[Church Key]

I bought a mint used Leica IIIF Red Dial w/50mm 3.5 Elmar in 1960 for $125 (todays equivalent = $1,225) while a new one was $240 ($2,350 today). Listened to my wife bitch a bunch and finally sold it for peace and quiet. It was a wonderful mechanical object and I always missed it. If I remember correctly, replaced it with a Potoroid.

[Sam_I_am]

I bought a mint used Leica IIIF Red Dial w/50mm 3.5 Elmar in 1960 for $125 (todays equivalent = $1,225) while a new one was $240 ($2,350 today). Listened to my wife bitch a bunch and finally sold it for peace and quiet. It was a wonderful mechanical object and I always missed it. If I remember correctly, replaced it with a Potoroid.

Ouch!

[Sandy Hancock]

Um yeah… I’m guessing they weren’t as expensive 50–60 years ago…

Here's an ad from 1955.
$456 USD was a princely sum back then. So I'm afraid your guess is wrong - they have always been expensive

[TwoUptons]

Here's an ad from 1955.
$456 USD was a princely sum back then. So I'm afraid your guess is wrong - they have always been expensive

To be fair, that $456 in 1955 got you a 50mm f2.0 lens with it

Though for perspective, in 1955 a brand new Volkswagen cost $1,600 USD or so...

-Eric

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Last edited by TwoUptons; 08-25-2022 at 07:21 AM.

[Ed Smith]

My mother bought a Leica on vacation in Germany about 65years ago to save some money for my father. It was a family jewel. I remember he dropped it a few years later denting it. It "lost half its value", he said but it still worked just fine.

[Alliecat]

Another thing I like about the old-style cameras… A lot sturdier. Getting dropped and still working. A good friend once said of the K1000, “Best camera ever made. You could hammer nails with it.” I mentioned that to a camera repair shop person a while after that and he claimed that he had repaired one which had been used to hammer tent pegs. I don’t know whether he made that up or not!

As far as the Leica stuff goes, I’d like it to find a good home but I am having a total racket with eBay. Flaky buyers who don’t want to pay sales tax, thus cancelling three out of five sales. What a waste of time.

[stevejo]

I had a SPF in the 70s which was bashed against a brick wall (don't ask). Was all jammed with the bottom plate dented in. Took that off and flatted it out, and worked fine for years. Didn't look too great though.

[lesmore49]

I have a 1951 Leica 11f Rangefinder (screwmount) , with a Leitz Elmar, 50mm F 3.5 lens. I bought both camera and lens at the same time, in 1982 for I think it was around $330 CAD.

I wanted an M3, but couldn't afford one.

I've used my old 11f and Elmar 50 for over 40 years. Never a problem.

Takes photos that will compare well, with any modern camera. It has a dent on the top, the leatherette cover is wearing off. But the old Leica body, and even older Elmar lens (1940's I think)....just continue to work well. Manual focusing of course, but I do love the speed and accuracy of focusing, this camera.

I would say it is one of the best 300 or so bucks I've spent in my long life. As said before, I can't get over the image quality it produces, and the fact that I haven't had to repair it in the 40 + years I have had it.

So, that explains my 'attraction of my old Leica' , I think very well.

[cobbu2]

Leica is my "other" system; I use Pentax or Leica as either the need or mood suits. Leica build quality is superb, a solid, hefty, and durable feel.

It started when my mother bought a Leica IIIg (with the 50/2 Summicron) new from the Misawa Air Base Exchange in 1957 and it's now mine as a family heirloom; I will never sell it and I use it on a semi-regular basis. But since then, I've acquired a few more, ranging from a 1932 Leica II to a digital (circa 2015) M Type 240. The files have a different look to them; not necessarily better than Pentax, just different. Sometimes the rangefinder has the advantage, sometimes the SLR. I took my K-5 for a Zion Narrows hike in waist-deep water and my KP through dusty Death Valley, but the Leica on an Alaska cruise and a Banff trip... different tools for different applications. The Leica lenses are amazing, even most of the vintage ones.

Collectors also come into play; Leica has its own worldwide society (LHSA), its own dedicated auction (Tamarkin), its own brick-and-mortar boutique store network, which further add to the mystique. Collectors in Europe and Asia are willing to spend top prices for which many (sadly and unnecessarily) turn into shelf queens. But nevertheless it serves to further drive up the prices.

In any case, I can understand the attraction and how they hold their value.

Cheers, Allan

[lesmore49]

To be fair, that $456 in 1955 got you a 50mm f2.0 lens with it

Though for perspective, in 1955 a brand new Volkswagen cost $1,600 USD or so...

-Eric

If memory serves me correct, my new 1969 VW Beetle 1500cc, cost me around $ 1900 CAD, in May , 1969.

Price didn't go up much in 14 years, from 1955.

According to my copy of the 1969 Canada Photo catalogue, the new price of a Leica M4 body was $ 345 CAD.

A Leica M4 body, with a 50mm , F 2 Summicron lens was $ $ 516 CAD.

I would gladly pay $ 516 CAD for a used, in good condition M4 and 50 F 2 Summicron...right now.

[lesmore49]

I don’t remember how much I paid in 1973 for a “Canon QL19”, with its 45mm F/1.9 lens.
Some photo magazine crowned a sibling, the QL17 with a 45mm F/1.7 lens, as best rangefinder of the decade or some such thing.
I’m not convinced that any rangefinder camera of the time was really really great - I was thrilled when I purchased a Pentax “ME/SE” in 1979 with its ‘kit’ 50mm F/2 lens; I still wish I had gotten a SLR - even that East German mechanical monster I was looking at back then - instead of that “QL19” in 1973.

When I bought my first 'good' camera, a Pentax S1a in the late '60's, I worked for a publishing company. The publisher wanted me to take on more duties, and in particular, get a 35mm camera and learn how to take publishable pictures, as he said at the time.

I didn't know anything about photography or much about cameras, and I asked him if he meant something like a Minolta, Olympus or Konica 35mm rangefinder camera, with non interchangeable lenses.

He replied, no, get an SLR 35mm...either a Nikon or a Pentax.

I'm glad I did. My S1a lit a fire under me about photography, and and I'm still enthused after over half a century of photography. Although now I mainly use either my K-1 or Ricoh GR ll.

[Alliecat]

I am glad to know some at least are still being used!
They are beautiful mechanical things -- no dials and chips and menus and fragile things to short out and stop working.
I'm also reminded of the funny 5-letter codes for all the pieces -- I think Mom & Dad were amused at the time and my favourite childhood stuffed animal was named for one of them.
Sorting out all my parents' old gear has been bittersweet.

[thatcameraguy]

These are two of my leica's they are as old as i am and in much better shape. I occasionaly use them, to me they are like a fine classic car wich you take for a drive now and then, but not for daily comuting. They are expensive, but divide the price by the years of use they are actually quite cheap. If no disasters happen they will out live me and become part of the legacy for my wife and my son. I don't think that modern day leica's will have the same apeal after 65 years, but who knows?

[ChrisPlatt]

I hear in 2022 Leica is introducing a new model 35mm film camera, a reissue of the M6 (1984-2002).
MSRP $5295 body only.

Chris

[xs4all]

That's right. Available in Germany since October 20, for slim 5050 €.
Leica M6, schwarz | Leica Camera DE

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Jo