maclaine
Well-known
Hi all. I haven't posted much here in a very long time, but thought it would be fun to share this with the board.
I have always wanted a proper a la carte Leica but couldn't justify the cost. One day when I was poking around here on RFF, I saw the rumor that the program was ending. I called up Leica USA to confirm, and the final day to get orders in was less than a week away. I figured it was now or never and didn't want to have any regrets, so I got in touch about doing some customizing on my M7. It made it to the Leica USA HQ the day before the cutoff. Just in the nick of time!
I originally bought it while in Japan on my honeymoon, specifically looking for the Japanese edition with the Leica script engraving on the top. Unfortunately, the shop I was at only had the models with the lettering screen printed on the top. It looks mostly the same, but I was worried about the durability of it with a lot of usage. The previous owner had also taken the paint out of the "M7" engraving, which I personally think is pointless and makes the camera look really bad.
In my opinion, the best looking M is the black chrome M4. I just love the shape, the engraving, the sharp contrast of the white on black, and I think the clean front of the camera looks really great. I'm not much of a fan of black paint Leicas and don't care about brassing. I decided if I was going to customize my M7, I wanted to get it as close as possible to a black chrome M4. So, off it went to Wetzlar by way of New Jersey.
They replaced the top so now there's no red dot and no "M7" engraving, and added the classic script and "Leica Camera Wetzlar Germany" engraving. The engraving isn't quite as fine or as deep as it is on my standard M4, but it's still beautifully done. They also replaced the hideous original M7 leatherette with the type 240/M10 leatherette. It's a shame they no longer do vulcanite, but the new leatherette is a vast improvement over the original M6/M7 one, in my opinion. While they had it, they did the routine M7 upgrades to an MP finder and replacing the DX reader as well as general servicing. Prior to sending it off, I wrote to the Leica USA parts department to get the white plastic replacement for the frameline preview lever, which was sent to me free of charge. I'm very thankful for their generosity in that regard. I changed that out myself, which was a piece of cake.
All in all, I'm ecstatic to have this beautiful camera back and basically in brand new shape. It's truly a once in a lifetime thing for me as I never plan to sell it even if 35mm film disappears forever. It's low on the priority list, but in order to complete its transformation into a black chrome M4, some day I'd like to replace the wind lever with the proper M4 style. It's hard to find just that part, so if it never happens, so be it. It would also be nice to have the shutter speed dial with the knurled edge instead of the ridges, but that doesn't really bother me, and may not even be available in black chrome for all I know.
Hope you all find this interesting, and Rest In Peace Leica à la carte. I'm going to miss killing time daydreaming new combinations in the configurator.
I have always wanted a proper a la carte Leica but couldn't justify the cost. One day when I was poking around here on RFF, I saw the rumor that the program was ending. I called up Leica USA to confirm, and the final day to get orders in was less than a week away. I figured it was now or never and didn't want to have any regrets, so I got in touch about doing some customizing on my M7. It made it to the Leica USA HQ the day before the cutoff. Just in the nick of time!
I originally bought it while in Japan on my honeymoon, specifically looking for the Japanese edition with the Leica script engraving on the top. Unfortunately, the shop I was at only had the models with the lettering screen printed on the top. It looks mostly the same, but I was worried about the durability of it with a lot of usage. The previous owner had also taken the paint out of the "M7" engraving, which I personally think is pointless and makes the camera look really bad.
In my opinion, the best looking M is the black chrome M4. I just love the shape, the engraving, the sharp contrast of the white on black, and I think the clean front of the camera looks really great. I'm not much of a fan of black paint Leicas and don't care about brassing. I decided if I was going to customize my M7, I wanted to get it as close as possible to a black chrome M4. So, off it went to Wetzlar by way of New Jersey.
They replaced the top so now there's no red dot and no "M7" engraving, and added the classic script and "Leica Camera Wetzlar Germany" engraving. The engraving isn't quite as fine or as deep as it is on my standard M4, but it's still beautifully done. They also replaced the hideous original M7 leatherette with the type 240/M10 leatherette. It's a shame they no longer do vulcanite, but the new leatherette is a vast improvement over the original M6/M7 one, in my opinion. While they had it, they did the routine M7 upgrades to an MP finder and replacing the DX reader as well as general servicing. Prior to sending it off, I wrote to the Leica USA parts department to get the white plastic replacement for the frameline preview lever, which was sent to me free of charge. I'm very thankful for their generosity in that regard. I changed that out myself, which was a piece of cake.
All in all, I'm ecstatic to have this beautiful camera back and basically in brand new shape. It's truly a once in a lifetime thing for me as I never plan to sell it even if 35mm film disappears forever. It's low on the priority list, but in order to complete its transformation into a black chrome M4, some day I'd like to replace the wind lever with the proper M4 style. It's hard to find just that part, so if it never happens, so be it. It would also be nice to have the shutter speed dial with the knurled edge instead of the ridges, but that doesn't really bother me, and may not even be available in black chrome for all I know.
Hope you all find this interesting, and Rest In Peace Leica à la carte. I'm going to miss killing time daydreaming new combinations in the configurator.
