The title of the post is what Mike Plews commented when he sent me this link.
Seems pretty cool, and also pretty silly, in just about equal measure...but also cool...but also silly....
Mike
Send this post to a friend
Please help support TOP by patronizing our sponsors B&H Photo and Amazon
Note: Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. More...
Original contents copyright 2011 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.
Like "acid-washed jeans" - maybe a new fad where your M9 can come pre-brassed, or your X100 can come pre-, uh, magnesium-ed?
Posted by: MarkB | Monday, 28 November 2011 at 10:25 AM
I wonder how long before manufacturers start making "distressed look" cameras. I mean we already have pink, red, and leopard spots...
Posted by: Alan | Monday, 28 November 2011 at 10:30 AM
Both you and your friend are right, Mike. It is instant street cred. And it is kinda cool and kinda silly. I almost considered it... until I remembered how much the lenses would cost me. For the price of that well-used body, one could buy an X100 and still have a grand left over to donate to the local food bank this season.
Posted by: Steve Biro | Monday, 28 November 2011 at 11:02 AM
Street cred only is you are at least over 60; anyone younger is just not old enough to have worn a camera down that much. It would just look like a kid wearing dad's big boots :-)
Posted by: Jan Kusters | Monday, 28 November 2011 at 11:17 AM
I think it leans more toward the cool than silly, though it seems silly but its just too damn cool.
Dear Santa.....
Posted by: Jim Mooney | Monday, 28 November 2011 at 11:18 AM
Well we obviously know that it would have street cred with a miniscule percentage of the general public, but I suspect that it would only appeal to a diminshingly small number of today's photographers - that thing is ugly!
Strictly a collectors item, for that price one could get a modern Bessa and several lenses, complete with much easier film loading and a built in meter.
Posted by: Robin P | Monday, 28 November 2011 at 11:47 AM
Now where did I put that can of black paint.
Posted by: Carl | Monday, 28 November 2011 at 11:49 AM
It's a beauty. I'd love to see what images were created with this Leica, and by whom.
Posted by: Rob Atkins | Monday, 28 November 2011 at 12:23 PM
My oldest black OM-1 has a lot of brassing and I'd be willing to let it go for 1/5 that current bid. I'll even toss in a lens.
Seriously now, the sad part is that the new owner will shelve the camera. I doubt it will ever have another roll put through it.
Posted by: John Robison | Monday, 28 November 2011 at 12:36 PM
Nice photos, actually. I'd buy it in a minute, if only I had a lens to match....
Posted by: Richard | Monday, 28 November 2011 at 12:56 PM
First thing I thought seeing the picture, "Oh jeez, the sensor is getting dusty!"
Posted by: Tom Brenholts | Monday, 28 November 2011 at 01:05 PM
Seems to me that the price should be reduced by about 30% given that 30% of the paint is missing. :-)
Posted by: Jamie Pillers | Monday, 28 November 2011 at 01:06 PM
I swear, that thing looks like Jim Marshall's old beast....except his was an M4, I believe.....
Posted by: Paul W. Luscher | Monday, 28 November 2011 at 01:18 PM
The most black painted Leica Ms I've ever seen were on the photographers' stands at the last Presidential Inauguration I photographed. It was just amazing, seemed like almost half the photographers there had an M and about 1/2 of those were black, and pre-M5.
Posted by: Doug C | Monday, 28 November 2011 at 01:27 PM
That's nothing. This is the new "distressed look" standard: http://www.popphoto.com/news/2011/11/canon-eos-1000-rescued-after-year-beneath-sea
Posted by: Ricardo Cordeiro | Monday, 28 November 2011 at 01:29 PM
How long before the marketing department at Solms releases brand new Leicas that look like this at a premium price instead of the usual gold and alligator skin jobbies? There has to be a dollar in it for them.
Posted by: Walter Glover | Monday, 28 November 2011 at 01:36 PM
Crap.
Posted by: cb | Monday, 28 November 2011 at 01:37 PM
"What, this old thing? Yeah, it dates back to when I used to hang out in Paris with Henri. James Nachtwey? Great kid. He's done well since I taught him. Yeah sure, I'm still taking students."
Posted by: Steve Renwick | Monday, 28 November 2011 at 02:58 PM
I ask myself would I pay $22.50 for that Leica? Yes, I would.
I only ask myself that as there are many tens of thousands of people whose bank accounts are 100 times greater than mine, and thus whose trigger threshold for sticker shock may correspondingly be 100 times higher (clearly, not all of them). Among those tens of thousands will be hundreds of keen photographers, and maybe a dozen or so Leica fans.
Easy sale.
Posted by: James B | Monday, 28 November 2011 at 03:13 PM
That's only one house payment in my part of the country...and there are still 3 days left of bidding—it could get worse. Very silly!
Posted by: Miserere | Monday, 28 November 2011 at 04:21 PM
I bet by the time it sells it would be cheaper to buy a new black paint MP and use it for a decade or three.
