[Leica] Water resistant Leica

[lrzeitlin at gmail.com (Lawrence Zeitlin)]

Mark,

I'm not expecting Leicas to be fully waterproof. I don't intend to take
showers or swim underwater with my camera. But I do a fair amount of sailing
and like to take pictures when on the water. Spray is unavoidable if the
wind blows. I can only use Leicas in a dead calm but, of course, you can't
sail in a dead calm. I used my film Leicas on the water but they became
harder and harder to operate. Instead of a silky smooth winding action, it
felt like I was crushing walnuts. I took the cameras to Sherry K. for a CLR
and general overhaul. The were returned $500 later with the stern admonition
"Stop pissing on your cameras."

I own a few real waterproof cameras, a Nikonos and a couple of Olympus P&S
film cameras. I've also used a water sealed Olympus E-3 DSLR. The Nikonos is
waterproof by design and a few silicone O rings, the Olympus cameras by
close fitting parts and foam sealing around all openings. The internal
mechanism of the Nikonos was accessible with far less difficulty than
getting at the innards of a screw mount Leica. Because a digital Leica
doesn't need a winding lever, a rewind knob, an inspection door and a
frequently removable film loading base plate it should be easier to make
water resistant than an older M camera.

We have discussed this before with the digital Leicas. To my mind there is
simply no excuse for taking the simple precaution of sealing a very
expensive camera against environmental hazards. This is not a question of
new technology or state of the art engineering. Water resistant cameras have
been available for at least three decades. It is simple common sense for a
camera intended to be used in the field to be protected against
environmental hazards. Or perhaps Leica engineers imagine the cameras will
only be used in air conditioned studios. I don't class Nathan as a high risk
combat photographer but if his Leica dies because of a drop of sweat imagine
the perils of using  a similar camera in Indonesia, Somalia, Iran or
Columbia.

Let's see now - magenta cast, banding, cracked IR filters, bad battery
chargers, corner fall off, high ISO noise, no environmental sealing - have I
forgotten anything? I love my film M3s (except in a marine environment) but
I think the digital Ms need a lot of work.

Larry Z