ottokbre wrote:
bjhurley wrote
brick33308 wrote
are there any dirt cheap film cams on which I can use my M lenses? I don't think "dirt cheap" and "M" go together, although by sheer dumb luck I got my Leica M2-R (a rare model no less) for essentially $250 (or if you look at it another way, I got it for $1,000 along with three Leica lenses for free). But that's because I got it from an old friend who gave me an incredible deal.
Probably the Voigtlander Bessas are your best bet for cheap M although they're ugly and prone to problems; the Minolta CLE is cheaper than most Leicas but its price has gone way up in recent years. Not sure what other options are out there apart from the less-desirable Leica models, but they tend to be less desirable for good reasons. Leitz/Minolta CL is your best bet. $400-500 if you shop around. Mechanical and serviceable. Saw a beater for for $300 last week. That's as good as it gets unless you go screw mount in which case you have a bunch of sub-$200 Canons.
CLE, Hexar RF, Bessa are all around $1k now which is about what you can get an M3 for and I've seen/purchased M4 and M2s for close to that amount too.
The Bessa R2/3/4 series prices are loopy now. They are going for $1200+. I had an R3a and sold it because I asked myself why would I ever want to use this over my Ms?
Right now the cheapest Ms are the 3 and 4-2. Both are super.
I had two CLEs but both had electrical failures. One CL that I bought for the 40 Summicron that was attached to it. The camera itself was jammed but handling it made me think just keep saving until you have enough for an M.
I always wanted to use a Konica Hexar RF as the specs are so cool, but was scared away by the reliability horror stories.
The Zeiss Ikon ZM I had suffered from a film transport failure - they use the same cheap plastic gears as the $100 (at the time) Bessa L - and I have also seen shutter failures where the blades have literally come apart. Same thing as in the Bessas because they share the same parts. Either way, the ZM is about $1400 so might as well get an M4..
Anyway my definition of dirt cheap is under $50 for a decent camera. Like a Nikon N/F80 or equivalent from the other mfgs. Those cameras are legit so good.