Re: [Leica] Now I'm worried

[John Collier <jbcollier@home.com>]

on 15/1/00 4:49 pm, Mark Rutledge at markrut@ticnet.com wrote:

> The recent post about the lack of circuit boards for old M6 meters has got
> me a bit concerned. My newly acquired used M6 promptly lost it's meter and
> is now in for repair, but I haven't heard from them. Does anyone know if
> this will affect the reparability of M6 "classics"? The dealer didn't send
> it to Leica N.J., so I don't know if this repair place has any on hand. Any
> info would soothe my sanity!

and Mr. Moore wrote:

>> Unless they're really out of M6 electronics, and for some reason can't
> >make more.  That's a scary idea.
> >

I do not think that we have to worry about the availability of spare
metering parts for the M6 for quite some time to come. They just (and
hopefully will again soon) redesigned the camera and took the opportunity of
incorporating the latest (and most economical) parts available at this time.
Electronic manufacturing techniques advance and things that once were
difficult or impossible to do are now done easily and economically. I
believe the original M6 chip was a custom design undertaken with the help of
a German technical school's computer department. At the time this was the
only way they could afford to come up with the electronic circuit and if you
look at pictures of this circuit board you can see that the thing was hand
assembled! There were no huge manufacturers offering powerful inexpensive
chip sets for cameras then. If you are redesigning enough to add a gear
train for a larger speed dial, changing the metering so that there are four
LEDs (and TTL flash) and changing the top casting to accommodate all this,
surely one would want to also take advantage of the latest in miniaturized
circuitry especially as you would save money doing so. I personally hope
that they are now using one of the chipsets that will allow the eventual
incorporation of an electronic shutter. As to spare parts, the amount of
stock that has to be maintained to properly service the 150 000 to 200 000
"classic" cameras out there is considerably less than the number to maintain
production of 10 000 cameras a year.

John Collier
(...... has been holding his breath for quite sometime now and has achieved
a vivid robin's egg blue that is so realistic that he cannot keep the d****
birds out of his hair)

PS You can still buy new circuit boards for MR meters!