To preface, I recently sold my very nice 1955 M3. I liked how it felt and worked and the images it could make, but it didn’t get as much use as it should have. One big reason is it was just too nice. I couldn’t bring myself to treat a shiny 70 year old Leica the same as my Nikons, which have sometimes been rode hard and hung up wet. Believing that I shouldn’t be too precious about little chunks of metal, I let it go.
So where are the beat up film M’s? Is everyone today being a little too careful like me? Is the whole point to collect and invest and CLA endlessly such that the marketplace only presents shiny Veblen goods? Did they all become parts cameras or expensive black repaints?
Actual beaters show up now and then, but they are few and far between. Honestly though, that’s kind of what I want. Not an artificially and incorrectly relic’d (oh how I dislike that spelling) poser camera, or expensive brass-under-black-paint faux-tojournalist prop, just a ratty chrome M that otherwise works fine.
As is often the case, I suspect disappointment is in store. So what have you seen, and where?
So where are the beat up film M’s? Is everyone today being a little too careful like me? Is the whole point to collect and invest and CLA endlessly such that the marketplace only presents shiny Veblen goods? Did they all become parts cameras or expensive black repaints?
Actual beaters show up now and then, but they are few and far between. Honestly though, that’s kind of what I want. Not an artificially and incorrectly relic’d (oh how I dislike that spelling) poser camera, or expensive brass-under-black-paint faux-tojournalist prop, just a ratty chrome M that otherwise works fine.
As is often the case, I suspect disappointment is in store. So what have you seen, and where?
