Where are the well-used Leica M's?

GregY · Jul 2, 2025

"Well-used and well-maintained — the daily companion, polished, functional, loved."
In the case of a Leica well-maintained doesn't take much. My '68 M4 has seen service perhaps twice in it's life. Most recently when I bought it. I sent it off to DAG for a service & to adapt it to take the Leicavit. It's loved but not polished. Neither is it dented or erratic.
I use it, rely on it and appreciate its attributes, both what it has and what was left out (like all those extraneous viewfinder lines).

GregY · Jul 2, 2025

Let's see photos of more used Leica Ms.

chuckroast · Jul 2, 2025

GregY said:
Let's see photos of more used Leica Ms.

OK ... Apparently dropped by previous owner. Has dings and other marks on the upper housing. Very minor vulcanite loss under the lens release button. Was thoroughly CLAed and tidied up by DAG before I got it.
Shoots flawlessly and is the first among equals of ALL 35mm Leica and Nikon I own and use:

GregY · Jul 2, 2025

Beautiful CR. One of the most delightful of Leicas!

chuckroast · Jul 2, 2025

GregY said:
Beautiful CR. One of the most delightful of Leicas!

I've never worried too much about buying Leica so long as it was in decent condition and I could afford the item to pay without incurring debt.

The reason I never worried about spending the money (if I had it) is that Leica of this era is pretty much money-in-money-out. When you do sell, it's more-or-less close to what you paid IF you shop carefully and take your time. You get killed if you want cosmetically perfect, in the box, with manuals etc.

The M2 was a bargain. Because it needed the dings knocked out of it, the prior owner had just had DAG do the CLA and repair (I actually have a copy of the repair order). That alone represented close to half the buying price of the camera. It was like getting an M2 for $600 and sending it in for a CLA.

It shoots flawlessly and - like I said - it is first among equals in my stash of 35mm machines. The M2 with the 35mm f/2 ASPH Summicron is my go-to combination that gets used at least half the time in this format. I am taking it on a trip later this summer with that lens, a 50 f/2 V3 Summicron, and a 21mm f/4 Color-Skopar ... the latter being one of the most addictive lenses I own

GregY · Jul 2, 2025

chuckroast said:
I've never worried too much about buying Leica so long as it was in decent condition and I could afford the item to pay without incurring debt.

The reason I never worried about spending the money (if I had it) is that Leica of this era is pretty much money-in-money-out. When you do sell, it's more-or-less close to what you paid IF you shop carefully and take your time. You get killed if you want cosmetically perfect, in the box, with manuals etc.

The M2 was a bargain. Because it needed the dings knocked out of it, the prior owner had just had DAG do the CLA and repair (I actually have a copy of the repair order). That alone represented close to half the buying price of the camera. It was like getting an M2 for $600 and sending it in for a CLA.

It shoots flawlessly and - like I said - it is first among equals in my stash of 35mm machines. The M2 with the 35mm f/2 ASPH Summicron is my go-to combination that gets used at least half the time in this format. I am taking it on a trip later this summer with that lens, a 50 f/2 V3 Summicron, and a 21mm f/4 Color-Skopar ... the latter being one of the most addictive lenses I own

CR, My first Leica was an M2 bought as a university student for $175. My two lens kit is a 21mm & 35mm although lately if i take one lens it's the tiny canon 28mm 2.8 which punches well above its weight category. (photo below wide open 1/60th, tri-x)
I've had many different Ms over the years and regret most selling an original black paint M2 I bought in Paris in about '98 for roughly $550 USD. (They are crazy expensive now).

chuckroast · Jul 2, 2025

GregY said:
CR, My first Leica was an M2 bought as a university student for $175. My two lens kit is a 21mm & 35mm although lately if i take one lens it's the tiny canon 28mm 2.8 which punches well above its weight category. (photo below wide open 1/60th, tri-x)
I've had many different Ms over the years and regret most selling an original black paint M2 I bought in Paris in about '98 for roughly $550 USD. (They are crazy expensive now).
View attachment 402021

nice!

AZD · Jul 2, 2025

GregY said:
CR, My first Leica was an M2 bought as a university student for $175. My two lens kit is a 21mm & 35mm although lately if i take one lens it's the tiny canon 28mm 2.8 which punches well above its weight category. (photo below wide open 1/60th, tri-x)
I've had many different Ms over the years and regret most selling an original black paint M2 I bought in Paris in about '98 for roughly $550 USD. (They are crazy expensive now).
View attachment 402021

Wasn’t the Canon 28mm f/2.8 one of Winnogrand’s favored lenses? Nice classic rendering there.

GregY · Jul 3, 2025

AZD said:
Wasn’t the Canon 28mm f/2.8 one of Winnogrand’s favored lenses? Nice classic rendering there.

Apparently he did use one.
Also an ideal lens for smaller cameras like the CL

RezaLoghme · Jul 3, 2025

Wasnt there some ancient Latin story in which some guy or animal preferred ugly partners as it made them overcome that awe?

