Leica durability

[Donal Philby <donalphilby@earthlink.net>]

LUGnuts:

Saw this on the usually dormant AOL leica forum.  And  he is or isn't
related, I can't remember. 


Subj:  Re:Leica durability
Date:  97-06-20 13:48:27 EDT
From:  OBarnack        

With all this talk about Leica durablity, you may be interested in some
actual data. As part of a consulting project we recently reviewed the
audio-visual and photo lab. records of a major research center of the
State University of New York. This facility operates a "lending library"
of photo equipment and permits scientists to "check out" a system for
the duration of a project. Film is also supplied and records are kept on
the number of rolls run through each camera. At the end of the project
the equipment is returned, checked out, and readied for the next user.
The records cover the period from 1950 to 1996. The database excluded
cameras which were damaged by non-photographic use i.e. falling on
concrete, submergence, etc.

The two longest durability non-SLR 35mm cameras are, in order, ROBOT and
LEICA. One Robot has had over 2,000,000 frames run through it since the
60's. A Leica M3 DS made almost 450,000 exposures since its purchase
date in 1954. Both of these figures should be taken with a grain of
salt. There are very few competitors in this class of cameras. The Robot
was used in data recording with exposures taken automatically every few
minutes, the Leica as an ID camera in a high security installation.
Still, the mechanical longevity of both cameras is several times the
norm for professional use. It is likely that an ordinary professional
photographer would drop or lose the camera, or would replace it due to
obsolescence before it would wear out. Either would last an amateur
several photographic lifetimes.

In the SLR category, the durability champ was an Olympus OM-1 purchased
in 1974 and still in use. It has made nearly 260,000 exposures during
that period in the course of documenting ongoing urban renewal projects.
All the Olympus SLRs in the inventory required little in the way of
repairs or maintenance. Close behind were Canon and Nikon cameras. What
is surprising is that the Olympus was criticized for its apparently
delicate construction when it was introduced. Obviously the light weight
and low inertia of the moving parts contribute as much to longevity as
the more massive construction of its competitors. Autoexposure
capability did not influence the durability much, although those cameras
which controlled exposure by varying shutter speed were significantly
more reliable than those that did so by varying lens opening. Apparently
the smaller the number of moving parts, the less there was to break.
Autofocus, on the other hand, greatly increased the liklihood of repair,
halving the mean time to failure.

The longest durability roll film camera was a Kodak Medalist II, a WW2
era design by Kodak and widely adopted as a Navy combat camera in the
40s and 50s. This camera, taking 6x9 cm pictures on 620 film, was
acquired by SUNY as part of a Navy grant in 1950 was in continuous use
in the PR department for 45 years until film became unobtainable. No one
knows how many exposures were made before the camera was given to the
University. There is no record of repair during that period.  - Oskar