Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2014/04/22

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Subject: [Leica] Leica legends
From: Frank.Dernie at btinternet.com (Frank Dernie)
Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2014 15:13:55 +0100
References: <8D12BBB0ABFF4D9-780-3D44E@webmail-m157.sysops.aol.com>

I must say of the multitudes of Leica "M"s I have handled and used the M5 
feels the best made, though it is out of proportion and ugly from a styling 
point of view IMHO.

I would imagine that any technician good enough to be given the job of hand 
building a top quality camera would do his very best to do perfect work and 
take pride in it, whether German, Canadian, Japanese or Portugese.

The quality of craftsmanship probably depends on supply and demand of 
labour. If the camera maker is the best employer in the district it will get 
the best technicians, if there are other desirable jobs like aerospace and 
so forth they may have to compete hard to get good technicians.
FD

On 21 Apr, 2014, at 21:54, lrzeitlin at aol.com wrote:

>       There is an oft repeated Leica legend that the best film Leicas were 
> the late model M3s, particularly those with serial numbers over 1000000. I 
> don't know if that's true but my old M3, one of the first, worked 
> flawlessly for nearly 50 years, shooting a few thousand rolls of film, 
> before I brought it to Sherri Krauter for a CLA. Nothing was wrong with 
> it. I just figured the camera needed a little tenderness.
>       But I heard another one yesterday. My son, an executive with 
> Ericsson, travels frequently to Japan. On his last trip I lent him my 
> Leica CL (actually a Minolta CL, made in 1974). Seated next to him at the 
> conference was an elderly gentleman who had been in charge of production 
> for Minolta. He noticed the camera and told my son that the production 
> workers took particular care in assembling and testing the CL cameras 
> which bore the Minolta nameplate. They were proud of their Japanese made 
> cameras and didn't want them to be thought inferior to cameras allegedly 
> made in Germany.
>       I can't verify the truth of either of these legends. Can any Lugger 
> shed some light on these stories?
>       Larry Z
> 
> 
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In reply to: Message from lrzeitlin at aol.com (lrzeitlin at aol.com) ([Leica] Leica legends)