Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/08/16
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Personally, I've found that my M6 is quite a bit more durable than a comparable electronic camera. I gave my M6 a hand 5" drop onto concrete the first week I had it (better to get it out of the way early, right?) without ill effects. It seems that metal parts are still tougher than circuit boards in terms of shock resistance and heat/cold tolerance. People who are going to be checking the calibration of the rangefinder with a yardstick every other day are probably not going to be happy with an M6 or any other mechanical rangefinder. The fact of the matter is that a rangefinder can drift out of alignment. According to many reports I've read on the LUG, shocks commonly cause vertical misalignment (in the rangefinder patch one image is slightly above the other) which while irritating, causes no detrimental effects in terms of accuracy, which is solely a function of horizontal alignment (within reason). Unless you are using a Noctilux wide open, focusing accuracy is often not mission critical down to the inch anyway. In terms of general reliability, I would not take the opinion of any one shop for the simple reason that you are getting an impression from a very small proportion of all M6's. If that shop sells 100 M6's a year and 10 are defective, that could either mean that they got the only 10 defective M6's that were made that year or that they were lucky and only 10% of the cameras shipped to that store were damanged, since the average is 50%. I think you will find plenty of satisfied owners on the LUG and elsewhere on the internet to set your mind at ease. >From: "Michael Gatov" <Wildmagic@csi.com> >Subject: [Leica] Reliability? > >Hi: > (...) >What is holding me back is the apparent unreliability of the current M6. >I've had friends who have had the rangefinder needing to be sent back to >Leica for repair on a regular basis (4 times in 2 years). One guy simply >had his camera slip off of his car seat and fall about 8" onto the carpet >and it bumped it out of whack. When I talked to our local pro-shop here in >Portland about how many M6's they have had to send back for customers, >they've mentioned that quite a few have come in needing repair, moreso than >most other manufacturers bodies. > (...) > >Thanks for listening, >Regards, >Michael > _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com