M2 ST Black Paint 1075104

This Black Paint Leica M2 was made in 1963 and comes from an official production batch of cameras. Jim Lager confirms this batch as 1075001-1075300, from which he has personally seen several cameras. This one has heavy patina and features a special rewind knob made by Marty Forscher that has a unique telescoping rewind lever. The rewind knob underneath was later changed to chrome, likely when this rewind knob was added. The strap lugs have also been replaced at least one time in its life. The current lugs are worn, but remain solid. Also of note is an old brass headed screw on the top plate, near the counter. This was said to have been on the camera when it was acquired from the original owner. The past owner reports having the camera recovered in leather by Leitz Midland back in the mid 1980's. The vulcanite on the film door is original and all else on the camera appears original.

This camera was retained by its previous owner from 1968 until 2023, when it was sold to us and has a long history of photography. The previous owner was said to have acquired this from Photographer Jim Marshall. The two met at the "No Name" bar in Marin, very early in the career of the previous owner, and became friends over their common love of photography. At that time, it came with a Zeiss 21mm and finder. The previous owner supplemented the set with several Canon lenses. All lenses belonging to the camera were lost in a theft in London in 1971. Luckily, the camera body was dropped off for service at a dealer, earlier that day. At this point the camera received a set of Nikon lenses and currently wears a Nikon strap. This was a working kit until the whole set was stolen from the owner's car in the mid 1980's. At that point, all of the vulcanite had come off and the camera looked pretty ratty. The owner's sister found the camera in a bush a couple of days later. They suspected that the thieves figured that it was worthless due to the extensive patina and lack of body covering. At that point, the camera was returned to Leitz Canada for service and body re-covering. The camera presently has not been used in the last decade and it could currently benefit from a basic CLA and rangefinder alignment, although it is usable in its present state. Normally, I would service a camera before presenting it to the public, but this one has had such an interesting life, that I choose to respect the detritus in the cracks and crevices and to keep it exactly as found.