Re: [Leica] Re: M6 Reliability

["Dan Post" <dwpost@email.msn.com>]

Any fine piece of machinery can get out of alignment, and for some pretty
mundane reasons. I recall being at the garage when George, the Master
Mechanic was lamenting repairing a couples' pair of Ferraris. They had been
in a couple of times getting the front ends aligned on both, and he hadn't
been able to figure out why, until they told him! It seems they had a horse
farm, and they went into the small town nearby that had angled parking.
They'd bump the concrete buympers in front of the feed store when they went
in to load BALES OF HAY into their Ferraris- seemed they hadn't gotten a
pickup yet!
The bumping knocked the front end out of alignment on a fairly regular
basis!. So, I would imagine that even a Leica, if 'driven' hard, will need
an oil change, tune up and front end alignment once in a while!
Dan
- ----- Original Message -----
From: S London <srlondon@yahoo.com>
To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
Sent: Monday, August 16, 1999 10:18 PM
Subject: [Leica] Re: M6 Reliability


>
> Personally, I've found that my M6 is quite a bit more
> durable than a comparable electronic camera.  I gave
> my M6 a hand 5" drop onto concrete the first week I
> had it (better to get it out of the way early, right?)
> without ill effects.  It seems that metal parts are
> still tougher than circuit boards in terms of shock
> resistance and heat/cold tolerance.
>
> People who are going to be checking the calibration of
> the rangefinder with a yardstick every other day are
> probably not going to be happy with an M6 or any other
> mechanical rangefinder.  The fact of the matter is
> that a rangefinder can drift out of alignment.
> According to many reports I've read on the LUG, shocks
> commonly cause vertical misalignment (in the
> rangefinder patch one image is slightly above the
> other) which while irritating, causes no detrimental
> effects in terms of accuracy, which is solely a
> function of horizontal alignment (within reason).
> Unless you are using a Noctilux wide open, focusing
> accuracy is often not mission critical down to the
> inch anyway.
>
> In terms of general reliability, I would not take the
> opinion of any one shop for the simple reason that you
> are getting an impression from a very small proportion
> of all M6's.  If that shop sells 100 M6's a year and
> 10 are defective, that could either mean that they got
> the only 10 defective M6's that were made that year or
> that they were lucky and only 10% of the cameras
> shipped to that store were damanged, since the average
> is 50%.  I think you will find plenty of satisfied
> owners on the LUG and elsewhere on the internet to set
> your mind at ease.
>
> >From: "Michael Gatov" <Wildmagic@csi.com>
> >Subject: [Leica] Reliability?
> >
> >Hi:
> >
> (...)
>
> >What is holding me back is the apparent unreliability
> of the current
> M6.
> >I've had friends who have had the rangefinder needing
> to be sent back
> to
> >Leica for repair on a regular basis (4 times in 2
> years).  One guy
> simply
> >had his camera slip off of his car seat and fall
> about 8" onto the
> carpet
> >and it bumped it out of whack.  When I talked to our
> local pro-shop
> here in
> >Portland about how many M6's they have had to send
> back for customers,
> >they've mentioned that quite a few have come in
> needing repair, moreso
> than
> >most other manufacturers bodies.
> >
> (...)
> >
> >Thanks for listening,
> >Regards,
> >Michael
> >
>
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