[Leica] R8 depth of field lever sticking

[Ray Moth <ray_moth@yahoo.com>]

Dear All,

Has anyone encountered this problem with an R8? 

If I press the DoF lever down, there is some resistance felt near the
bottom of the travel. If I press it down any further than that, it
sticks: that is, although the DoF lever will return to the top of its
travel, under unusually light spring pressure, the internal cam, which
is driven by the DoF lever and stops down the lens, remains stuck; the
lens stays in stopped down condition and I have to take off the lens
and free the cam by hand to reset it. 

I'm not sure whether the resistance felt during the last bit of travel
of the DoF lever means that there is something binding (i.e. there
should be no resistance at all) or whether it's supposed to be a
physical limit to the travel of the lever (i.e. the lever shouldn't be
pressed down any further). I suspect the latter, because the DoF lever
will fire the flash in F mode without pressing it down beyond the point
where resistance is felt.

Even if I don't press the DoF lever all the way down, so that it
doesn't stick, the lens aperture reopens rather sluggishly when the DoF
lever is released. This happens with all my lenses, so it's definitely
the camera that's causing it. This sluggishness seems to be confined to
using the DoF lever; firing the shutter in the normal way also stops
down the lens to its working aperture but the lens reopens very quickly
afterward. Aperture prefire, using mirror lock up, also works
perfectly.

TIA for any comments.

Regards,

=====
Ray

"The trouble with resisting temptation is
 you never know when you'll get another chance!"

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