New cameras for old - Leica wants to buy your M9

FrozenInTime

FrozenInTime

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Leica wants you to trade in your old M for the M.240.

"With this year marking 60 years of Leica M photography, Leica Camera UK is offering existing Leica M owners the opportunity to part-exchange their current M body for the latest Leica M (Typ 240).

leica-uk-announces-m-part-exchange-program

Not selling enough M.240s ? or perhaps they think there is more money to be made selling used cameras.

Part of the same strategy the saw them buying the LeicaShop Vienna store ?
 
I'm sure they'd like to move more new Ms. The past year's waiting list has been fulfilled now they actually have cameras sitting on shelves waiting to be sold.
 
I wonder what kind of money they will offer people on the trade-ins? I can't imagine they'd offer what they are worth or could be sold for. I've never seen any kind of trade-in program that really gave you a good value for your product without a catch.
 
I got something from Camtec in Montreal on Facebook about an "exciting" announcement to come. I wonder if there will be a similar offer in North America (and, of course, as questioned above, wonder exactly what the offer would be.)
 
I got a call from the local Leica dealer offering a 5% discount on the M. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your point of view, I am happy with my recently purchased M-E, and don't have the other 95% of cash on hand I would need for the M. Since I have various expensive home repairs to pay for in the coming months, a trade-in is probably only feasible many months away, and frankly even then I may not be interested. Leica probably plans on other prospective clients taking a very different view from mine.

Cheers,
Rob
 
mfogiel said:
Can you trade your M9 for an MP? Probably not - they would lose a customer for the next 50 years...
Click to expand...

I think that within the next 10 years, the number of film Ms "on the road" is going to be negligible. Film is constantly increasing in price and decreasing in variety, the commercial processing infrastructure is fading away, enlargers are no longer made, film scanners are barely hanging on, and the independent repair people will be retired or in the ground. Leica, I'm sure, will be happy to do a $400 CLA/de-cootiefication on the film M you find at Goodwill, but that's not going to be economically realistic.

Dante
 
Dante,
Theres still lots of folk who will be using film m's in ten years.
The commercial infrastructure is such that serious amateurs can now afford lab level pro gear, eg my phototherm and your kodak scanner. just sayin :)
Ian
 
Dante Stella could be right. But, ten years ago I was buy record albums for 4 for a dollar at thrift stores, and sometimes even 5 for a dollar. Today, they are at the same locations $2 each and going fast. Second and Charles in my area sells so for $30+. Best Buy is selling turntables. Are we at a 'nadir' of film? Will film resurrected when people realize that every 5-7 years that they need to buy another digital camera? (This is not a condemnation of film cameras.) Leica as gone thru three incarnations of its digital before an M6 (or Nikon with the F3HP) has worn out. As for Dante Stella's comment I do agree that the future of film does not look good but 10 years ago when I was buying record albums the future for turntables did not look good. So, who can predict the future?
 
I am really looking forward to an invention where based on polymer thin film technology an ultra-thin flexible BW sensor with a resolution/sensitivity equivalent to 400ISO BW film will be available. Connect such a sensor to a processor/storage chip embedded in 135 film-canister sized housing that also holds a re-chargeable battery and micro USB connector. Connect a thin-film switch solution positioned at the sprocket wheel to activate read-out/process/resetting of the sensor and we continue using old film cameras in a hybrid digital setup. Just dreaming of course ... :)
 
alienmeatsack said:
I wonder what kind of money they will offer people on the trade-ins? I can't imagine they'd offer what they are worth or could be sold for. I've never seen any kind of trade-in program that really gave you a good value for your product without a catch.
Click to expand...

"A member of the Leica Customer Care team will be available to review second hand M bodies, provide onsite quotes, and issue credit notes, which can then be used when purchasing a new Leica M (Typ 240).

Read more on LeicaRumors.com: http://leicarumors.com/2014/08/20/leica-uk-announces-m-part-exchange-program.aspx/#ixzz3Az2T0bv7"
 
The big difference between turntable/vinyls and film cameras however is that the latter require a steady supply of film/chemistry/processing facilities whose business is calculated on a steady demand. Vinyls on the other hand are usually manufactured in a single run (say 20000 for example) and then another vinyl will be pressed.

Steve Bellayr said:
Dante Stella could be right. But, ten years ago I was buy record albums for 4 for a dollar at thrift stores, and sometimes even 5 for a dollar. Today, they are at the same locations $2 each and going fast. Second and Charles in my area sells so for $30+. Best Buy is selling turntables. Are we at a 'nadir' of film? Will film resurrected when people realize that every 5-7 years that they need to buy another digital camera? (This is not a condemnation of film cameras.) Leica as gone thru three incarnations of its digital before an M6 (or Nikon with the F3HP) has worn out. As for Dante Stella's comment I do agree that the future of film does not look good but 10 years ago when I was buying record albums the future for turntables did not look good. So, who can predict the future?
Click to expand...
 
I wonder if this might be because they are running out of parts to service the older M digital cameras. It's getting very hard to get many parts for the M8 series, and I wouldn't be surprised if the same happened with the M9 series. So this may be Leica's way of getting those cameras off the market. And they probably would like to move a lot more M 240 cameras as well.

Best,
-Tim
 
ianstamatic said:
Dante,
Theres still lots of folk who will be using film m's in ten years.
The commercial infrastructure is such that serious amateurs can now afford lab level pro gear, eg my phototherm and your kodak scanner. just sayin :)
Ian
Click to expand...

I think you could have what seems to be a large absolute number of film users but not one that supports the economy of scale that economical film production requires. On the equipment end, a lot of us got lucky and hit big when pro equipment was getting dumped and film was still cheap. These days, I approach any purchase of film equipment as something I had better be able to amortize.

Dante
 
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