I have just bought a brand new M6 TTL. Could a kindly and experienced soul give me an exhaustive checklist of everything I need to check on the new camera (if possible with idiot-proof explanations of how to perform the checks).

BTW, the camera (an LHSA) did not come with a Test Certificate. Is that normal?

I note there is someone on ebay.co.uk who seems regularly to sell 'brand new' M6s for half the retail price. What's the catch?

Thank you,

PD

-- PD (pd100@hotmail.com), December 13, 2001

Answers

Try this from the Cameraquest Web site:

http://www.cameraquest.com/mguide.htm

Scroll down to the "M Buyer's Checklist" part of the page. It's a start.

-- Chuck Albertson (chucko@siteconnect.com), December 13, 2001.

your not talking about this seller, are you? UK Leica seller What do you consider "half the retail price" to be?

-- Andrew Schank (aschank@flash.net), December 13, 2001.

Yes, I thought I had seen more than one M6 below £1000. Even just over £1000 seems well below the £1798 (or whatever the retail price is). I am rather inexperienced in these matters - so perhaps I have overlooked something obvious ... ?

-- PD (pd100@hotmail.com), December 13, 2001.

You can buy a "gray market" M6--(one without Leica passport warranty which is what I'm sure this seller is offering) at several reputable places for near what this person is asking on ebay. "Retail" here for a full US warranty model right now is about $1800US after the current rebate, and the grey market cameras price varies but is in the $1550 to $1650 range. To make things even more confusing, not all grey market deals are the same, as some at least come with an after market warranty, and some come "as is".

-- Andrew Schank (aschank@flash.net), December 13, 2001.

Maybe I'm missing something, but are you (PD) looking to "exhaustively test" every function on a brand new camera you just took out of the box? Do you doubt Leica's quality control to THAT extent? Put a battery in it (the one Leica provides is usually OK), dry fire it at each shutter speed, swing a lens from near focus to infinity, flick the frameline selector, then put some film in it and go take pictures. When you finish that roll, put another one in and take some more pictures. Keep doing the film in/film out routine as often possible until something actually goes wrong with the camera (usually a minimum of five years, often much, much longer). This is just a Leica thing, right? People who buy Nikon F5's, Canon EOS-1V's and the like don't "exhaustively test" their brand new cameras, do they? They load 'em up and use 'em. That's what I do, but as I say, maybe I'm missing something.

-- Robert Schneider (rolopix@yahoo.com), December 13, 2001.

PD,

I can see Robert's point of view but it still doesn't hurt to check. It's better than paying the cash, taking the camera home and only then finding something wrong that you could easily have checked in the shop.

Check the things Robert suggests, but also test that the light meter functions correctly and gives reasonable readings for the ambient light. These have been known to be faulty, even in brand new cameras. In addition, if you can, test the flash synch, i.e. put a suitable flashgun in the shoe and check that it fires at 1/50 sec. or slower (with everything turned on).

-- Ray Moth (ray_moth@yahoo.com), December 14, 2001.

Robert, I fear you are missing something; namely the many recent discussions on Leica quality control! If you have read them you too may feel PD's approach is a very sensible one.

-- Giles Poilu (giles@monpoilu.icom43.net), December 14, 2001.

check the meter!

i just bought an brand new M6 TTL...the first one i got was overexposing by at least 2 stops! i had to exchange it...

later.

-- Dexter Legaspi (dalegaspi@hotmail.com), December 14, 2001.