Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1996/04/09

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To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
Subject: Re: Burned shutter curtains?
From: Charles E. Dunlap <cdunlap@rupture.ucsc.edu>
Date: Tue, 9 Apr 96 23:32:50 PDT

I once borrowed a friend's M3. As I was about to load film I noticed a 
little hole in the shutter curtain. He had bought the camera for his 
collection and didn't notice the problem. It can certainly happen, but 
since I didn't put it there myself I have no idea what it takes to make 
the hole. My experience cooking ants with a magnifying glass as a child, 
however, tells me that it wouldn't take long if the sun were focussed on 
the shutter curtain. So my guess is that the aperture doesn't matter, but 
I wouldn't leave the lens set at infinity.

So, would keeping the lens set at some focus position <5 meters (for 
example) keep the shutter curtain safe in bright sunlight?

-Charlie

>Have any of you Leica users had the shutter curtains
>accidentally burned by sunlight?
>I heard this is possible, if you have a small aperture
>set in the lens and the camera is left towards sun without
>a lens cap.
>
>Is this something you always take into account on a
>sunny day? Any horror stories?
>
>Regards,
>
>Pasi Ohtonen


Charles E. Dunlap
Earth Sciences Dept.
University of California
Santa Cruz, CA 95064