[Leica] Burning a hole in the shutter

[TTAbrahams at aol.com (TTAbrahams@aol.com)]

  I have had a couple of holes burned in shutters over the years. It has 
always been with a 21 on the camera. Once in the Australian outback and that only 
took minutes if that! Once in Tokyo, I had just been given a Ricoh 21/3,5 and 
stuck it on a M2 and went on one of the riverboats. I was admiring the view, 
not realising that the sun was being reflected off a chrome panel on my right 
side and it quickly made a pinhole in my M4P's shutter.
 My favourite 'burnt" shutter was one I saw in Sweden. A small camera store 
had picked up a M6 in a trade and the promptly put it in the shop-window with 
the 50 Summicron. This was in the summer and the sun gets up early and down 
late. The window faced west - over a couple of month the sun carefully sliced the 
shutter curtain into ribbons as it was lower and lower on the horizon! The 
heat was so intense that the back door practically buckled from it. The body was 
bought by a friend of mine for $100 and he spent another $300 on a new 
shutter and Leica service in Sweden found a well used back door and recalibrated it 
t the new body for him. An almost brand new M6 for $400, and one that had been 
baptised in fire at that.
 There is a simple way of avoiding the problem, if you put the camera down, 
always put it lens down and if you carry a body on your shoulder, turn the lens 
'inward" towards you. It is possible to do emergency patching if the hole is 
small. A fine brush and some black silicon caulking that has been diluted in 
acid stop bath. Very lightly brush around the edges of the hole and let is set, 
then continue with more silicon until the hole is covered. Let it sit for at 
least 48 hours until the silicon has cured and it will hold for a while, or 
until you can get to a service and replace the curtain. But, dont try the 
shutter until the silicon is cured! It will stick to the drum or the rest of the 
shutter curtain when it is wound up. It is a mess - I know whereof I speak!
 A surprising danger comes from the small, high intensity halogen bulbs. A 
friend found one of his M6 nicely left on a table, lens up and a halogen light 
shining into it. Someone had moved the camera on the table and thought that it 
was less likely to fall if it was put on it's back. The result was a 
substantial burn on the curtain!
 All in all I can recall about 4 times that it has happened to me in 40+ 
years of M shooting so it is not a frequent occurrence. Aggravating though when 
you pull the negs from the tank and there is a nice, distinctive black hole on 
every neg!
Tom A