Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/01/01
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Wow what an explanation! Thanks a lot.
Cheers,
Chris
On Jan 1, 2005, at 6:07 PM, Feli di Giorgio wrote:
>
> On Jan 1, 2005, at 5:50 PM, Christopher Driggett wrote:
>
>> I have dropped the D1 and D1h from walking heights onto concrete and
>> pavement and they survived. I am less confident of the D70. But I
>> have not held one so I will have to try it out(Not dropping one
>> thought). I am sorry to hear that the M7 is not as robust. I
>> thought that the Leica range finders where a very hardy breed. How
>> then is their weather seals?
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Chris
>
> There are no weather seals, but then again there aren't a whole lot of
> entry points either...
> But they seem to work in wet climates. PJ's used them all over Vietnam
> and Tina dropped her M6 in a river, dried it out and kept on shooting.
> Ted had a whole different experience involving bovine excretions, but
> that's an extreme example...
>
> The M series is pretty tough and mechanically extremely reliable, but
> there's not a lot of padding if you drop it on concrete from any sort
> of height. Same goes for pretty much any other brass, mechanical
> camera. Obviously the most sensitive part of the camera is the
> rangefinder, which just like with any other camera of this type, can
> be knocked out of alignment by a severe blow.
>
> But it depends. I had my M6TTL knocked out of my hand with a 90mm
> attached. It flew about 9ft and landed on the concrete floor of a
> movie theater. The result was a cracked body shell at the 12 o'clock
> position over the lens mount, where it is at it's thinnest.
>
> On a different occasion I slipped on some wet metal plating and the
> camera went flying down the stairs and onto a cobblestone floor. The
> only damage were a few scrapes to the finish, but everything else was
> ok. I was in worse shape than the camera.
>
> The oldest M cameras (M2/3) have their finder prisms blocks glued
> together with Canadian balsam. Now 40 years old, the glue can become
> brittle and a serious knock MAY cause
> them to separate, but that's a whole different story.
>
>
> feli
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________________
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>
>
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