Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/09/06
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]> That reminds me - I had the same eyepiece problem. In fact, mine fell off (unscrewed) as I was walking down a city street one lunch hour. I didn't notice it until I got back to my office. I retraced my steps and found it -- it had a small chip in the edge but it worked. Konica fedexed some replacement eyepieces ($3.50@ - for a multicoated glass diopter lens with aluminum frame and rubber ring) straightaway from Japan. Each was hand-wrapped in optical tissue paper. My second body has an eyepiece in there so tight I can't unscrew it (at least with reasonable force). Yes, that grippy rubber surface is kind of weird. But it hasn't slipped out of my hands. I did pull my first one off a counter onto cement with the strap - why isn't there so much acrimonious talk about straps being useless?! I can say that in that case, the UV saved the lens. I was informed that they were starting to use thread-locking compound on these to stop the eyepiece problems. The kicker is that it's hard to screw those in tightly when the rubber piece is on, since the rubber tends to rotate. Maybe what they need to fix the balance is a screwin weight for the bottom (or motor drive booster?!) It doesn't really look like there's much of a place to move the left lug to. The whole arrangement seems to be built around the 90/2.8 lens, which makes it balance ok. Or if you get monstrously heavy brass LTM lenses (50/1.5 Canon/Serenar, 85 or 105/2.5 Nikkor) it works like a charm. Of course, mine rides in a jacket pocket, so the lug placement isn't a big deal. > > > Now for the major shortcomings of the Hexar. The strap lugs are place too > far forward. This is serious, as even with the 35/1.4 ASPH the camera is > tilted backward, which means that the eyepiece, hotshoe edge etc are all > rubbing against my body when walking. It takes a 90/2 to get it to tilt > properly down in front, and just have the bottom edge rubbing against my > clothes. It generally catches, grabs and pulls at my clothes. Very > annoying. And also dangerous, because since the eyepiece rubs against my > clothes, it could get unscrewed. This is serious, as the eyepiece is not a > flat piece of glass, but an essential part of the optical system of the > viewfinder, so you can't use the camera without it. Loktite to the rescue > (blue version). > - -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dante Stella http://www-personal.umich.edu/~dante