London Leica shops

ashfaque

ashfaque

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I'm in London now for some academic works. So during my free time, I plan to visit the following shops to try different M8 or M8.2 and lens combinations.

Leica Store Mayfair
34 Bruton Place, Mayfair, London, W1J 6NR

Aperture
44 Museum Street, London. WC1A 1LY - Tel. 020 7242 8681

R. G. Lewis
29 Southampton Row, London, WC1B 5HL, Tel 020 7242 2916

MW Classic Cameras Ltd
Leroy House, Unit 3K, 436 Essex Road, London N1 3QP, UK. Tel 020 7354 3767

Can you guys please recommend any other shops I can visit. Any quick tip(s) would be helpful as well. FYI, i'm sort of a new.

Thanks 🙂

Ash
 
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Just to clarify, Aperture is good for second hand, but doesn't carry any new stock, both red dot and Richard Caplan carry extensive stock of new and second hand, Richard Caplan's second hand stuff I've found to be slightly keener on price, but that's just my experience. I haven't been to the new store in Mayfair so can't comment on that.
 
ashfaque said:
Are they ok with haggling customers (for used stuffs)?
Click to expand...
If they're not and you don't like the price just walk. With dealers like Caplan & MW though their prices are usually pretty keen so you won't find much room for movement.

I always have a little barter at Aperture and generally almost always walk out very happy. You don't ask, you won't get.

Another dealer to bear in mind depending on what exactly you are looking for might be Peter Loy (Appointment only as are MW Classic so do phone first!), very good prices usually and extremely knowledgeable and amiable chap as well. 🙂
 
I found Reddot & Richard Caplan to be great. I don't speak too highly of the service and attitude I received from The Classic Camera, in I won't speak of them at all!
I've been to Leica Mayfair twice and they have great service and are more than willing to let you try different lenses on bodies. They don't carry used equipment so you may not find an M8 / 8.2

Haggling: a good friend of mine bought an M7 from Richard Caplan that was listed at £1299 and got £50 off - so he says (Ian - anybody who says they can get 140mph out of a standard Suzuki GS750 is a liar - hope your reading this 🙂.

Good luck and happy shopping.

Steve,
 
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a happy bunny

a happy bunny

Hi everyone

Thought I'd give you some updates, in case I'm doing something wrong and you can correct me or I can do better. Yesterday I managed to visit 2 places - Leica Mayfair store and Richard Kaplan. People in both places were really good.

First I went to Mayffair store 1st. Tried an M8.2* with 35 f1.5, f2 and f2.5. They were really friendly and honest. They quite rightly advised me to spend less money the body and invest in lenses. So then the guy gave me a list of some shops, some of which I already got from you.
* that M8.2 is the last one they have and is for 3950 pounds (demo, but in prestine condition). I was tempted of using my card. 🙂

Next I went to Richard Kaplan. Spoke to John, who was very friendly. He also kindly let me took some pictures outside. I'm definitely going back there for something.

I'll try visit reddot, classic camera and few others shops in the next few days.

I took a Class 10 card with me, to bring back those photos I took. My plan is to try different combinations and when I go back to my place, I'll do some post processing. I must say the images I took are, at best, modest. I haven't used RF for a very long time. I guess I need a lot of practice. It was cloudy though. But i enjoyed the rangefinder thingy.

I didn't touch M9 (for obvious reason)! I found both M8.2 and M8 are quite solidly built. IIRC, in the M8.2 the outmost frame line (don't know what's the correct term) is lot thicker than M8. Both were 0.72. I like the grip of M8.2. Bottom line my love for Leicas is now even stronger. 😀

I've up'd 2 images at flickr. The colour one is from M8 and the B&W is from .dng with the default greyscale conversion in LR3. iirc, they are taken using f4.5 with 28 summicron. Can anyone please tell me how to extract those info.

Thanks for reading my long & probably boring post.

Ash
 
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