Re: [Leica] M6 rangefinder flare - the Solms response

["Steve LeHuray" <icommag@toad.net>]

I really have to work at it to get either of my M2's to flare ( one of them
has the M6 frames installed). And yesterday I took delivery of a M3 which
only needs slight eye movement off-center to lose the focusing patch.
Steve
Annapolis



- ----------
>From: "Doug Richardson" <doug@meditor.demon.co.uk>
>To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
>Subject: [Leica] M6 rangefinder flare - the Solms response
>Date: Fri, Apr 21, 2000, 5:06 AM
>

> John Brownlow <deadman@jukebox.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>
>>Incidentally, my M4-P and M2 both show rf flare to a certain extent.
> The
> M4-P is worse than the M2. The idea that this problem is confined to
> the M6
> is, in my humble experience, wrong.
>
> And, indeed, the gentleman speaks the truth. All M rangefinders
> exhibit some tendency to flare, and some are more vulnerable than
> others.
>
>
> However, Martin Howard <howard.390@osu.edu> wrote:
>
>>I've shot extensively with an M2's and never had any
> problem with RF patch flare. OTOH, I find I'm constantly having to
> reposition my eye to eliminate the flare in the M6 VF. Can't comment
> on the
> M4-P.
>
> And John Collier <jbcollier@home.com> added:
>
>>Both my M2 and M4-2 will flare out in certain situations and reducing
> the light through the frame-line illumination window solves the
> problem.
>
>
> That’s been my experience. A week or so ago, I was photographing in
> the British Museum, the sort of environment where the M6 rangefinder
> is very prone to 'white-out' with flare. Since yet another fault has
> recently been diagnosed on my M6, I used an M2. This 40 year old
> camera coped easily. Its rangefinder can be made to flare, if I really
> try to catch it out by shooting directly into bright light, but for
> most practical purposes I have found it to be flare-free.
>
> Some people have posted suggestions that the degree of flare in the M6
> can be reduced by careful adjustment of the finder optics. Last week I
> was at Solms, and raised this question with the service department.
> The service guy’s reply (via a translator) was that it's a known
> problem, and there is nothing that can be done in the way of
> adjustments to reduce it. When I mentioned that my M2 was virtually
> flare-free, the response was that the older cameras have a different
> finder system, but the design had been changed to accommodate the
> metering diodes.
>
> What I should do, he suggested, was to carefully move my eye position
> until I could find a location where the RF patch would be clearer. The
> fact that Solms considered this a practical work-around struck me as
> sad. I found myself thinking of the film sequence which shows
> Cartier-Bresson shooting in the street with a screw-mount Leica and
> taking only moments to get into position, take the photo, and go. In
> their work-around, the concept of the ‘decisive moment’ has given way
> to the ‘decisive eyeball position’!
>
> Regards,
>
> Doug Richardson
>
>