Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/11/19

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Subject: Re: [Leica] I can't believe I'm losing this argument
From: Marc James Small <msmall@roanoke.infi.net>
Date: Sat, 20 Nov 1999 02:10:05 -0500

At 08:01 PM 11/19/1999 -0800, Eric Welch wrote:
>
>Now maybe what happened is that the complex shutter mechanism

This is one of the mythic "urban legends" of photography but, if the truth
be told, the Contax' shutter is not that much more complex than the LTM
camera's, and is certainly a lot more rugged.  The myth of  Contax shutter
problems has come about from two sources.  First, most smaller shops no
longer will repair Contax cameras -- but, what the hey, they won't repair
LTM cameras, either.  Second, the design uses shutter tapes which tend to
deteriorate with time.  Take a LTM and Contax camera, put 'em in the attic
or garage for thirty years, and, yes, the LTM camera is much more likely to
be working than the Contax.  (So, the discoverer takes the Contax to his
local camera shop, where the repair guy says, with horror, "I don't work on
those".)  So, the discoverer of this fine camera, in frustration, E-mails
Eric in disgust, "these !@#$% Contax shutters aren't worth a +_)(*", and,
since we all know Eric, a myth of epic proportion is born.

Marc

msmall@roanoke.infi.net  FAX:  +540/343-7315
Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!