Had to pick between a used Leica M3 and a full CLA on my old Canon F-1

I finally had to make a choice last month between buying a used Leica M3 body from a guy in Portland, or just putting $400 into a full CLA for my beat up Canon F-1. I went with the Canon overhaul because the shutter speeds on it were all over the place and the mirror was sticking at 1/1000. The repair took about 3 weeks and cost $385 total. Now it runs smooth as butter and feels like a totally different camera. Kind of made me wonder if I even need the Leica anymore, or if good repair work just makes me fall in love with what I already have. Has anyone else passed on a flashy deal to fix up an old workhorse instead?

3 comments

3 Comments

stella_lane1mo ago

Did you end up checking if all the screws on your F-1 were still tight after that CLA? I've got a habit of dropping mine and I swear it develops new issues every time I bump into a door frame. Sounds like that overhaul is paying off though, nothing beats that fresh feel of a perfectly timed shutter. My old Minolta SRT-101 got the same treatment last year and I literally hugged it when I got it back.

averymartin1mo ago

oh man, i checked every single one after reading your post actually haha. two of the baseplate screws were just barely loose, not rattling but definitely not tight. i think i bumped it on a tripod leg last week and didn't notice. the CLA guy said he torqued everything to spec but i guess i shook it loose. that reassuring click when the shutter fires at 1/1000 now is orgasmic though. still finding myself checking the screws every time i put the lens back on though, paranoid habit.

karen_roberts41mo ago

Well I'll be. I used to think the whole "check your screws" thing was overblown paranoia from the forums. But hearing you actually found loose ones makes me rethink that entirely. I had a similar experience with my old Nikon F2 - dropped it off a table once and never thought twice about the baseplate. Now I'm wondering if some of the weird intermittent issues I had were just loose screws all along. That satisfying sound when everything is tight and aligned is something you don't appreciate until you've heard it both ways. I might have to start giving mine a quick once-over every few weeks now too, just to be safe.