Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/07/06

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Subject: Re: [Leica] M6 question
From: 4season <4season@boulder.net>
Date: Tue, 06 Jul 1999 09:36:02 -0600

InfinityDT@aol.com wrote:
> 
> With an upcoming venture to foreign lands, I was wondering, in regards to the
> M6, from those who have used them a lot over a period of time, how many
> people (if any) have had them fail in the course of use, and in what way?


M6 #2235xxx has been just fine in the past year and a half, has been
hauled about nearly every one of those days, and has travelled with me
around the world, from the Gobi and Taklamakan deserts (no, I wasn't
about to stand out there at midday to test the M6's endurance--or my
own!), to the steam heat of Hong Kong, to the icy chill of a snowy
pre-dawn Colorado winter. I am careful to dry out damp cameras
immediately afterwards.

At first, I encountered dead batteries every few weeks, but got into the
habit of using silver oxide cells and setting the shutter speed to "B",
and it's been fine ever since.

The meter seems about 1/3 stop off, and I'll see about having the
viewfinder framing checked, as some images come out keystoned, though
they are perfect in the finder.These are annoying, but not serious
problems, since the workaround is simple.

So, no failures and no missed shots. My M4 *did* have problems in Hong
Kong, and it's film transport became rough and a little gritty: I think
someone used the wrong lubricants in this camera, and they weren't
working under hot, humid conditions. The M6 was fine, once the camera
was warmed up enough that moisture stopped condensing all over it.

Jeff