I have been wondering how the M7 is selling. Any information appreciated.

-- David Enzel (dhenzel@vei.net), April 15, 2002

Answers

I was at Glazers last weekend in Seattle and told VERY well over the last few weeks and hardly any m6's sold. By the way anyone want to part with an old-out-dated M6.58ttl.

-- gary brown (drdad1111@yahoo.com), April 15, 2002.

The Leica dealer in Ottawa reports 100% sales of M7's - he got one in, and now I own it :-)

I don't know from numbers, but he impression I'm getting is that the thing is flying out of the stores. the absolute numbers are probably still pretty low. It's obviously got the early-adopters and the gotta-havers excited.

About the cheap .58 M6 - wait for a couple of months till the other finders are out, and ask the question again. You'll probably get a response.

-- Paul Chefurka (paul@chefurka.com), April 15, 2002.

I was in the Leicashop here in Vienna last Saturday. They told me that the M7 sells very well. While i was there one costumer traded in two M6ttl for one M7. He told me that he keeps his Hexar RF in addition to his M7.

cu Alex BTW I bought a used Hexar RF ;-)

-- A.Magedler (ajm-photo@gmx.at), April 15, 2002.

Dealers here in Hong Kong are bringing in the M7 in small batches, and, according to the ones I've spoken with, they're sold out within days. Current Hong Kong price: HK$ 16,500 (about US$ 2150), but it's expected to drop when the camera is avaliable in bigger quantities.

-- Hoyin Lee (leehoyin@hutchcity.com), April 16, 2002.

My local Dealer in Uk had to even sell the demo model as it was causing problems for customers on the waiting list!

-- Karl Yik (karl.yik@dk.com), April 16, 2002.

Is that the same dealer I go to? They tell me I'm now at the top of the list for the M7 (from a start of 20th or so), and there's about 20 or more behind me!

-- Tim Franklin (tim_franklin@mac.com), April 16, 2002.

I was in Hong Kong recently (3 weeks ago) and there were plenty of M7s available (several anyway). best price was HK$15,900 at the first ask. Probably better with a bit of bargaining. My impression was that buyers are becoming more sophisticated due largely to forums such as this, and there was significant buyer resistance to the initial inflated prices.

This was in contrast to 1984 when I attempted to buy an M6 in HK and was quoted more than the already incredible list price.

The simple solution is to stick it to the dealers and tell them that they need a reality check. Simply, do not buy at their inflated prices. If we all do that, the prices will drop dramatically sooner.

-- wayne murphy (wmurphy@powerup.com.au), April 16, 2002.

Are M6TTL's really becoming cheaper? I wouldn't think so, rather that the M7 is a supplement to a Leica kit. Isn't it very problematic that a serious Leica M shooter would accept total battery reliance?!?! I wouldn't. I was shooting recently and the battery in my M6 died, no problem, just keep shooting. Yes, the stores would open later, but my light would have been gone by then. Am I wrong?

-- Dan Brown (brpatent@swbell.net), April 16, 2002.

Many Leicaphles have a lot of money, or like to buy new stuff. Let's face it, there is not so much to buy in the M-line, so many people are only too happy to spend some money on a genuinely new M camera. Personally I do not think the M6s will decrease radically in price. After all older pre-M6 M cameras are hardly cheap and in my opinion the M6 was the most siginifcant advance since the M line introduction. The M7 has a couple of nice extra features, but not enough to make all the other models worthless by a long chalk.

-- Robin Smith (smith_robin@hotmail.com), April 16, 2002.

Selling 20 M7 in three days.....

-- Anthony Lee (amhlee@i-cable.com), April 17, 2002.