I agree with previous posts, instead of coming up with sky-high priced limited editions, how about Leica starts making the Leica MA and Leica MP cameras that have been out of stock at retailers now for years.
Best,
-Tim
You need to shop around. Ok, keep this between you and me - reddotcamera has them in stock RIGHT NOW - new. Full Leica warranty. If you buy from them you will save over $1000 than buying (if you can get them) from a shop in the USA.
You are welcome. Remember don't tell anyone. Hush hush.
@Huss Link? Googling for "reddotcamera" brings nothing useful. I've been looking to purchase a brand new film M without humiliation by the "get in line" soviet treatment for 2 years now.
I can walk into 3 shops today, right now, in London and buy an MA: Apertureuk, ClassicCamera and Reddotcameras. Classic and Reddot have MPs as well. Every once in a while they'll be out of stock but give it 2-3 months and they'll have a few more. At the end of the day these are slow sellers, they will never have more than 1 or 2 in the shop.
Okay Huss, I won't tell anyone about the reddotcamera having a few MA cameras in stock. And a few MP cameras as well. Wouldn't want anyone to snap them up before I get around to earning $5000 in order to buy one.
You don't need $5K. "Only" $4k-ish....
Thanks for the tip. Red dot camera wasn't on my radar. Presumably the warranty on these cameras is honored by Wetzlar and not by Leica USA?
Huss mentioned Dentists and Plumbers.
Per Nikon's website: https://imaging.nikon.com/history/chronicle/history-f/Titanium shutters have also been mentioned here.
In the seventies I read in a UK photo magazine about a new camera having the first commercial titanium shutter, I think it was a Nikon SLR. Quite a fuss was made about it at the time, but at the end of the article the author could not help them self and had to put in a dig about the pollution made to the environment in the production of titanium.
I have never heard mention of this since. Has it been brushed under the carpet, or are production techniques safer these days?
Processing titanium is nasty. But in the late 1950s, the Soviets and Americans were beginning to explore titanium for aircraft exteriors (think of the SR-71), jet engine fan blades, and submarine hulls (the Soviets). By the 1960s, titanium hip pins were available (my grandmother had one after a car accident). A few thousand shutters made of titanium were a trivial volume of the metal compared to military and aerospace use.Per Nikon's website: https://imaging.nikon.com/history/chronicle/history-f/
The Nikon F went on the market in 1959 and was the first camera to have a titanium foil shutter.
I'd be curious too to know what the perceived environmental problems were with mining titanium, especially compared to the extraction of other metals.
David
I think Starkie (sp?) Leica repair in England offers titanium curtains taken from Nikon Fs, modified to fit Leica Ms.
I have another collecting problem, it is called a watch.
Like an old quartz watch. Who the heck wants those?
Luckily, I am a happy seiko aficionado but those can go WAAAAY up in price as well. Currently lusting after a Pogue. That gold dial and retro 70's look is appealing. Plus, well, it's a space watchUnfortunately, I share that affliction. I'm not particularly into Rolexes, but I do like some other brands that have appreciated immensely over the last few years. Other than special edition sets like the M-A Titan, Leicas can seem cheap in comparison. It's killed the hobby for a lot of people.
There are certainly some outlier quartz watches and this is certainly one.There is one quartz watch that may be appreciating: the Omega Marine Chronometer from 1974-1979. It was staggeringly expensive in the mid-'70s. They did not sell many. As a student, I certainly could not afford one.
So I was reading this pretty snarky article about the new special edition titanium Leica M-A and there was a reference to a Hipstamatic app so I looked it up and here's the link. Actually, there is a full suite of Hipstmatic apps. Who needs a film camera when there is an app that will give you that special Lomography look for the one time charge of $2.99 instead of $20-$30 a roll.
snarky = mad that they can’t afford one.
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