Guide to the Sololeicas Condition Ratings system:

Sololeicas.com agrees with the usual standard of condition rating applied by the Shutterbug Magazine, with some caveats (See Notes).

If you want a description of the terms most commonly used in the description of camera aesthetic condition, click here or scroll down to the next section.

Below is a short description of the Rating system used:

• New: Never used item, as sent by the manufacturer to the dealer/distributor. This can also include some "New Old Stock" items, as bought directly from a dealer/distributor and never opened/used. It must include all original packing, instruction booklets/manuals. May be eligible (not always available for New Old Stock items) for full warranty service from the original dealer/distributor, with some international exceptions.
• Demo: An item used only for demonstration purposes, in Mint or Near Mint Condition
• Mint: 100% original finish. Just like New, but pre-owned. Not always includes packing or manuals, etc.
• Excellent Plus (Exc+): 90 to 99% original finish. Very little, but evidently used. No scarring or brassing of finish.
• Excellent (Exc): 80 to 89% original finish. May have very few but noticeable finishing flaws, including brassing on black paint cameras/lenses (See Comments).
• Excellent Minus (Exc-): 70 to 79% original finish. May have some noticeable/very noticeable finishing flaws, which do not affect mechanical/optical performance.
• Very Good (VG): 50 to 69% original finish. Finishing may be scarred or scratched or in any way marked (dings or dents, see Notes)
• Fair (F): Less than 50% original finish, but still working. No missing parts. See Notes
• As Is: Incomplete or malfunctioning or not working at all item. See Notes

Notes about condition rating:

1. Items from "Like New" down to "Very Good" must be working perfectly, mechanically and/or optically.
2. Items in "Fair" condition must be working, but might do so unreliably.
3. Items in "As Is" are usually worth only for restoration projects and/or for parts.
4. All defects are / must be explicitly described.
5. Sometimes, it is very difficult to give a camera a precise rating, so "half values" are given, as Like New, Mint Minus, Very Good Plus

Comments on Dings, Dents & Other Body and Lenses Defects:

Bodies:

• "Dings" is how usually small bumps on a camera surface are called. They sometimes are referred to as "Soft" if their borders are not very abruptly marked.
  I have never seen a harsh bordered ding called a "Hard" ding, but anyway I suppose it would be a proper term.
• "Dents" are small impact marks, usually on the borders of a camera. There may be sometimes "Micro-dents", best viewed through a magnifying glass.
• "Scuff-Marks" or "Bright-Lines" are the terror of Leica fans. Chromed cameras (especially Leicas) have a dull, delicately "microned" surface texture, that gets easily "polished" when rubbed against something hard, or during enough time.
  Usual examples are the "Leicameter marks" left on the top plate of M cameras by a poorly designed (IMHO) lightmeter that with time flects on its support feet and rubs against the top plate surface. Other usual examples are the bright lines left on LTM bodies by their rubbing against the interior of the everready case, mostly seen at the left corner of the rangefinder housing.
• "Brassing" applies almost exclusively to black paint cameras. Somewhere referred to also as "Patina", a rather poetic term. It means the showing of the underlying brass through a paint layer due to rubbing during use. It is almost, but not only, a "trade mark" of black paint cameras built by Leitz, since Japanese cameras seem way more resistant to paint degradation (especially Nikon reflex cameras).
  Even if some people take this condition as a proof of originality, be aware that some painters are now beginning to reproduce this on the cameras they paint. Restoration and repainting was also carried over by the Leitz factory, so you can find perfect original cameras besides "brassed" ex-chrome cameras.
• "Broken/Replaced Vulcanite". Vulcanite is a texturized rubber compound used to cover the body of Leicas prior to the M4-2, faking grained leather or leatherette. It was vulcanized in place over the metal body, and over time it gets dry and fragile. It cracks and falls, leaving an unpleasant view of the bare metal below. If the defect is small, there are ways to fill it in, but if the defect covers a large area, it is better have the whole vulcanite scraped away and have it replaced with a new leather or leatherette covering. Just try googling the net and you'll find a couple of sites specialized in this kind of restoration. I have tried the kits sold by aki-asahi in Japan, and I can tell they are really well done. The backing is absolutely firm and the texture is a very close match to the vulcanite found on Leica cameras. You can also find detailed instructions on how to replace the broken vulcanite on your camera fitting one of these kits by yourself at this site, owned by Mr. David Krauss.

Lenses

• "Wipe Marks" or "Cleaning Marks" are a common defect on the front surface of first element in coated lenses, and usually the earlier the lens, the worst they are prone to them due to the "softness" of the said coating. This term should be only applied to marks that affect the antireflex coating of the lens, not the optical glass. They reduce image quality (optical performance of the lens) proportionally to their amount, introducing dispersion (scattering) of light.
• "Fungus" (pl. "Fungi" in Latin, or "Funguses" in English), is Latin for 'mushroom', and they tend to grow on the surface of lens elements, on the air-glass interface, or on the glass-cement interface in composited groups. They grow usually if the lens has been stored exposed to the three conditions mushrooms like more: darkness, warmness and humidity. That is to say any lens kept in a closet in a place with a wet climate, unused for a long time, tends to develop these nasty creatures. Depending on the species grown, the glass coating may be scarred by the hyphae (those filiform branchlike formations visible as cotton filaments) or even the glass may be etched by the enzymatic products of the fungi. They may reduce greatly optical performance of a lens by scattering of light, so reducing contrast and 'softening' the sharpness of an image. Sometimes they can be removed by a qualified technician, so don't despair.

© Ed Albesi - www.sololeicas.com