Re: [Leica] Rangefinder patch flare

[John Collier <jbcollier@home.com>]

I have not tried it myself but it sounds like a fun project.

John Collier

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Date: Tue, 23 Nov 1999 20:37:21 +0100
From: Christer Almqvist <christer@almqvist.net>
Subject: [Leica] M6 RF flare solution

I have had several sleepless nights after I read about LUGgers abandoning
picture taking due to rangefinder flare but now I can sleep again as I have
devised a contraption that not only solves this problem but also the red
dot problem, all at the same time. It is suggested that you use black tape
if you have a black body and grey tape if you have a chrome body, but you
may also use plastic, cardboard, metal or any other material you fancy.

If you use tape, cut a two inch piece and put the right hand portion
horizontally over the red dot above the lens. The remainder of the tape is
an inch longh, and you fold it, sticky side to sticky side, but so  that
1/16 inch is free at the end of the tape, and this part you attach as close
as you can to the little window underneath the time knob. You now have a
one-sided anti flare device. You then make a simlar piece of tape and
attach it on the other side of the window, and finally you make a little
roof which you affix to the top of the body just above the little window,
and also to the two flaps you have just attached to the right and the left
of the little window. You do not need the bottom portion unless you make
portrait portraits and turn the bottom side of the camera towards the sun.
There is no problem if you do portrait portraits and turn the top side of
the camera towards the sun. The same is the case for landscape portraits.

This works real well, and makes your camera look like you were a
professional photographer. AA would have used one if he had had an M6 (late
model, with flare).



> From: Kip Babington <cbabing3@swbell.net>
> Date: Wed, 09 Feb 2000 17:49:07 -0600
> Subject: [Leica] Rangefinder patch flare
> 
> At the risk of posting something on topic these days, and with apologies
> if I've ignored an answer that has been provided previously, but is
> there an easy self-help solution for the rangefinder patch going white
> on the M6 when the light strikes it from a certain angle?  I've read
> comments about this phenomenon since I subscribed to the list, but
> haven't been bothered by it until recently (my daughter has begun riding
> in horse shows in indoor arenas, where the sodium vapor or some other
> type of intense ceiling lighting frequently blanks out the rangefinder.)
> 
> I gather the problem stems from the ribs in the translucent panel, and I
> know that if I cover the panel completely I lose the frame lines.  Is
> there some other well known temporary cure that keeps the frame lines
> but tones down the flare in the rangefinder?