M7 mint-minus help?

[John Camp]

The M7-baseplate thread on the Leica M forum reminded me of a question I've been meaning to ask. Several months ago I bought an M7 from a dealer (who shall go unnamed) who listed it as Mint-minus (mint-). The camera works fine as far as I can tell, and the top of the camera shows no wear at all. The baseplate, however, has numerous small dings (like if you pressed the tip of a nail against it, hard) and the paint is worn off all around the edges. The difference from the top is so striking that I even wondered if the baseplate might not be a replacement. The other thing is that the top of the camera has a black finish that is matte or semi-matte; the bottom plate is a shiny black. Does that sound like a replacement, or are they all like that? And what does mint-minus usually mean?

JC

 

[peter_n]

Sounds very much like a replacement John. The black paint baseplate is a bit of a giveaway. To me, mint- means you need to look for the minus bits with a magnifier, the thing should actually look brand new, which is what mint is supposed to mean.

 

[ghost]

for the community's sake, name names!

 

[Flyfisher Tom]

for the community's sake, name names!

..... concur 🙂

 

[JohnL]

M7 is black chrome which is not shiny at all. You may have a painted baseplate, possibly off an M6 - I think they fit OK. This is definitely not mint- per your description. Have you brought the matter up with the dealer?

 

[John Camp]

Well, this is embarrassing. After the comments above, I looked at the baseplate again, and couldn't believe that (a) it was so dinged up and (b) it was so shiny. Then I looked at the sides of the baseplate, and realized that the sides -- but not the bottom -- were matte, just like the top. Then I looked at the edges where the paint was worn off -- turns out the edges weren't actually worn. What I was looking at were the worn edges of a sticky transparent plastic protective sheet. I peeled off the protective sheet, which took a while because it came off in strips, and voila, I have an undinged matte baseplate. Glad I didn't name the dealer. Think I'll go stick my head in a hole for a while. 😛

JC

 

[ghost]

lol. you need to get your eyes checked!