My first Leica (a veteran M2) arrived today

[picker77]

In the same week I received both a like new Zeiss Ikon and a grizzled old 1961 M2 veteran. Wow, I'm in rangefinder heaven. The M2 appears to have been only moderately well-used. It's missing a couple of chunks of Vulcanite, and has a couple of shiny rubs on the top, but overall is in very good physical condition. Mechanically and optically it appears to be in wonderful condition. All shutter speeds and the self timer seem perfect, the curtains look almost new, release is smooth, and the shutter is very quiet. Film advance is smooth as silk, and the VF and all framelines are clean and bright, as is the focusing patch. I will order a new leather kit for it from Camera Leather.

This is my first Leica, and it's easy to see why especially the M2/M3's are so prized in spite of their age. There is a brick-like "heft" to this camera that belies its compact size and is very reassuring to the hands--and the mechanical build quality and precision are nothing short of amazing. Now I can keep my CV-35/1.7 on the Zeiss and start looking for a good 50mm to live aboard the M2. Best of all, the price was south of $500 including shipping and insurance.

Life is good.

 

[PaulW128]

Oscar;

Why do you feel it necessary to comment on or correct forum members' posts?


Paul

 

[topoxforddoc]

Picker77

Enjoy your M2. It's my favourite M body - built to last several lifetimes!

Charlie

 

[squirrel$$$bandit]

Grammatical pedantry is the greatest enemy of literary art. Oscar is on a mission to stamp out colloquial expressions of personality, so that this forum will be unsullied by nuance or charm. And isn't that what we all want?

Enjoy your M2! mine is my favorite camera.

 

[PaulW128]

But irregardless......

 

[thomasw_]

Grammatical pedantry is the greatest enemy of literary art.......

Actually I disagree with this, though I am not into being persnickety about punctuation, mechanics, spelling or the use of metaphors. The greatest enemy of art is a lack of limitations.

 

[ferider]

Congrats, Picker.

Now all you need to do is put the 35 on the M2, loose the ZI, and buy an M3 with 50mm for the price and you are set for life 🙂 Excluding GAS, of course.

 

[Austerby]

I'd make the 35mm live on the M2 and stick the 50mm on the ZI, me.

(and for Oscar: I would attach the 35mm to the M2 and attach the 50mm to the Zeiss Ikon, myself)

 

[picker77]

Tom A said exactly the same thing about keeping the 35 on the M2. Actually, right now the 35 IS on the M2, and the ZI has a 50 on it. As for selling the ZI and using the money to buy an M3, I'll jump right on that just as soon as I can locate a new condition M3 on Ebay that has selectable AE/manual TTL metering, a quiet electronically timed metal shutter up to at least 1/2000, AE lock, and hinged-back film loading. Initially I liked the idea of an M7, but the $4400 price tag vs 1/4 of that for a ZI dampened my enthusiasm a lot.

So I'll probably stick with all-mechanical Leicas, and in fact I would like to have a nice M3 one of these days, or maybe even an M4--but even if that happens I think the ZI will probably stay in the starting lineup.

 

[hans voralberg]

To the OP: Congrat on the M2, I've always wanted want since I get my M3 😀

 

[naql]

Congrats on the M2. I only got mine recently and so far my CV 50mm f/2.5 lens has been living on it but I don't have any issues switching it out with my CV 35mm f/2.5. I've got an Elmar on its way and I anticipate leaving that on it quite a bit.

 

[Frank Petronio]

I traded from an M6 to an M2 and the M2 is so much smoother, the finder is so much nicer, and the feel is nicer -- and I loved the M6!

Congrats -

 

[Jamie Pillers]

So long as "lense" lives in my Websters, its good to go.

 

[picker77]

Once I decided I'd like to own a Leica after all these years, I spent over a month poring over RFF and APUG posts and reading a ton of information from all over the web about Leica's design and production philosophy. Lots of good info out there, lots of B.S. too. In the end the evidence is overwhelming that in spite of several corporate wrong turns and marketing disasters Mr. Barnack's basic design was too good to fail. Only after the bean counters intervened did things begin to go a little south, but that happens to many companies. It was also clear to me that of the entire Leica M family tree, the M2 and M3 were the most desirable for my purposes (big, bright viewfinder, bulletproof mechanical design, ultra-precision build, and the M mount). It was just a happy coincidence that those two happen to be the most affordable of the M series.

Although I develop my own B/W film up through 4x5, I also own some Nikon pro grade digital equipment that I very much enjoy, so I'm not one of the "give me film or give me death" guys. I'll always own and use film cameras as long as there is film available. But I'd really love to own a full frame digital RF camera some day, assuming it had a practical and useful feature set to go with the sensor.

After looking over the current ZI, I suspect that Zeiss/Cosina might beat Leica to the draw on this, mainly because if Leica does manage to put out a full frame "M9", they will feel obligated to charge $10K or more for it, and as a result it will never sell in large enough numbers to be a force in the market. Pros have already moved to MF digital and have no use for a $10K small format rangefinder, and most of us common folk could not afford to buy it. Conversely, I think the Zeiss-Cosina team is 75% there right now with the ZI's body tooling, needing only to extend the chipset and add a live view LCD and buttons to the current ZI body. Take out the film advance and feed chambers and there's a LOT of room for electronics in there. Do not underestimate Mr. Kobayashi of Cosina. He has the grapes to pull this kind of thing off. If a reasonably-priced full frame sensor becomes available (and I believe they soon will be) I would not be surprised to see a 14-18 megapixel full-frame Zeiss-Cosina M-mount rangefinder carrying a Zeiss logo come in at a price point of $2500 or less, a feat which would be an 8+ on the Richter Scale of the photo world. If they could provide both RAW and common JPEG outputs and avoid getting their underwear wrapped up around the in-camera processing axle, it would sell. I'd buy one in a heartbeat to go with my ZI, and so would a lot of other RF camera fans. But I'd also keep my M2 and my Nikons. The Nikons because of the incredible lens variety available, and the M2 just because.

Sorry for the length, it's late and for some reason I felt like waxing philosophical tonight.

 

[Tom A]

Sorry for the length, it's late and for some reason I felt like waxing philosophical tonight.

It is the M2 - they tend to make you wax lyrically or philosphically for some reason.

 

[Mephiloco]

I got my first Leica a few months back--a 1958 m2 for a little under $400. It's currently with Don at DAG being repaired, I somehow knocked the rangefinder out of calibration while on set, and the screws were all stripped from the previous owner.

So, once I get my m2 back, I'll have a m2, a CV 35/2.5, a 50mm Summarit 1.5 for a grand total of around $900 including repairs. I'm really tempted to sell my 400D as all I pretty much ever shoot is my t90 or my m2. I'm still getting accustomed to not having a meter on the m2, and I mostly shoot low light (iso 3200 @ 1/15 usually) so I just stand develop in rodinal and my shots come out perfect.. usually.

I'm really going to hate when my new Summitar comes in the mail in the next few days and I still have a few weeks (possibly) til I get my camera back from Don.

 

[photobizzz]

hope you enjoy the summarit, I will miss it but I can always buy another I guess...