Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/04/01

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Subject: Re: [Leica] A-mode R6?
From: John Collier <jbcollier@shaw.ca>
Date: Tue, 01 Apr 2003 08:08:21 -0700

I suppose next you will take apart one of your R lenses and discover it 
is a disguised T&S lens!

April Fools?

John Collier

On Tuesday, April 1, 2003, at 01:29 AM, Martin Howard wrote:

> I've been playing around with my R6 over the weekend.  It needed a 
> spring
> clean, mostly because the metering mode selector was getting sticky, 
> so,
> armed with Tomosy (which doesn't describe the R6, but does have the 
> R4), I
> pryed off the top plate to get at the gunk lodged around the controls.
> What I discovered was quite interesting and I thought I'd ask if anyone
> else has had similar experiences.
>
> I should prefix all this by saying that I'm no camera repair expert (or
> even camera expert).  However, when I was removing the shutter speed
> selector dial, I noticed that there was a small washer with a protuding
> stop that prevents the dial from being turned past the 1/1000s 
> setting.  I
> noticed this, because I initially forgot to remount it when I was 
> putting
> the dial back together again and discovered that I could turn the dial 
> past
> the 1/1000s.  In the viewfinder, the little indicator showing the 
> selected
> shutter speed was blank.
>
> Interestingly enough, the shutter still works on this setting.  Even 
> more
> interesting, as I was playing around with it, the shutter speed sound
> changed depending upon how I was holding the camera (no lens was 
> mounted
> on it at this time).  Curious, I mounted a lens and did some more
> systematic experiments.
>
> As far as I can tell, the shutter speed is being changed (somehow!) by 
> the
> camera in response to the light coming in through the lens.  Changing 
> the
> aperture also changes the shutter speed.  In essence, this is how 
> aperture
> priority automatic exposure works.
>
> I have no idea how this is accomplished, since I thought the R6 was all
> mechanical.  However, according to a mesage in the Leica FAQ it is
> apparently really some kind of hybrid shutter.  See the following link:
> http://www.nemeng.com/leica/002c.shtml
>
> Is it possible to mechanically achieve this result?  Is it a standard
> feature of all R6 cameras, or has someone modified my camera in its 
> past?
> Did Leica experiment with A-mode R6s, or did they save on costs by 
> using
> circuit boards/circuits/mechanics from previous R4/R5 cameras?

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