[Leica] Burning a hole in the shutter

[markc at binaryfaith.com (markc@binaryfaith.com)]

It is true, it happens. Usually when people leave their cameras on a
picnic table lens facing up. 

Wearing the camera on your side, placing it on its bottom etc is good
practice and will keep your shutter in good condition. 

Of course as Kyle might say, the only place the camera should be is
against your face or at your hip taking lots of pictures.

-Mark

Thus spake Saganich, Christopher/Medical Physics (saganicc@mskcc.org):

> Burning holes is theoretically possible, but as you say not too plausible.  Light will focus onto the curtain, I suppose there could be a magnifying effect but rather doubt it.  I suspect we would have heard of Leica's spontaneously combusting if this were true.   
> 
> Chris Saganich
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: lug-bounces+saganicc=mskcc.org@leica-users.org [mailto:lug-bounces+saganicc=mskcc.org@leica-users.org] On Behalf Of Peter Klein
> Sent: Wednesday, May 19, 2004 1:18 PM
> To: lug@leica-users.org
> Subject: [Leica] Burning a hole in the shutter
> 
> On another list, the subject of cloth vs. metal shutters has come up.  The 
> danger of the sun burning a hole in the shutter curtain was cited as an 
> advantage of the metal shutter.
> 
> In over 30 years of using Leicas, I have never burned a hole in my shutter 
> (knock on wood, ptu-ptu-ptu!) .  I wonder how long it actually takes to 
> happen.  Nowadays I often set my lens to close focus when I'm facing the 
> sun on sunny days, just in case.  But I never did this before, and I never 
> had a problem.
> 
> I suspect normal body movement usually moves the sun's image around enough 
> so that the shutter doesn't "catch."  On bright days, lenses are usually 
> stopped down, so less energy reaches the curtain.  I suspect that people 
> have to leave the camera lying still in the sun for an appreciable length 
> of time for the shutter to "catch." And probably the lens has to be fairly 
> wide open and focused on or near infinity.
> 
> I'm curious how much of a danger this really is.  Has anyone heard of 
> someone actually testing this out--hopefully on an already bad 
> curtain!  :-)  Does anyone have any firsthand information about such a 
> test?  Or, would anyone who actually burned a hole in their shutter be game 
> enough to tell us how it happened?
> 
> --Peter
> 
> P.S.  I have seen one Leica with a burnt hole  in the shutter.  The 
> original shutter on one of my cameras had a little patch over such a 
> hole.  I don't know how it happened, because the previous owner said he 
> bought it that way.  I happily used the camera until one of the curtain 
> strings failed, at which point I had both curtains replaced.  It worked 
> fine before, and it works fine now.
> 
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