Re: M6 red disc switch

[beamon@primenet.com (Roger L. Beamon)]

At 08:00 AM 2/15/96 -0500, Charles Dharapak wrote:
>This ever happen to anyone? 
> 
>Back in October I brought my Wetzlar M6 (really early, no strap protectors)
>over to the Leica USA headquarters in New Jersey and asked them to check if
>the rangefinder was aligned. The technician disappeared with it and came
>back in about 15 minutes and gave it back to me, saying that everything
>should be fine now, and didn't charge me for the service (I was picking up
>something else that was being serviced at the time). 
> 
>Usually I have the red disc and white lettering taped over with gaffers
>tape. The other day I peeled off the tape and to my surprise, the red
>"Leitz" disc on my Wetzlar M6 was now a "Leica" disc. My camera has not
>been handled by anyone else, which leads me to believe that the Leica
>technicians had replaced it with a new disc without telling me. 
> 
>I'm not really particular about such things, but I found it to be a bit
>odd. 
> 
>Any comments, ideas?  
> 
>-- Charlie (cdhrpk@pipeline.com) 

Very Interesting Charlie because it dovetails with a case I ran into here. A
local dealer in Tucson took an M6 in trade. There was a problem in the
metering. It was sent to Leica Service in NJ. Now this serial number and the
lack of strap rub pads indicated manufacture around 1986. Lo and behold, the
thing has a Leica roundel on it also, indicating manufacture about 1988,
right?  The dealer can't remember whether the roundel was Leitz or Leica
before sending it off for repair, but, in lieu of your story, I'd guess that
they are doing it to all on a "carte blanche" basis. 

I, too, wouldn't care, as a user, but someone who is particular about
preserving a piece, for whatever reasons, would be rather off put by this
action and would be advised to tell them to make no such changes.
Fascinating that, if they did it. they took the trouble to replace your tape.
   --
   Roger Beamon,  Natural History Interpreter & Photographer
                             Docent, Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum
                             INTERNET: beamon@primenet.com