who is using film these days is hipster. He has big authority over me. 🙂

 

[Out to Lunch]

Only the disconnected get hung-up on the term 'hipster'. It's a thing of the past. Get over it.

 

[Skiff]

I think it would be interesting to see what sales figures for 35mm film have been for the past 5 years.

Two of my film distributors have told me that the 35mm film demand has more than doubled (!) in the last five years.
Global film backorders are currently in the 20-30 million units range, mainly colour film.

They (the distributors) have problems to get enough film from Kodak and Fujifilm, therefore some film types are regularly sold out in the shops.
Some film manufacturers are already producing 35mm in three shifts per day. But even that is not enough to keep up with demand. Kodak therefore has announced to increase their capacity by investing in new, additional machinery to increase production. Fujifilm is probably doing the same, as they also have problems to keep up with demand.

Therefore it is not surprising at all that prices of used film cameras are increasing, because the demand for them is increasing.
But Leica has said that also the demand for their new MP and M-A film models is strongly increasing.
Leica has also started to sell film in some of their Leica stores.

The film renaissance is huge. And not only driven by young photographers, but also by middle-agers who have a kind of "digital fatigue".

Concerning the film market, you find lots of interesting info - often including news from the companies themselves - at photrio. RFF is unfortunately often "out of touch" with what is really going on in the film community.

 

[newsgrunt]

And yes, MF has shot up too. Mainly the sort of stuff people with beanie hats want to buy!

hahah, kinda true. a bit. most here are jonesing the Mamiya RB or 7

 

[jsrockit]

Maybe, they do go for those compact P&S a lot. But when pricing out a 60+ year old M3, you are more likely to price in a CLA than with a 20 year old M6.

Except some M6 cameras are 30+ years old too.

 

[jsrockit]

They have already done that 17 years ago 😉. In 2003 they had introduced the Leica MP. That is your M6-2 🙂.

Ok, then M6-3!!!!!!

 

[GarageBoy]

I just saw that Zi s go for $1700 or more! Good for the sellers if they can get it, but that camera is not worth it IMHO. I can see a $300-$400 dollar premium over an R2a, but not much more.

Charles had a good point earlier in the thread about the popularity of camera with buil-in meters. Let it continue o be that way! The Japanese girls and the hipsters can keep their M6 and leave M2-3-4 for the rest of us.

That was $1500 new back in 2006ish

It's funny all the sub 30 year old crowd that I see are using some sort of k1000 or an fd mount Canon and shoot either tri x or whatever consumer colog negative and get their film developed and scanned at the local NYC labs - very few really get into self scanning/self printing (or even play with focal lengths that are not 50mm) - I'm guessing many do become gear nerdy as prices imply - I'll collect contax (vintage and modern) and Canon L series FD lenses in the meantime, I guess

 

[David Hughes]

I once read that if you want to see the current and future trends among young adults, you need to go to Tokyo and look what young girls are wearing. I went to the fashionable Ginza district in Tokyo and couldn't count all the young girls that were wearing M6 around their necks. Truly stunning!

Did you see any of them taking photo's with their M6's? I wonder if they had film in them...


Regards, David

 

[CharlesDAMorgan]

They take film!?!

 

[CharlesDAMorgan]

hahah, kinda true. a bit. most here are jonesing the Mamiya RB or 7

It is faintly embarrassing to report that not merely do I have an RB67 but I also possess a beanie. At the tender age of 54 I think my chances of hipsterism are slipping daily and I have no plans for a beard, topknot (fat chance of that) or a tattoo...

 

[helen.HH]

It is faintly embarrassing to report that not merely do I have an RB67 but I also possess a beanie. At the tender age of 54 I think my chances of hipsterism are slipping daily and I have no plans for a beard, topknot (fat chance of that) or a tattoo...

Haha, too funny !

 

[css9450]

Did you see any of them taking photo's with their M6's? I wonder if they had film in them...

There was a photo posted here some years ago (at least I think it was on here), of a famous actress taking photos with her Leica. With the lens cap on! Betcha that was one disappointing roll of film when it came back from the lab... but at least the lens was safe from dust, fingerprints, sunflares, etc.

 

[Huss]

Another point why I think either M6 with dead meters wouldn’t be like the non metered Ms is because of their cut out framelines...

