Purely as an Investment: Leica film or Digital Cameras?

kshapero

kshapero

South Florida Man
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I was bragging the other night how prices for Leica cameras (and lenses) hold up over time. My friend asked me if I think that the digital models will hold as well as film (he is a camera guy, too though not an RF guy). I said I dunno. Now I am thinking that digital would not hold its price as well as film. What say you?
 
I think about this at times. Some film cameras are very collectable though they have outdated film formats. Once 35mm film is gone (if it ever goes away, which it may not), will film cameras still be collectable? If the answer is yes, and it probably is, I would imagine some digital cameras will be collected as objects (and not for use) just as their film counterparts are. Digital has only been mainstream for about 15 years or so. 35mm film cameras have been mainstream for 5-6 times as long. Time will tell which digitals are deemed special and which ones had a connection with users).

Also, investments aren't alway about what you can sell something for later. Some people make a ton of cash off digital camera use...that is clearly a good investment.
 
Any digital camera will drop in price very fast.
Film cameras are doomed.
So the "value" issue really is bad for both types of cameras.
Lenses will do better.
 
Leica film M's in good condition will barely loose any value.
You can buy one , use it for 5 years and resell almost w/o loss.
Try that with an M8 someone bought new...

There is barely any progress in film, so there is no real value upgrading a film camera body.
A totally different situation in the digital area of photography. Same with a computer. If it's not a collector's item like the very first Apple in "like new condition", a 5 year old PC is just hard to recycle but has barely any resale value. You can give it away for kids to open it up for a youth research project ;).
 
kshapero said:
I was bragging the other night how prices for Leica cameras (and lenses) hold up over time. My friend asked me if I think that the digital models will hold as well as film (he is a camera guy, too though not an RF guy). I said I dunno. Now I am thinking that digital would not hold its price as well as film. What say you?
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The answer is absolutely no. Check the price of any Leica digital and they are predictably very low. M9? Yours was $3600. M8? $1600. X1? $800. And on and on...

Film Leicas? It depends...M3? $900...how does it compare with, say, 1961? M6? $1400...how does it compare to it's price when new? M7? Low 2K...new $5k.

Smart buying with Leica cameras means you can buy one, use it for free by recouping your original expenditure on resale, but it ain't digital. Just my 2 cents worth.:p
 
kshapero said:
I was bragging the other night how prices for Leica cameras (and lenses) hold up over time. My friend asked me if I think that the digital models will hold as well as film (he is a camera guy, too though not an RF guy). I said I dunno. Now I am thinking that digital would not hold its price as well as film. What say you?
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Dear Akiva,

Not a hope in hell that it will!

Cheers,

R.
 
icebear said:
A totally different situation in the digital area of photography. Same with a computer. If it's not a collector's item like the very first Apple in "like new condition", a 5 year old PC is just hard to recycle but has barely any resale value. You can give it away for kids to open it up for a youth research project ;).
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Do you think that people will ever just give away a Leica M9 for a youth project? Don't you think there is some people who will collect them as shelf objects? I would think that any Leica M, digital or film, will be seen as a nice object and not just something to throw away. By the way, some old video game systems are very collectable. There have even been sealed Nintendo cartridges that have sold for $40,000... not to play, but just to have and show off. Never underestimate the "stupidity" of a collector with deep pockets.
 
kshapero said:
I was bragging the other night how prices for Leica cameras (and lenses) hold up over time. My friend asked me if I think that the digital models will hold as well as film (he is a camera guy, too though not an RF guy). I said I dunno. Now I am thinking that digital would not hold its price as well as film. What say you?
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Isn't it verifiable that the M8, M8.2, and now M9 are dropping in value? They'll hold up better than Canikon etc. but still drop quite sharply.

The problem really with digital is that once they break, and parts are out of production, they remain broken. Some collectors will not mind that the items are broken, but many will.
 
thegman said:
Isn't it verifiable that the M8, M8.2, and now M9 are dropping in value? They'll hold up better than Canikon etc. but still drop quite sharply.
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As pointed out elsewhere in this thread, new Leica film cameras drop drastically on the used market too ($5000 down to $2000). Out of all the film cameras ever made, most have no huge resale value these days. Only the special ones do. For example... check out used prices of an Nikon F4 now vs. the price they were sold for in 1992.

The problem really with digital is that once they break, and parts are out of production, they remain broken. Some collectors will not mind that the items are broken, but many will.
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I hear this a lot but there are plenty of examples of computers lasting for decades. The usefulness of these cameras might come into question, but they are not necessarily going to die within 5-10 year as people always seem to think. I truly think there will be digital cameras that will be hip to use for retro effect. It happens in everything else, why wouldn't it in cameras?
 
kshapero said:
I was bragging the other night how prices for Leica cameras (and lenses) hold up over time. My friend asked me if I think that the digital models will hold as well as film (he is a camera guy, too though not an RF guy). I said I dunno. Now I am thinking that digital would not hold its price as well as film. What say you?
Click to expand...

Film. Definitely. Definitely film. Yeah, definitely.
 
I think the MP and M9 will be somewhat "collectable." I think if you buy one used you should be able to get that same selling price a few years down the road.
 
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