Well, I succumbed to a la carte...

My MP

My MP

Code: 
[b]Type of camera[/b]           LEICA MP
[b]Color[/b]                    Black paint finish
[b]Rewinding device[/b]         as MP
[b]Type of top cover[/b]        Without engraving
[b]Controls[/b]                 MP style black paint finish
[b]Leather cladding[/b]         Saddle leather black
[b]Viewfinder magnification[/b] 0.72
[b]Bright-line frame sets[/b]   0.72-3 frames
[b]Subtotal:[/b] 3940 USD
65-69-82-86-181-187-193-200q90.jpg


Don't I wish. 😛 Looks like Vincent and I have the same taste. Well, save for my choice of paint over black chrome. Damn, these are beautiful cameras! I hope the digital M is as fetching.

You'll get nothing but pure envy from me. Congratulations! Use and abuse the hell out of it and upload some great shots! Hell, upload horrible shots! Your goal is to make that film plate look like Winogrand's. 😀
 
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Congratulations Stuart! That is one fine looking camera. and it makes me feel much less guilt about my new MP. I recently decided to get back into b&w photography after 25 years of color, then digital. The old OM-1 just wasn't cutting it. Solution was to have a mid-life crisis and buy a new MP and Summilux 50 (and of course the Summicron 90/2 from ebay). They were cheaper than most sports cars, and for me, more fun. Thanks for your help 😉
Bill
 
Well, just an update. It turns out that you can indeed pick them up in the factory. Given that I will almost certainly be in Europe at the time, I think I am going to do it. I asked Leica NJ about it, and they said they had never heard of it on Friday. On Saturday, I got a Leica World News saying that people can do it. I called them back today, and told them about the article. At first they said that they should not have printed that and that I couldn't do it. I persisted (politely) and asked that I be given the number for Germany so that I could see if they would still be willing to accommodate me. She gave me the number. About ten minutes later, she called me back and said that she had spoken with Germany and that it would be fine. Evidently Solms had not told Northvale that they were offering the option. I was the first to have asked. I suppose that will make me the first American to do it.

It looks like fun -- you arrive there and get a factory tour, and then they let you watch while they put the finishing touches on the camera (I am not sure what exactly they will be...whether QC or something else), then you grab lunch in the cafeteria and after lunch they give you the camera. Sounds good to me.

Has anyone been on the tour? I am trying to figure out how to get to Wetzlar and Solms from Frankfurt, and I would rather not rent a car unless I have to...
 
Stuart, that sounds like great fun, an experience to remember that will also make that particular camera all the more special to you. How about picking up a new BMW while you're at it, to have shipped home? Your local dealer can arrange European delivery... And that solves the problem of how to get to Solms! 🙂
 
Very cool. Like picking up your weapon at the forge. A nice mystical aspect is added to the camera knowing that you witnessed its birth. 🙂
 
Yeah, I'd go for an MP with the M7 winder, oxblood leather, .72 viewfinder, and hopefully my name professionally engraved somewhere on the camera. If I ever had the money...that and a Noctilux would be mine.
 
Doug...no beemer for me. I drive a VW, but I think I think you can do that with them to now!? Seems funny. If I could take a train, subway or walk everywhere, I would, but california just doesn't allow that sort of thing. I have never been in a place with a worse rail system. Well, I suppose that is what you get when the oil companies build your city...

ANYWAY.

Peter, thanks for the head's up, I will check out the forum. Hopefully I can find the answer there.

Stephanie -- for an added fee, they will engrave your signature either on the top plate of the camera (if you go for no script), or right next to the eyepiece. I decided against this, partly because my signature looks like a chicken's scratching.
 
So does mine. But once I do get a Leica I plan to have it fully worked over and then engraved with my name because of my plans to only pass it down in my own family. I will make stipulations in my WILL for all of my cameras so that they go to people who will actually use them, and if they have to be sold I will hope that my family would have the sense to sell them to people who won't set them on a shelf and never use them. I plan, once I get a Leica, to treat it very, very well.

I do hear, however, that you can never stop at just one... :angel:
 
Grumblepunk, you made all the right choices, imo, but why black paint over black chrome? It is a beautiful camera you've got there. It was rather hard for me to decide between the chrome or the black M6, but I cannot go wrong with the black chrome M6.

And you're right Stephanie, you cannot stop at one. I'm contemplating getting an M3 or M2... (it is a disorder --syndrome?)
 
