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Leica M6 - advice kindly sought

W

Woodface

pfm Member
Hi All, long time PF but not posted in this section so please be gentle with me.

I have a very nice fully manual Leica M6 with Summicron 50mm lens. I no longer use film so I am thinking of selling. Camera has a metering fault, I neglected to turn the dial round to correct position so sensor has burnt out. My bad. This will obviously effect the value. Anyway local camera shop have offered £700 for body & £1050 for the lens, does this seem fair?

I reckon I've had it over 10 years & paid about £1000 or so at the time from the same dealer.

Many thanks
 
Sounds cheap to me, I got over £850 for a tidy but not mint M4 not so long ago. I'd expect an M6 to make more even with duff light meter. What is the repair cost of the meter?
 
I agree, the body price doesn't sound right to me. If I were you, i'd approach some other obvious specialist retailers of second hand leica, and see what they offer. You could do far worse than contact Aperture Photographic in london (https://www.apertureuk.com/) as they do repairs as well as sales of second hand equipment. They have working M6s priced over £2k, although these do look to be in mint condition, so depending on what state yours is in this may or may not be realistic. They are good people so I think they will offer you great advice. It wouldn't surprise me if they advise to get the camera repaired for sale, certainly as the leica crowd like to pretend that the cameras are bomb proof and never fail (ha ha).

Can't say I know about the lenses, but they will also advise on this.

The other specialist i'd talk to would be ffordes (https://www.ffordes.com/) . They seem to also have M6s listed around the £2k mark, so again, they would probably be in a good position to advise what to do.
 
Thank you so much for your advice, I will contact both of these. My initial feeling is that the body is worth more than quoted, I think the repair is probably reasonably spendy as it’s Leica.

I’m happy to take a small hit but not a large one. The M series lenses are generally worth ‘more’ as they can be used with the digital bodies & people tend to hang on to them.
 
Ffordes also sell on commission, this can be a good option if you don't need the money straight away.
 
Ffords have come back, pretty much in line with what I've been offered, could potentially get a little more on consignment but not significantly so. Waiting on Aperture to come back & will see what they say.
 
aperture: Please bring your equipment to Aperture Leica @ Riding House Street for inspection and a free quotation.

If it were me, I’d drop by Aperture the next time I was in London and get an estimate. Either get it fixed or sell it “as is” disclosing the cost of repair / CLA. Offer it on pfm first, obvs.
 
There is no reason why turning the dial to any particular position has any effect on the service life of the meter. The meter sensors do not ‘burn out’ in the way you describe. It is just a 40 year old circuit board and these have been known to fail. I assume you tried fresh batteries.

Unfortunately Leica recently announced that the supply of replacement boards has run out and there are no immediate replacement boards available (boards from the MP or new M6 won’t work). Best bet is to sell the camera to someone who is happy to use it without the meter. I think the dealer quoted price sounds about right. They will need to service the shutter before selling it on. You could probably get £900 to £1000 if you attempt to sell it on ebay.

Useful article describing the M6 meter problem: https://www.cameraworks-uk.com/post...ly-becoming-an-m4-p-no-more-light-meter-pcb-s
 
Hi All, I ended up going with the original dealer offer, they managed to get it all working. I probably could have realised another couple of hundred quid but life’s too short.

Aperture said they had enough Leica gear so wanted me to contact them in a month.

I am just glad someone will be delighted with it & will use it.

I also sold a Billingham bag so a pretty good outcome in the end.
 
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