Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/01/10

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Subject: Re: Leica ain't perfect...
From: "Charles E. Love, Jr." <cel14@cornell.edu>
Date: Fri, 10 Jan 1997 22:58:52 -0500 (EST)

Leica never has been perfect.  Does anyone else remember the story in Modern
Photography about the early M3's ceramic pressure plate?  In reply to
someone who wrote in accusing Modern of covering up camera defects, Modern
claimed that the original M3 had failed their tests, and that they had,
rather than publish the results, told Leica about it, which then corrected
the problem (which, memory says, had to do with the ceramic pressure plate
on the earliest M3's).  Then Modern published, of course, a rave review.
The letter writer was right, though--Modern should have exposed the defect
and told people how to avoid buying a camera with it.

Anyway--Leica isn't perfect, never has been, because it's run by fallible
humans (not Gods--even German technical people are not of divine origin).
Just for the record, anyway, my early M6 has never lost its battery cover.
It's required one repair over its whole life--a mysterious tiny hole in the
shutter curtain, which Leitz said must have been burned in by leaving it
pointed up toward the sun with the lens cap off.  I didn't remember doing
any such thing!  But this record--I bought it about 15 years ago--is good,
especailly compared with my R4!

Charlie

Charles E. Love, Jr.
CEL14@CORNELL.EDU