GregY · Jul 3, 2025

AZD said:
Your descriptions bring to mind something of an inverse bell curve of pricing. The exceptionally clean and highly abused (with provenance) attract attention and high prices. Ideally the bottom of the curve should include practical users at “reasonable” prices. Leica being Leica, things can be different.

I suppose everyone approaches this differently. A related anecdote which somewhat parallels my thinking on M’s:

Back around 2000 or so I decided it was finally time to get a good acoustic guitar, something nice. It took a couple years to save up, being practically broke most of the time. After looking at all options I identified the Gibson J45 as my preference. Having access to a dealer, a brand-spanking-new J45 arrived direct from Gibson. It was so new the lacquer hadn’t fully cured yet and opening the case smelled as good as it looked. I highly suspect Gibson picked a really good sounding one (various reasons too long to explain) and it was always a bit magical. I had several people ask to buy it, but I was never interested in selling.

Anyway… it was so nice that it spent much of its early existence in the case where it retained its perfect looks. But on a busy day it was too much effort to remove and use. As with cameras my thoughts were that a perfect but unused instrument is a waste. So, it hasn’t been in the case for most of a decade now. It gets used often. It has user wear and a few unfortunate scars. It doesn’t smell like it did. However, with regular use and freedom to breathe it sounds better than ever. It has a distinct personality among similar instruments. One friend told me “it sounds like The Great Depression”, which is as good a description as any.

I suppose that is my philosophy: Damn perfection, just give me something I can use without concern. Only through use is an object allowed to create or become something other than itself as manufactured.

Perhaps the point of divergence is… maybe I was never convinced the M3 was “it” as with the J45, so there was hesitation to allow it to breathe, so to speak. It felt too new, and I couldn’t use it without concern… sold.

I'm with you in thinking "the perfect is the enemy of the good." I had a very clean 1936 Martin D18 which skyrocketed in value. Much too nice a guitar to play at home alone. I found this well used 1945 D18 that I'm happy to take to musical gatherings. It pains me to see pristine musical instruments and glass case condition Nikons & Leicas. Bought and admired but never used for their actual purpose.

chuckroast · Jul 3, 2025

GregY said:
I'm with you in thinking "the perfect is the enemy of the good." I had a very clean 1936 D18 which skyrocketed in value. Much too nice a guitar to play at home alone. I found this well used 1945 D18 that I'm happy to take to musical gatherings. It pains me to see pristine musical instruments and glass case condition Nikons & Leicas. Bought and admired but never used for their actual purpose.

I have a 1962 ES 335 Butterscotch you should see ...

GregY · Jul 3, 2025

chuckroast said:
I have a 1962 ES 335 Butterscotch you should see ...

I had a 58 red ES 335 that I bought as a 17yr old with money from my part time job....$250 cdn.
I've seen them for $50-80k these days

https://reverb.com/item/91210614-1958-gibson-es-335-tdn-vintage-semi-hollow-blonde-thin-top-w-pafs-case

chuckroast · Jul 3, 2025

GregY said:
I had a 58 red ES 335 that I bought as a 17yr old with money from my part time job....$250 cdn.
I've seen them for $50-80k these days

https://reverb.com/item/91210614-1958-gibson-es-335-tdn-vintage-semi-hollow-blonde-thin-top-w-pafs-case

Hmmm may be time to sell.

AZD · Jul 3, 2025

GregY said:
I'm with you in thinking "the perfect is the enemy of the good." I had a very clean 1936 D18 which skyrocketed in value. Much too nice a guitar to play at home alone. I found this well used 1945 D18 that I'm happy to take to musical gatherings. It pains me to see pristine musical instruments and glass case condition Nikons & Leicas. Bought and admired but never used for their actual purpose.

Geez, that’s a pretty nice guitar. I was originally looking at 40s/50s J45’s just before the values took off. Almost could have pulled it off. After old Martins reached ridiculous levels people suddenly realized old Gibsons were equally good, just different, so that was the end of that dream. Also missed out on an early Epiphone Texan that was the single most beat up acoustic guitar I have ever seen, but wow it sounded incredible. Also, RIP, Intermountain Guitar and Banjo in Salt Lake. Can’t bring myself to go into the cafe in their old building.

GregY · Jul 3, 2025

AZD said:
Geez, that’s a pretty nice guitar. I was originally looking at 40s/50s J45’s just before the values took off. Almost could have pulled it off. After old Martins reached ridiculous levels people suddenly realized old Gibsons were equally good, just different, so that was the end of that dream. Also missed out on an early Epiphone Texan that was the single most beat up acoustic guitar I have ever seen, but wow it sounded incredible. Also, RIP, Intermountain Guitar and Banjo in Salt Lake. Can’t bring myself to go into the cafe in their old building.

I paid Intermountain a visit once while on a Moab trip with my kids.

Where are the well-used Leica M's?

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