The first couple sentences...
"The last few weeks I took pictures with a fifty-year-old Leica M3 that
recently has been serviced with minor adjustments. This was the first
overhaul in half a century and given the small amount of repairs it should
now be fit for another half century."
...already describe the person. All lab technicians I spoke to about tuning
old Leicas told me they mostly get horribly mis-adjusted cameras to restore
as possible. That's not a Leica fault, it's the unavoidable problem for any
decently-built mechanical camera of that age. A mechanical camera cannon be
tuned as precisely as a typical Leica owner dreams of when new, go figure a
fifty-year-old one. However, any polite technician will always assure the
Leica owner his camera only needed minor adjustments.
That said, it is true that a mechanical camera from the fifties will operate
much longer than an electronic one. Take it for granted. That also applies
to say a SV, a Spotmatic or a K1000. I own a couple Asahiflexes
(mid-fifties) which look like having been manufactured in late 2010 and work
flawlessly, adjusted more or less like you can expect from a Leica of the
same vintage.
Dario
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