That’s why I bought an M-A over the MP, it has much better frame lines w no cut outs.
Essentially it is a new M4.

 

[Huss]

Will you be content with only those two shutter speeds?

They would be two glorious Leica shutter speeds vs zero on a broken Zi, G2, T3 etc etc so yes.
😀

 

[Huss]

There was a photo posted here some years ago (at least I think it was on here), of a famous actress taking photos with her Leica. With the lens cap on! Betcha that was one disappointing roll of film when it came back from the lab... but at least the lens was safe from dust, fingerprints, sunflares, etc.

I’ve done that a couple of times with my M3 when I first got it.
Now if I use it I leave the lens caps at home! Use a lens hood for protection instead.

 

[Huss]

The price of the M6 is going up probably because all the zinc vs. brass topics are drying up.

It is indeed a good camera, but so is the Zeiss Ikon Contessa fixed-lens RF camera I just bought for 30€, with a free 50mm f2.8 lens.

Personally I see no reason to get into the M mount so desperately whilst the alternatives are so cheap (and quite good, if one is willing to drop the Leica fetishism). For example, for less than 200€, one can probably get a Minolta AF camera plus 35-70mm/f4, 70-210mm/f4 and 50mm/f1.7 lenses. In my opinion, those lenses are of extraordinary values.

I have a Zeiss Ikon Contessa and while it is a cute little thing in no way, shape or form does it compare to any Leica. or Bessa R series. Or Zeiss Ikon ZM.
There is nothing fetishistic about Leicas (or any cameras) unless you make it so. Then that’s on you.
Use a Leica and you can understand why they are the last Herr standing in the 35mm RF world.

 

[Calzone]

It is faintly embarrassing to report that not merely do I have an RB67 but I also possess a beanie. At the tender age of 54 I think my chances of hipsterism are slipping daily and I have no plans for a beard, topknot (fat chance of that) or a tattoo...

Charles,

I sport a ponytail basically because I'm a self-proclaimed lazy slacker. More or less I only get a haircut (trim) about once a year. Pretty much I'm still a leftover hippy. Currently my hair reaches my nipples.

I have an arrogant chin beard and moustach for similar reasons mentioned above (I'm lazy).

I wear tight jeans because I'm kinda skinny. I have a single ended triode tube stereo (330B), and have retro bicycles not because I'm a collector, but because I retain old stuff I bought a long time ago.

I call myself a "Vintage Hipster" because my old retro ways for me always were cool and had my own style. Been shooting film since art school in the seventies. I'll be 62 in a few days. By no means am I a trendsetter, and perhaps only out of tradition I'm still deeply rooted in the past and the era of my time.

I saw a short film directed by Steven Spielberg about this guy who wanted to become rich. He was told as a young adult to round up all his belongings and go live in the desert. Many decades passed and he eventually rejoined society as an old man.

It turns out that everything he owned became valuable treasure and was revered by younger generations. First edition comic books, his childhood coin collection, his toys of his youth, his car...

In the end he did become a wealthy man. The moral of this story is being patient and knowing how supply and demand eventually leads to rarity and huge premiums.

Back on topic: I bought an unusual Wetzlar M6 that is highly unusual in that it has a Ti top plate over zinc, not brass top plate. It pre-dates the Ti M6 Classic by 5 years via serial number. Evidently a prototype. In 2008 I bought it for $1K.

It had a broken frame counter, but I shot it for about a year before sending it to Sherry for an overhaul. Had the MP finder upgrade, the 75mm frames removed. This camera now has been heavily used.

The early meters on Wetzlar M6's were not the most durable, but mine has passed the test of time. Also know that I owned a really nice black paint MP with 0.85 finder (al la carte) that I bought used. Did you know that the MP's meter meters down to -2 EV like a Gossen Luna Pro? Later M6's (Post-Wetzlar) had more sensitive metering also, but not the -2 EV of the modern MP.

Like stocks, one stratedgy is buy and hold it seems. I found better value in my Ti Wetzlar M6 Prototype, and I no longer own the 0.85 black paint MP.

Also know there is a lot of sentimental value, even though a camera and my other possessions are just objects, over time they somehow spiritually have become part of me.

Cal