"32 years in a box"
Black Leicaflex SL from Leitz Wetzlar, Germany
(80.995 of these cameras were build 1968-1974)
Serial no 1371464

My Leitz Leicaflex SL in black, here with 50 mm Summicron-R f/2.0 from Canada

This specific camera was build in 1973 as the 3.346th last Leicaflex SL to be build. A total of 80.995 Leicaflex SL were made in black and chrome, then the SL2 model was released

This one has been on a shelf in Bremen, Germany since it was build. A Bremen photo shop had it in stock till 2004 when the photo shop was bought by a photo chain. They wanted to clean up the stock and Photografica photo shop in Denmark was offered the camera along with some "new" lenses from back then. I managed to snatch the camera at Photografica for a very decent price.

I got this camera and some other Leica cameras/lenses from a private owner in exchange for my Nikon F3 gear and have no history of the camera besides that. I had used the camera very little as the lightmeter was off. But I then decided to get it not just repaired and cleaned/lubricated/adjusted - but also to get it cosmetic renovated. This was done at Leica Solms in 2004 and the above photo is the camera that came back. The photo below shows the camera before it went to Solms.

I have a SL mot already which I sent to Leica in 2004 and got a new top plate, front plate and bottom plate. As well as new buttons on the top. Here you can see the two together:

The SL has an extremely nice shutter sound and is build like a tank. This baby will go to work like my other cameras.

Leica SL2 manual [PDF]
Leica SL manual [ on-line at http://yandr.50megs.com/leica/sl/sl.htm ]

Thorsten Overgaard, August 2005