Leica mini 3

[rogerzilla]

Just bought one of these on impulse on fleaBay for 50 quid (dealers want 100). People seem to like them; does anyone here have one?

I normally use a Leica M3 and M2 but sometimes you don't want to take a legendary icon of manufacturing perfection to the pub 🙂. I have a 14.7MP digicam but I never get "artistic" pictures with digital; it's OK for eBay pack shots. I've just rediscovered my old Ricoh FF-9 compact, which is only let down by its lack of a proper long exposure capability.

 

[muf]

I have the mini zoom. Like it a lot. Frowned upon by the Leica purists, but the Leica Mini series is very capable. I was well pleased with the pictures from my zoom version. Read that the 3 is the best of the fixed focal mini's. I'm sure you'll be pleased. I've seen plenty of pics on the net that prove just how capable they are. In the arena they were meant to do battle in, I feel they are more than a match for most within the price range.

 

[Sonnar Brian]

I have the original Mini with the 35/3.5 Elmar lens. It's been a good camera, the lens is very good. Consider it the class of the Yashica T4.

 

[oftheherd]

I also have the Mini Zoom and like it for what it is. I have always liked it except recently when it didn't seem to do as well with the flash as I expected,

 

[jdriffill]

I have a couple of mini zooms -- not the mini 3 which seems much less common -- one from ebay, another from a camera fair. And they both work OK and are fun to use occasionally. There was a Z2X, which is a successor to the Mini Zoom, at the Photographica Fair in London last Sunday, but the seller wanted £80 for it, which was more than I was willing to pay.

 

[rogerzilla]

If I like it, there are still NOS Miniluxes available!

 

[Spavinaw]

Oh yeah. I've got one. It has that impressive red dot with the word Leica right there on the front of it. If that wasn't enough, it also takes pictures. What more could one want? If it's good enough for the Leica name, it's good enough for me!

 

[rogerzilla]

Hmm. ixnay on the Minilux. I've found out why there are NOS ones available - they fail after a random length of time with an E02 error, which costs as much to fix as a NOS Minilux does. Seems to just be a broken wire inside which can be re-soldered but no-one is interested in repairing them.

 

[muf]

Hmm. ixnay on the Minilux. I've found out why there are NOS ones available - they fail after a random length of time with an E02 error, which costs as much to fix as a NOS Minilux does. Seems to just be a broken wire inside which can be re-soldered but no-one is interested in repairing them.

I used to have a black minilux. Got rid due to the ticking timebomb that is the E02 error. I preferred the Contax T2 to it anyway, so off it went.

 

[Steve M.]

I saw this Mini 3 on the fleabay site. Neat that it has a Summar lens, but is that a good price?

http://cgi.ebay.com/Leica-mini-3-35...612377516?pt=Film_Cameras&hash=item2eb56df3ac

 

[rogerzilla]

Oh no. Maybe, since it's boxed, $120, but not the BIN price! They didn't cost much more than $100 when they were new, and most other film compacts are now worthless.

 

[OlliL]

Another reason, I'm unsure to continue participating at this forum.
Just got an offer fo an Mini III, fo below 50 bucks. 🙂

 

[rogerzilla]

Well, I shot a roll of Reala and sharpness is generally ho-hum; my Ricoh FF-9 has the edge, I reckon. Occasionally it's nicely sharp, which makes me think it has a fixed number of focusing steps like the Ricoh, so sometimes you're in the plane of exact focus and sometimers you're not. I can't really see the framelines, which are very badly illuminated, so I have sometimes lost bits of the subject. It also takes seven button presses to turn off the flash; on the Ricoh you just keep your finger on the flash so it doesn't flip up! On the positive side, it will do really long exposures and the wind-on is very quiet.

I will see what a roll of Neopan is like before trading it for a Minox 35GT.

 

[muf]

I will see what a roll of Neopan is like before trading it for a Minox 35GT.

You are very brave. The Minox GT has a reputation for the electronic shutter going kabam. On the other hand, the Minox ML has about the best reputation for reliability. But I have to confess that I am not brave enough to fork out for a Minox. I've got enough broken camera's already.