Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/10/28
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Marvin is right. Sometime around the time when production shifted a few miles from Wetzlar to Solms, the baseplate of the M6 was redesigned to do away with cassette lugs. These lugs are necessary to actuate the Leica cassettes, a wonderful device for those of us who bulk load. Look at your baseplate. If there is a rotating plate connected to the locking lug on the left-hand side of the camera, then you have an old-style plate and can use the cassettes. If not, you have a new-style baseplate and must replace this if you wish to use the cassettes. I discussed this with Niels Thorssen at Leica who conceded that a LOT of owners of new M6's called to order the older baseplate. Although the cassettes have been out of production for years, there are a lot of these out here in user-land. The Leica cassette dates from the beginning of Leica production and predates the Agfa cassette (our standard film cartridge, the metal doohickey film now comes in) by fifteen years. One major benefit of the Leica design is that the cassette opens inside the camera so that the film isn't dragged through a light-trap, as it is in the Agfa cassette. The Zeiss Ikon cassette is actually a superior design to Leica's and was stolen, along with virtually all else Zeiss and Zeiss Ikon had accomplished, by Nikon, who kept it in production for Nikon cameras into the late 1980's. Marc Marc James Small Cha Robh Bas Fir, Gun Ghras Fir! FAX: +540/343-7315