Leica M4-2: Exchange lens release button ?

[maddoc]

It might sound crazy (and has nothing to do with taking photos) but I got tired of that "red-dotted" lens release button of my M4-2 and want to exchange it for an "old-style" type (with the slotted screw in the middle). After inquiring Leica CS in Germany and DAG without success, I found a spare "M3 part" lens release button on Ebay.

I have disassembled the camera last night and exchanged the lens release button. However, the assembled unit is a tad to short and the old-style type button keeps in depressed position and can`t be released into lock position.

I wonder if anybody else has made this switch and if other parts except for the button itself have to be exchanged.

 

[rlouzan]

Hi Gabor,

Could be the fact that M4-2/m4-P bodies lack a lens release guard. Next time I send my M4-P for a CLA, I'll ask Sherry to ad a release guard

Regards,
Robert

 

[maddoc]

Hi Robert, that could make a difference also but carefully looking at the problem (and getting confirmation from Youxin Ye) it had to do with manufacturing tolerances. I added three tiny washers to the assembly and it looks like it works.

Adding the M3-type guard around the button could make things more complicated, though.

 

[maddoc]

Got the job done ! 🙂 and wrote something about it in my blog...

 

[johannielscom]

For a moment I was wondering why you took the complicated approach, but then realized that the button had to be removed from the inside since it had no front slot...


Myself, I'd like to have an M2 with a lens release button shroud like the M3 has, I'm always fiddling the camera and the M2 button is so easy to push... I worry someday my Summilux 35/1.4 will fall off... 😱

 

[maddoc]

For a moment I was wondering why you took the complicated approach, but then realized that the button had to be removed from the inside since it had no front slot...


Myself, I'd like to have an M2 with a lens release button shroud like the M3 has, I'm always fiddling the camera and the M2 button is so easy to push... I worry someday my Summilux 35/1.4 will fall off... 😱

Two times I accidentally un-locked my Noctilux from the Hexar RF, then sold the camera (had the version without shroud).
The M3 shroud is available on fleabay as spare-part (same seller from where I got the release button) but I don`t know how to install that one ... Might be some fiddling with washers to get dimensions right...

 

[tomboulet]

It might sound crazy (and has nothing to do with taking photos) but I got tired of that "red-dotted" lens release button of my M4-2 and want to exchange it for an "old-style" type (with the slotted screw in the middle). After inquiring Leica CS in Germany and DAG without success, I found a spare "M3 part" lens release button on Ebay.

I have disassembled the camera last night and exchanged the lens release button. However, the assembled unit is a tad to short and the old-style type button keeps in depressed position and can`t be released into lock position.

I wonder if anybody else has made this switch and if other parts except for the button itself have to be exchanged.

Hello, do you remember how you managed to remove the original button? It looks like a flat-head screw, but even with anti-slip paper, I can't get it off...

 

[Richard G]

I had a lens nearly fall off my M6. The mount is incredibly low friction. Clever choice of metals. The steel on steel camera mount plate and lens mount of my M2 and M5 involves greater friction and such a mishap might only be possible by not activating the lock of the lens release, so stiff is the passage to get there. I retreat and rotate again if I haven’t heard it click.

I’ve accepted all my Leicas are what they are. Except the M4-2, onto which I applied black tape for a few months on some project in my 20s. I’m surprised you guys are fiddling with essential functions for so little gain. I can’t remember my M4-2’s red dot release. I was likely enjoying that being the only red dot and so small. I presume you like working on the cameras. I went through that with my first MacBook Pro. The most I’ve done on my Leicas is adjust the vertical RF alignment of the M5 and free up extension of the Leica II’s rewind knob.

The M6 red blaze and block capitals is a bit garish. It’s an M6. Over 70 years most Leicas look the same. The bold livery after the M5 might have been due to Leitz/Leica’s effort to drag long-time owners into the new era. The meter in the M6 is the main draw of course. It is currently my least used camera. In moments of clarity I concede it’s the best Leica of all. I’m keeping it for my son when he wakes up and sees he ought shoot some film. It is fitting as he was on the other side of it for many years.

So there are strains of illogicality in all of us here perhaps. I’m currently using a IIIf, and an M5. Neither is justifiable on any purely logical argument. (Recovering from an operation I did need the lightness of the IIIf for several weeks,)

 

[maddoc]

Hello, do you remember how you managed to remove the original button? It looks like a flat-head screw, but even with anti-slip paper, I can't get it off...

Sorry, too longtime ago. I don't even have the photos anymore.