Why is everyone buying old Leica Stuff? It's just as easy to buy new! Just take your plastic down to your Leica dealer and drop it on his counter. Isn't this what credit cards are for? It's a great country, this America. Best wishes, Don Wansor

-- donald a. wansor (wansor@optonline.net), October 25, 2001

Answers

Leica cameras and lenses are built to last. With periodic CLAs, they can easily be used for 50-100 years! :-) Used Leica equipment is often available for 1/3 to 1/2 the cost of new gear. So not surprisingly, there is a large and healthy market for Leicas! I own both new and used Leica cameras and lenses. If I had limited myself to only new equipment, I would have a much smaller collection today!

-- Muhammad Chishty (applemac97@aol.com), October 25, 2001.

I also buy a LOT of my gear used, saving 25% or more over the new cost. Plus, some of the older gear just feels better...

-- Jack Flesher (jbflesher@msn.com), October 25, 2001.

Buying used gear is a great way to find out if Leica (rangefinder) is for you. More than one person has found out that after laying out the huge expense for new gear, that they just can't embrace the difference of a rangefinder camera after being brought up on SLRs. Even decent used Leica gear is higher than many new mid-level "other" brands, but it is nice that someone else absorbed the initial depreciation. After a couple of M3s and an M2 with several lenses of many vintages, (all of which cost less than a new M6), I felt ready for my first new gear. The learning curve was accomplished at a low cost.

Just a personal note on one point that you asked... my life got a lot more simple and less stressful when I switched from using credit cards to cash only. When I was "on the plastic", impulse usually beat common sense.

-- Al Smith (smith58@msn.com), October 25, 2001.

The *only* gear I bought new of all my pretty and perfectly working Leica stuff is a... Voigtlaender lens. They are hard to find used yet.;o)

-- Lutz Konermann (lutz@konermann.net), October 25, 2001.

That is a two part question. I do buy new lenses. Yeah, I do have an M6.

When they make a new M3, I will plunk down the money. Until then, I will have to content myself with used bodies.

Art

-- Art (AKarr90975@aol.com), October 25, 2001.

It's a great country indeed...with hellish comsumer debt. If you want to continue to work for VISA and MC, have at it.

-- jeff voorhees (debontekou@yahoo.com), October 25, 2001.

I just picked up a MINT 50/2 collapsible lens last week for $350. The lens was made in 1954 and looks like it just came of the dealer's shelf. Sometimes older used equipment has features that are no longer available new. My 35/2 preASPH lens is just one other example.

And besides, who knows where that 50/2 collapsible has been and seen.

-- David Cunningham (dcunningham@attglobal.net), October 25, 2001.

I've bought a new RF Leica about once a decade since the '50s. IIIF, M2, M5, CL, M6, AF-C1 (in addition to lots of new lenses and used stuff over the years). Right now, they don't make anything I want.

-- Bill Mitchell (bmitch@home.com), October 25, 2001.

Used is even better than new because it has a story.

-- Tristan Tom (tristan@tristantom.com), October 25, 2001.

i just got a summar from the 1930's....looks great...nice and soft.. :)

-- grant (g4lamos@yahoo.com), October 25, 2001.

Good answer to bad question => the old Leica Stuff I'm still looking for (a penultimate 2/50) is just not as easy to buy as a new one! We've already talked all about that elsewhere (tab is present and hood is better). If I found it for exactly the same price as a brand new current model, I'd buy the oldie.

-- Michael Kastner (kastner@zedat.fu-berlin.de), October 26, 2001.

Donald

Leicas last forever, so buying secondhand makes a lot of sense as it saves you a good deal of money and you get the feel and Leica quality at a discount. Some lenses are not so cheap secondhand -- for example, the 35mm pre-ASPH summicron is about the same as the current ASPH version s/h, but this is because the Leica market perceives these lenses to still be very desirable (many prefer it to the current version), but in general it makes a lot of sense. I am ashamed to say the only item I bought new from Leica was an R6 in 1992, everything else I own is s/h.

-- Robin Smith (smith_robin@hotmail.com), October 26, 2001.

Robin:

Your above line should read "I am NOT ashamed..." !!!

-- Jack Flesher (jbflesher@msn.com), October 26, 2001.

Just because you live in America doesn't justifying using CC's... Come on, being in debt sucks!

Which means that I get to live to collect some hardearned cash to pay for a R3 Baby! :)

Alfie

-- Alfie Wang (albert.wang@ibx.com), October 26, 2001.

I own 2 M bodies and lenses 21/28/35/90 - all Canadian, all bought used. The total invested is about $5800. Bought new the equivalents would cost $9800. What - besides two meters, two red dots, a little corner sharpness, 5-6 extra ounces of weight, longer shutter-button throws, flaring RF patches, and an 'off' switch - would I get for my $4000?

-- Andy Piper (apidens@denver.infi.net), October 26, 2001.

Well, the old stuff works! I looked at the Voigtlander bodies and decided to pass, too much plastic. I went back to a Leica IIIF rd & IIIG because they are solid cameras that inspire confidence. The first thing I did was send them to DAG for a CLA. They will now run for good number of years before they need adjustment again.

All my wideangles are new Voigtlander glass; teles are used Nikon & Leica.

Oh, and every rusted screw in them belongs to me, not the bank!

-- Tony Oresteen (aoresteen@lsqgroup.com), October 29, 2001.

I don't buy old stuff. I own old stuff. We aged together. On a previous thread I pointed-out that my M3 hit a bear in the nose and sent him into the woods. My IIIf died in a climbing accident; I didn't. Also lost a Minolta under similar conditions. I could go on but you get the idea.

Now as far as used Leica equipment goes; I go with ergonomics. They got it right with the M3 and it has been downhill since then. :)))

Art

-- Art (AKarr@aol.com), October 29, 2001.