MP Production in '12

[Keith]

I have to admit it... if I was completely committed to film, I think I would buy a MP. To me, it is just the ultimate Leica. However, the smarter move for me would just be to go M6. I'm not a fan of Leicas without meters....so the MP seems like an old school Leica with a meter.

We're not big on making the 'smarter' choice round here ... hence my decision to get the F6 over an F100!

To me the main thing is not to have regrets whatever your choice may be and to treat your camera as a camera and not an object of worship.

 

[kemal_mumcu]

It was not halted because of that. Leica just thought that they had enough inventory to see it through to the end of film. Turns out that they were wrong and demand for film-cameras has picked up. particularly in Asia.
The slow speed movement was a problem as, as stated, the company that made it before did not want to make any more and Leica had to start making it themselves. Both the MP and M7 are back in production now - I dont know how much back order demand is there - but either one should be available shortly.

I'm surprised that Leica thought they had enough to tide them over till the end of film. The Leica is a camera for the photographer who wants something different or special. The MP is the the timeless Leica that will never get old. The M9, great as it may be is not a timeless Leica - it will be replaced and people will move onto the next thing. The MP in a sense is the perfect camera to hang on your shelf. If I had a lot of disposable money I'd buy two, one to use and the other to put behind glass...

Anyway, my prediction is that Leica will still be selling MPs long after the M9 is history.

 

[nobbylon]

I think Leica will be making a film M and probably the MP for as long as film is available. If customers are still willing to pay 3300 quid for them new then they'll make them. Part of the reason I bought another was that I believe prices will keep rising and they were starting to be beyond what I thought was acceptable at s/h levels.
Second time around for me and I have to say I'm much happier with the MP this time.

 

[AndySig]

The following observation/question may be considered to be heresy but here goes anyway.

Isn't Leica in offering a little handle to fit on to the rewind knob tacitly admitting that the MP has a design fault? If it had the slanted rewind knob I'd definitely consider getting one but then wouldn't it be just an M4 with a built in exposure meter?

The reason I ask is that I have got a lovely M4 a few weeks ago and I compared it to the full size picture of an MP in the current Leica brochure and the rewind knob issue made me think that I had the better camera. Come to think of it, if they did the MP with the better rewind knob and no built in exposure system, I would definitely get one.

 

[peter_n]

Isn't Leica in offering a little handle to fit on to the rewind knob tacitly admitting that the MP has a design fault?

Not necessarily. They're simply responding to some customers who want faster rewinding. This is a personal preference; over the long term I've used six Leicas; three had the slanted rewind and three the straight type as on the MP. I prefer the straight type. If you like the slanted design you can get an MP with that rewind in the a la carte program.

 

[Messsucherkamera]

Film will likely outlast us all, particularly 35mm film

Film will likely outlast us all, particularly 35mm film

Another film is dead thread?

Back to the OP...

Or, we could talk about ourselves being dead in the near future so we might as well chuck it all now. Enjoy life, folks.

I would expect that most (if not all) of we who frequent this site will be in the ground, cremated or otherwise pitched off into the sweet by and by before all types of 35mm film are extinct.

In spite of the ominous news emanating from Kodak, in spite of Agfa's demise, film still soldiers on - not just in 35mm and 120, but also in many different and odd sized formats
( http://www.ilfordphoto.com/Webfiles/20114191217401827.pdf ).

JMHO.

 

[segedi]

I prefer the straight type. If you like the slanted design you can get an MP with that rewind in the a la carte program.

I prefer the straight type too, but with the Photo Equip MP-Winder. Works great and looks great. I found winding without it to be slow and a bit annoying.

 

[loquax ludens]

The slow speed movement was a problem as, as stated, the company that made it before did not want to make any more and Leica had to start making it themselves.

I'm betting it's way too early to tell, but has anyone heard whether the part made by Leica is as good/reliable as the one made by the other company?

 

[Paul Luscher]

Leica film camera demand is nothing compared to what film demand used to be. Leica does small volumes at large prices and it works for them. This cannot work with film.

Well, it worked for me. Took my MP out a couple of weeks ago, and put three rolls of "dead" film through it.

Guess it's a "zombie": dead but don't know it yet.

 

[Paul Luscher]

It just irks me that people will spend huge amounts of cash on one of these things when they'd be better served buying a R3m Bessa and a thousand rolls of Tri-X and actually getting out and taking sh!tloads of photos!

End of rant!

Them's fightin' words, Keith.

Needed SOMETHING to put all the M lenses I'd slowly collected over the years on, after the M3s I had went to the Big Repair Shop In The Sky, for various reasons. Bessa wouldn't work for me--its rangefinder base wasn't long enough for accurate focusing with the 90mm Summicron--which is one of my most heavily used lenses.

And when I got the MP in 2003, the price was about two thousand-something, which didn't seem all that bad at the time--though certain other items of photographic gear were sacrificed to pay for it.

That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.....

 

[akiralx]

We'll be seeing the end of digital before then, I'd say.
Good luck to ANY of the digital camera manufacturers surviving the erosion caused by phonecams. Film shooters will be going strong long after the last 'full-frame' digicam has been thrown in the local landfill.

I doubt that very much.

No relationship to the above but personally I'm getting out of film, M7 and ZI are for sale. I'll keep the favourite M5 to retain one film M. It's just too expensive to run them, with the cost of film and development/printing here in Aus.