Voltz
Posted by: V.I. Voltz | Monday, 28 November 2011 at 04:25 PM
And to think that I sold my beautiful vgc M6 for just $2000 three years ago .Not to worry though my slightly battered M3 is looking like money in the bank if I can find a way of "distressing" it quickly without destroying it.
John Shingleton
Posted by: John Shingleton | Monday, 28 November 2011 at 05:08 PM
Maybe the economy is improving. I sold a very similar M4 (mechanically perfect with distressed black paint) about a year ago, and the bidding barely made it to $1500.
On the other hand, as you might expect, there are only 2, or maybe 3, serious bidders on this one. But that's all it takes.
Posted by: Paris | Monday, 28 November 2011 at 06:00 PM
I have a car which is in pretty much in the same state, cosmetics-wise. Maybe I should put it on eBay...
Posted by: Luc N. | Monday, 28 November 2011 at 06:05 PM
Film or digital?
Posted by: Jim Ullrich | Monday, 28 November 2011 at 06:08 PM
You lost me. If I had a rare 1960 Manx Norton I would be ashamed to sell it in that condition.
Posted by: Arg | Monday, 28 November 2011 at 06:23 PM
Addendum to my previous post: there a cult subgroup call Rat Bikes in motorcycle world. I guess this Leica belongs to Rat Cams.
Posted by: Arg | Monday, 28 November 2011 at 06:26 PM
My Canon 5D has a lot of "plasticing", which is decidedly less cool than brassing.
Posted by: Drew | Monday, 28 November 2011 at 08:02 PM
I still can't afford any of 'em. The Leica bodies and lenses, I mean. Oh, well. I'm looking at getting a Nikon V1 next month, and making-do with my Nikon F100 and Yashicha TLR...
(Sigh.) Life is SO unfair sometimes. ;>).
With best regards,
Stephen.
Posted by: Stephen S. Mack | Monday, 28 November 2011 at 08:23 PM
Working on getting my M6 to look like that. I tell you, it's hard work.
Posted by: David Boyce | Monday, 28 November 2011 at 09:16 PM
What happened to the white paint on the top side lettering and on the shutter-speed dial? It looks kinda fakey-do to me. My black paint Leica never did that.
The camera world equivalent of an automotive rat-rod of modern production?
I would love an M9 that looked like this, is this one digital? No, make mine a NEX-7 that looks like this.
Uh, not really.
Posted by: Doug C | Monday, 28 November 2011 at 10:01 PM
How much cred you'd get for this one? And how much would you be willing to pay?
http://www.theverge.com/2011/11/26/2587599/canon-eos
Also, interesting story how the owner of the camera was eventually found.
Posted by: Dariusz | Monday, 28 November 2011 at 10:56 PM
Don't think cheap!
A couple of years ago, I furnished a half-dozen photos by my HS art teacher of Briggs Cunningham and his racing cars from the 1950s to Christies for an auction of his Patek Phillipe wristwatch. It went for about 4million Swiss Francs - even with the leather band...
http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=5065258
Posted by: J Hayes | Tuesday, 29 November 2011 at 01:50 AM
You guys obviously don't keep up with the electric guitar world where Fender charges huge money to beat up a brand new Stratocaster for you. Take a look at this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ag0nU_WQtUs
As for fine German machinery, The car below had Germans begging the owner to sell them his parked outdoors by the beach for 50 years Porsche for prices somewhere between a small house and a really nice new Porsche.

You can actually see all the way through the car from one side to the other.
Something about wanting drive it as to really bug Ralph Lauren.
Posted by: hugh crawford | Tuesday, 29 November 2011 at 02:27 AM
Ricardo and Dariusz, all that Canon needs is a Clean, Lube, and Adjustment and it'll be on Ebay! : )
Posted by: Roger Bradbury | Tuesday, 29 November 2011 at 05:40 AM
"all that Canon needs is a Clean, Lube, and Adjustment and it'll be on Ebay! : )"
...described as "Mint minus."
--Cynical Mike
Posted by: Mike Johnston | Tuesday, 29 November 2011 at 08:13 AM
Luc N,
Is your car a 1955 Benz 300SL gullwing? If so then yes.
Posted by: Tim F | Tuesday, 29 November 2011 at 10:16 AM
Got a TR6 in the barn I can let go of for $25,000 and the mice are free!
Sure the rockers are rotted and the dog ate the top but it went into the shed under it's own power and that was only ten years ago.
Posted by: Mike Plews | Tuesday, 29 November 2011 at 10:55 AM
Instant street cred in whose eyes?
Posted by: DerekL | Tuesday, 29 November 2011 at 12:58 PM
Ten hours left and it's up the THREE house payments. That's it, I'm taking a belt sander to my Argus C3 and see if I can turn the cost of a couple of steaks at Gorat's out of it.
Posted by: Mike Plews | Thursday, 01 December 2011 at 11:17 AM
Closed at $3,451.00.
I really love these old brassed Leicas, both as mechanical creations, and as historical objects, but that's a bunch of money.
Similar cameras in the (really much better) chrome finish are selling for under $1000.
Like you said, silly but cool. But silly.
Posted by: Paris | Friday, 02 December 2011 at 08:01 PM