M6

[loon]

I am looking into purchasing a leica m6. i am in no hurry to acquire one so i am wondering... would it be wise to wait for the release of the Leica Digital M so that i could get one at a lower price? due to the many owners trying to upgrade to the md. or would there be no price difference, so i should buy one now. any insight would be great.

cheers,
Loon

 

[FrankS]

No one can accurately predict the future, so what you'll be getting are opinions.

 

[Stephan]

I doubt people will be selling m6's to buy the digital M.

 

[rover]

I would say take your time and keep your eyes open. I think if you wait, you can come across one for less than $1,100 (USD), maybe even less than $1,000, but I doubt that prices will drop when the $420,000 (or whatever it will cost) Digital M is introduced by Leica.

 

[SolaresLarrave]

I agree with all the above. I highly doubt Leica shooters will drop their M bodies in hot pursuit of a digital M... especially when it's going to cost a gazillion bucks (and probably will also be churned up in Anniversary models, à la carte, with trimmings and without, true to Leica tradition).

So, go get your M6 body.

Oh, also factor in a CLA in case it's extremely low priced. It may need it, and for some $300 you'll get a camera that will shoot away for about 30 years more.

 

[jaapv]

I will be selling my M6TTL.....(and keep my M3)

 

[ywenz]

I don't think you will see an immediate shift in ownership between these two products. Most likely, you wouldn't see too many people immediately jumping from the relatively cheapish M6 to the extravagantly expensive digi M.

I think I just said the same thing twice. 🙄

 

[celluloidprop]

The Digital M is rumored to come in over $5k. Given that it won't even be full-frame, I suspect it will be a slow-moving product. Prices will be unlikely to drop much at that time.

It seems to me that prices have held steady on used M6 bodies and actually gone up with used M7 bodies over the past couple of years (thanks to price increases on new bodies). There may be no better time than now to jump in. The cameras aren't getting any younger.

I'm not sure if it's sacrilege to say this on the Leica forum here (hope not), but if you're getting into RFs for the first time, it wouldn't be a terrible idea to look at the latest Cosina-Voigtlander bodies - the r2a and r3a bodies make for a nice alternative to a used M6 at half the price. Not as silky smooth, I'm sure - but $600 could buy a second (or better) lens for the kit.

 

[peter_n]

There was a really nice M6 over on PN a few days ago for <$1K. Probably gone by now tho. Keep your eyes peeled. 🙂

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

If I ever sell my M6 it'll be because I'm either upgrading to a 0.85 M6, or I'm in utter financial distress. But it won't be over a digital camera, not even Leica's.

 

[mad_boy]

Some thoughs on the subject.

There are some category of Leica owners:

1) Those who love photography and want to have the best rangefinder.
Typically these are users. Most use second hand equipment, and a large part will have in-house development kits.

2) Those who love the image/fame of the camera and have enough money.
Typically these buy the new models (Camera and lenses) and use them little and have a nice place to put them on display.

3) Collectors. These are persons with a lot of money that collect for collecting sake and will have one or two cameras that they actually use.

Now to your question, what will these do when the digital M appears.

The first group, will not jump on it directly because of the price. They will write about it (on this forum), dream about it but not directly buy one. Most will wait for them to appear used, and if they get one, they are unlikely to stop analog photography. If they have only 1 M-body they will stick to it. If they have more than one, they they may sell one, but only to raise the cash for the digital M. Those actually may want to sell their M6 or M7 because these have the highest valye.

The second group does not own a lot of m6's. They have traded them in for M7's or MP's when these came out. This group is likely to jump on the digital M's, but as said I doubt if they will release a lot of M6's.

The third group will not sell of M6's. It is the natrue of a collector to hold on to it.

So all in all, it is unlikely that there will be a massive bulk of m6's to flood the market if the digital M will come out. Most will come from the first group, but since these will not jump on it the release will be over a relatively large time frame.
I'd expect a flood of m7's and on the market (and are hoping for that 😀 ). This will bring the prices of used m7's down, which in turn may lower prices of M6's. But this will bot be by much. The current price difference is app. 500 USD, so even a hit in the M7 price by 300 USD (20%) will not affect the M6 price much.

mad_boy

 

[Ben Z]

would it be wise to wait for the release of the Leica Digital M

Nobody really knows when that will actually be, we only have a target date but historically with Leica that doesn't mean a whole lot. Leica keeps hiking the prices of the MP/M7 and lenses, excluding more and more customers from affording them, and we can't let the euphoria of the rumored Digital M cloud our memory of the fact Leica is teetering on the verge of bankruptcy...altogether the question I'd be asking is how long are you willing to postpone getting and using an M6 as a result of speculation about saving a few bucks?

due to the many owners trying to upgrade to the md.

"Trying" might be the operative word. I don't know how many will be successful. I know in my own case I'd not only have to sell my M6s but all my lenses too, just to buy the Digital M body (at its fairytale price of "under $5000") so what would be the point?