[Leica] M6 scratching film (retro?)

["Gareth Jolly" <garethjolly@bigpond.com>]

Rick Casey wrote:

>The scratching happens randomly from what I can tell.  Cleaning the
>backplate religiously between reloads doesn't seem to reduce the likelihood
>of the next film being scratched.  I have always thought the backplate
>looked rather roughly machined.  So, could I please ask for a refresher on
>the best solution and if known, the batch of serial numbers that were
>causing the problem.


It is probably the pressure plate. As a number of others have done, I
recommend getting the camera repaired - which will probably mean replacing
the pressure plate.  You can't really fix it yourself as far as I can tell.
I would strongly recommend against trying to polish your pressure plate if
you were thinking about it.  Cleaning won't help.

The film scratching problem is clearly more widespread than generally
acknowledged on the LUG.

I had the pressure plate of my M6 replaced only to find that the film
scratching continued, although not as badly.

Consequently, my M6 is being replaced by Adeal. But, given it is an M6HTM, I
suspect a straight replacement may be a little difficult.

You may find that the scratches only show up on scans - not darkroom prints.
You might try that (if you haven't already) before you turf any negatives.

This question will probably bore the hell out of everybody, but of those who
had the film scratching problem, how many actually managed to get it fixed?

I know of at least one other person who had his pressure plate replaced only
to find the problem continued.

There are some suggestions that serial numbers affected are around the
2433xx mark.  Not sure how accurate that theory is, though.

Regards
Gareth Jolly