Re: [Leica] Is M6 really any better than M3?

[Jeff Moore <jbm@mordor.net>]

At 13 Aug 1998 19:44:11 -0400, Marc James Small <msmall@roanoke.infi.net> wrote:

[of no-longer-available M3 bits]

> Well, yes and no.  If they simply have come unglued, the most common error,
> they can be reglued.  But the basic point remains, that M3 parts are drying
> up.  However, the mechanical nature of the beast means that parts can
> almost always be fabricated even when NOS stocks are gone, though the price
> of repairs will escalate dramatically.

To what extent is the latter a statement from experience rather than a bout of 
theorizing?  Do you know of someone who now makes replacement M3-finder bits?  
I ask because my M3 has a vertical rangefinder misalignment problem which I 
was told wasn't fixable without a no-longer-available replacement part, or 
replacement od somw whole major subsystem with parts from a different model.
It (the misalignment) is an annoying distraction (a distracting annoyance?)

Who told me?  That's the word I got back from whoever did a mid-Eighties CLA 
on the camera.  I'm not certain who did the work -- I had Hansen send it out 
 -- but I have a vague inkling they might have used Sherry Krauter.  If it was 
she who looked at the camera, then I have no doubt that the diagnosis was 
correct;  but I'm not 100% certain it was she.  Anybody remember, back when 
the Ken Hansen store was in the twenties and Jim Lager worked there and Ken 
Hansen hadn't pissed off to Florida and thought better of it and slunk back, 
where they sent Leicas for servicing?

I don't *want* an M6-esque finder in my M3.  I want an M3 finder in my M3.  
Okay, maybe an HM if they become available separately...

 -Jeff Moore <jbm@mordor.net>