On Wednesday, March 30, 2005, at 09:32 PM, Jayanand Govindaraj wrote: > I recently bought, at an estate sale, two each of Leica M3 & IIIf, > with 8 lenses. All the Leica lenses (made from early to late 1950s) > were full of haze and full of cleaning scratches on the front element > , and they were stiff to the point of unusability. The bodies were all > off on focusing and shutter speed, though they looked pristine. I have > spent some money cleaning the lenses, and now have to spend a small > fortune in getting the bodies upto scratch. > > At the same sale I also bought an early Nikon F (1961) with 6 non AI > lenses. The camera is also pristine, but everything works flawlessly, > including the Photomic meter. The lenses are absolutely clear, and > have had to go for no cleaning or maintenance. > > All the cameras mentioned above have had only one owner, who bought > them new and then kept using them till he died. He really looked after > his equipment to the extent he could, living here in India. Could it be that you just got unlucky with the Leicas and/or lucky with the Nikon? Anyway, if *I* got to use a Leica M3 in excellent condition and an early Nikon F in the same sort of condition, back to back, there's no question in my mind as to which of the two would give me the greater pleasure to use. Cheers.