I have one of the earliest M4's made and it is in dire need of help. I remember hearing about a summer special refurbishment done by Leica in NJ years ago. Has anyone ever had there camera body reworked by Leica or have any info on cost of such an undertaking. Thanks, Bill Groff

-- bill groff (wgroff@cfl.rr.com), May 26, 2002

Answers

Bill:

I had a pair of M3's gone through two years ago. The rangefinders were cleaned and both were converted from double to single stroke. It cost me about $550.00 each, including shipping. They had the cameras for about 6 weeks, and the work was very good.

-- Mark Johnson (logical1@catholic.org), May 26, 2002.

I had a Leitz M6 CLA/ RF repaired Nov '01, by Leica USA, NJ. They did a great job. I set the whole thing up by e-mail, and they stayed in touch every step of the way. So first step, e-mail them and see what they say. One other thing, it was accutually cheaper than their estimate.

-- Glenn Travis (leicaddict@hotmail.com), May 26, 2002.

Apparantly they haven't done the Spring Cleaning special for about 3 years. They do do good work and when they cleaned my M3 they replaced the flash sync covers that I had taken off for transit.

-- Chad Hahn (thehahns@cornhusker.net), May 26, 2002.

I wanted to add that I lost my Leitz Red Dot. They replaced it with a Leica Red Dot which now make my camera look as silly as everyone elses. But, afterall, I wanted to turn this piece into a "user" and not a collectors item.

-- Glenn Travis (leciaddict@hotmail.com), May 26, 2002.

They did not lose you Leitz red dot. The red dot is an access cover for the rangefinder vertical alignment. It is replaced as a matter of course during an adjustment or CLA. They ran out of ones that say Leitz long ago.

-- John Collier (jbcollier@shaw.ca), May 26, 2002.

While this is not an exact answer to your question, maybe it will give you an idea. Leica Denmark charged me around 350$ (less parts) about a year ago when my M4 was in need of a overhaul. Parts were about 125$ including new shuttercurtains. The turnaround time was about 4 weeks. I understand from comments in this forum that Leica NJ wants around 300$ + parts for a similar service.

-- Niels H. S. Nielsen (nhsn@ruc.dk), May 27, 2002.

My M4 went overboard last Fall in saltwater. Nothing worked. I figured it was dead. Called Leica NJ, and they said send it in. They did a complete overhaul with new shuttercurtains, etc. for around $500 which included parts. I'm glad I dropped it now, as the camera works like it just came out of the box.

-- John Galloway (jgall30125@aol.com), May 27, 2002.