Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/02/06
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]> The Leica M is a remarkably solid camera. I have dropped them, stepped on >them, hit doors (car doors are the main culprit), punched out the windshield >of a Ford with a Noctilux/M6 combo (fixed the sticky sliding hood on the >Noctilux, it worked much better after that). There is no rhyme and reason >when the rangefinder goes out. A small fall from a table on to a carpeted >floor can knock the rangefinder out, while a drop down a flight of stairs >might rearrange the controls on the camera, but leave the rangefinder intact! >Any knock on the short end of the housing is most likely to knock the >rangefinder out, while direct hits on the top-plate or baseplate leaves it >unaffected. A friend of mine slammed the door on his car over his M4-2. The >Rapidwinder had a nasty dent in it and the top-plate had a creative crease >across the top. Rangefinder remained perfect and the rewind crank could be >bent back with a pair of pliers. The cardoor was bent sufficiently to create >a whistling sound when driven! If you baby your M's, you loose too many >shots! My biggest problem is not rangefinders being whacked out of alignment, >it is the rewind cranks on M4's and later cameras (until the Millenium M6) >being bent or jammed. Maybe there is a market for a high strength rewind >crank for the M6 or even the extended, knurled one that's on the NASA M4's. >Tom A I have not had a problem with M misalignment in the 5 years I've used mine, but I sure had problems with the X-Pan after 5 days --- I had it fixed under warranty, but it is not a simple job, and I've had to treat the thing with cotton gloves ever since. Cheers - -- Alastair Firkin http://www.afirkin.com