[Leica] Re: multiple exposures with M6

[George Huczek <ghuczek@sk.sympatico.ca>]

At 06:34 AM 18/06/99 -0700, Ted wrote:
>The thing that triggered the question was, " What felt like heavy duty gear
>grinding as I advanced the the shutter cocking lever, while holding the
>rewind lever down and the film rewind handle and film from moving."
>
>After several attempts in this fashion the camera seemed to function OK
>when it was set for normal use.  But in my usual sense of brilliance, "do
>it first then ask"  I thought I'd ask "after the fact of doing it." :) Just
>in case I really was grinding down the 16 year old gears.
>

I tried this today with the back open, to watch what happened when the
shutter was cocked without advancing the film, using scrap 5297 film from
Seattle Film Works (you see, 5297 IS good for something!).  I marked the
film frame carefully with a magic marker to see what would happen.  It is
clear from my tests that the film does NOT stay in place.

I experimented some more with this, both with and without the baseplate on.
 If you just push the film rewind lever (the one just by the shutter
release button marked "R") and don't hold it while advancing, then the film
definitely advances completely to the next frame after a faint "click" is
heard.  If you hold the film rewind lever (pushing it to the left when
looking from behind the camera) here's where it gets really tricky.  If you
hold it very firmly, SOMETIMES the film stays in one place, allowing a
second exposure.  Moany other times though it slips, moving the distance
between two sprocket holes, or in some cases by as much as half a frame.  I
strongly encourage a few  other M6 users to repeat the test I have
described above to see if they concur with my findings.  The topic of
multiple exposures on the M6 has come up so many times before, and this is
one simple test which anyone can easily conduct to see for themselves that
it just doesn't work well at all on an M6.

My Independent Conclusion:  Multiple exposure IS NOT REIABLE on the M6, and
the camera should not be used for this purpose.  NOT RECOMMENDED.

The sound of the gears grinding does seem annoying, and I can't help but
wonder if doing this enough times is bound to cause unnatural wear on the
parts.  Since you can not get the camera to do multiple exposures reliably,
it is risky to put the camera through this kind of torture.

 There are different tools for different jobs.  I would strongly recommend
that when you need to do multiple exposures, then you should use another
type of camera that facilitates this with ease.  If you do try it with the
M6, you will not likely get the film to register the second exposure
properly, and I am even going so far as to suggest here that continued use
of this technique may eventually lead to premature wear and failure of
internal parts.

George


 _
[o] -GH