RE: [Leica] How to knock rangefinder out of alignment?

["Lee, Jonathan" <Jonathan.Lee@hrcc.on.ca>]

My M6TTL has taken two relatively serious falls, one which affected the
rangefinder and one that didn't.  Once my M6 fell from about 2.5 feet high
onto concrete, landing onto its baseplate. This scratched up the baseplate
and dented the focus ring of a 50 Summicron enough so that it couldn't turn.
Nothing happened to the rangefinder alignment. The other time, my M6 was
stuffed into the outside pocket of a leather jacket. Said jacket/Leica was
hung on the hook of a bathroom stall but slipped and hit a ceramic floor.
M6 landed on its end. The fall was not nearly as high velocity impact the
first fall and the jacket did sofetn the landing somewhat, but the rewind
knob cracked.  However, the rangefinder was severely whacked out of
alignment, necessitating Reinhold Muller to take the top off and realign the
rangefinder from inside. Small misalignments of the rangefinder can often be
corrected by adjusting the rangefinder cam from the lens opening.  

IMO the rangefinder is very robust but it doesn't have shock absorbers. I
think the worst fall for an M6 is to be dropped on its end.

Jonathan Lee