The Zenit-M

Zenit and Leica Unveil the Zenit M Full-Frame Rangefinder

 

Comments?

I saw the article elsewhere - very intriguing - waiting to see the price. I do love Leicas, but their prices are out of my range. I am dubious about the Leica price / value equation, in face of very high performance cameras from other manufacturers for much less. Fortunately I still have Dad's M 3 and a D -Lux 109 recently gotten from a friend that scratch the Leica itch.

4-5000 Euros with the 35/1 is the price range I've seen quoted - which points to body only costs in the range of 3000 - 3500 Euros?

Today €1.18 to dollar so $4,720 low end $5,950. Hmm, bit dear! Good news is I learned the keystrokes for Euro - Alt 0128!;)

I like both Zenit and Leica, but all the same it just strikes me:

 

"Timex and Rollex team up to sell watches"

"Trabant and Rolls Royce merge",

 

and so forth :confused:

How many have forgot the trabbi - my folks were in Berlin when the wall came down - some stories!

How many have forgot the trabbi - my folks were in Berlin when the wall came down - some stories!

 

Being made out of largely non-biodegradeable plastics, it's sort of hard to 'forget' the Trabbi. How to dispose of it legally is even more difficult. (Maybe the mercury batteries of the auto world?)

 

I was scheduled for a sabbatical in the German Democratic Republic. By the time I was supposed to go, my destination no longer existed. :(

Edited September 27, 2018 by JDMvW

Well... I'm not sure about this. It's apparently based on the M240. So it's a superceded camera. If only they had made a genuine effort to bring something unique to the market. So far it doesn't seem to be very desirable.

 

Leica had decades to release a 35mm Noctilux and they still don't have one. Instead they give us a 75/1.2, a lens that doesn't seem to make any sense, even though it's an excellent piece of engineering.

Hmm... a "made in Russia"

camera/lens for $5000+...

http://bayouline.com/o2.gif

Yes Vincent Peri, I remember the Lada Niva. A friend of mine had the misfortune to buy one. He couldn't get the wheels off. It appears that at the time of its production, the factory went thru recurrent practices of 'storming'. The wheel nuts were sledge hammered on to keep production up - at least that was his theory. Though, I have watched the Ural motorcycle, and its development. It's an attractive bike. So while I share your wonder and amazement, time will tell. Regards, Arthur (apiarist1)

According to German news the camera itself will be made in Germany, by Leica. I really wanted to see Russian labeled Leicas instead of "Leica" & "Luftwaffe" labeled FEDs for quite a while.

• Another brand offering some insanely fast lens in M-mount. Russians competing with Chinese and Japanese can't be bad. - Maybe Leica working for them will lead to 6 Bit coding and firmware updates for existing bodies?
  
• Leica doing what they are best at; celebrating the announcement of a reheating of their yesteryear's tech. Basically not a bad move; the longer they keep ordering components for production, the more likely they'll be able to fix what might break.
  

Like Jochen, the best news out of this for me was/is, this camera is based on the M240, so parts for my MP240.....at least at some level, should remain available for a longer period of time, which should be the case anyway as there are still plenty of them available new. It may be yesterday's tech, but for a stills-only shooter the M240/MP240/M262 and the Monochrome M246 are cameras that are plenty good enough for a long time. Edited September 27, 2018 by Greg M

Better order one NOW. . .Mr. T is likely to slap a 25% tariff on them. . . German's. . .Ruskies. . .

We used to have a saying in Iraq: "everything made in Russia heats up except the iron!"