[Leica] Sunlight in the lens

["Anthony Atkielski" <anthony@atkielski.com>]

I was reading a book by Jim Zuckerman on natural-light photography, and he says
that there's no harm in shooting directly into the sun.  Now, he is using a
Mamiya MF camera, and something tells me that this advice does not apply to a
Leica M6.  With a rubber shutter curtain and no mirror to deflect incoming
light, it seems to me that even a brief exposure to direct sunlight could burn a
hole into the curtain.  Is this correct?

I usually keep my lenses covered when I'm not actually shooting, and I always
take care to aim them away from the sun when they are uncovered.  I even do this
on SLRs, since, even if the sun is deflected from the film gate by a mirror,
there is still the risk of damage to CCDs for autofocus or metering.  I find it
hard to believe that a camera could be truly oblivious to direct sunlight coming
into the lens.  Is there something different about MF cameras that makes them
immune to this.

And, for that matter, how _does_ one shoot directly into the sun with a Leica,
given this risk of damaging the interior of the camera?

  -- Anthony