Stop at one? 🙄 I fully intended to stop at the M6. Then my Minilux got stolen, so I replaced it with an M2. Then I needed an M3 in order to take full advantage of my 50mm and 90mm lenses. Now I find myself lusting after a Barnack (Leitz IIIc) as a worthy home for my CV 28mm/1.9 Ultron. (And with an LTM Elmar or Summitar, the Barnack makes a nifty pocket camera.) It just doesn't stop. <sigh>
 
I don't know if you guys know, but the SoCal Leica rep told me that you can also send in your old Leicas for a la carte upgrades. I am not sure of the pricing, but I am pretty sure that you can do everything from viewfinder upgrade$ to switching out the leather and rewind cranks. I think you would have to talk to the factory though.
 
StuartR said:
It looks like fun -- you arrive there and get a factory tour, and then they let you watch while they put the finishing touches on the camera (I am not sure what exactly they will be...whether QC or something else), then you grab lunch in the cafeteria and after lunch they give you the camera. Sounds good to me.
Click to expand...
Oh man, I am so envious. Make sure to bring another camera!

Now you're going to have to get some silver lenses...
 
I am so Jealous. I've always sort of coveted Leica gear but this is really serious. I don't know what it's like for you but it seems that in Aussie dollars a la carte makes these things about twice as expensive as off the shelf. Very, very, very jealous! Sorry if you mentioned it earlier but are you getting any special engraving? A short quote from Cartier-Bresson seems appropriate.
 
gabrielma said:
Grumblepunk, you made all the right choices, imo, but why black paint over black chrome? It is a beautiful camera you've got there. It was rather hard for me to decide between the chrome or the black M6, but I cannot go wrong with the black chrome M6.
Click to expand...
Black paint was before I knew that the *new* black paint was designed to wear fast to aid the "hardcore photog" look, which I think is just stupid. I like the look of the paint, but I don't hang much on pretentious objectives. Give me a hard wearing enamel, any day.
StuartR said:
I don't know if you guys know, but the SoCal Leica rep told me that you can also send in your old Leicas for a la carte upgrades. I am not sure of the pricing, but I am pretty sure that you can do everything from viewfinder upgrade$ to switching out the leather and rewind cranks. I think you would have to talk to the factory though.
Click to expand...
Why did you tell me this? Now I am going to have to get a beater M3 and send it in for a .58 28-50-90 upgrade with no engraving and M4 loading. Hmm...wonder if they can do that? Hmmm, thinking it over, 28-50-90 would likely not work. 28-50-135 would do just fine, though.

I know it's stupid, but the battery door is what keeps me from buying a new M. Sort of like how the dial rewind on M2's bothers me. That little film advance window is one of the major things I love about the M body.

-gp
 
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Grumblepunk said:
Black paint was before I knew that the *new* black paint was designed to wear fast to aid the "hardcore photog" look, which I think is just stupid. I like the look of the paint, but I don't hang much on pretentious objectives. Give me a hard wearing enamel, any day.

-gp
Click to expand...


This is totally overblown in my mind. Some Leica marketing guy heard that people like brassed up Leicas and said "well, the black paint will eventually brass, let's market it!" I have had a black paint MP since the summer of 2002, and it has barely any brassing at all -- and I use it very frequently! There is very light brassing on the rewind crank, very light brassing (barely detectable) on the film speed dial and noticeable brassing on the little ridges of the winding lever. Granted, I keep it in a half case most of the time, but in the areas where it is constantly used (the three above), the wear is hardly noticeable after literally hundreds of rolls (my most conservative estimate would be 250-300 rolls, based on 2 a week, but I usually shoot more than that).
 
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StuartR said:
This is totally overblown in my mind. Some Leica marketing guy heard that people like brassed up Leicas and said "well, the black paint will eventually brass, let's market it!" I have had a black paint MP since the summer of 2002, and it has barely any brassing at all -- and I use it very frequently! There is very light brassing on the rewind crank, very light brassing (barely detectable) on the film speed dial and noticeable brassing on the little ridges of the winding lever. Granted, I keep it in a half case most of the time, but in the areas where it is constantly used (the three above), the wear is hardly noticeable after literally hundreds of rolls (my most conservative estimate would be 250-300 rolls, based on 2 a week, but I usually shoot more than that).
Click to expand...
Now that is much better news than what I had read on the photo.net pages. Go figure. 🙂 Thank you, for the heads up!
 
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