How to treat "M"'s???

L

LeicaVirgin1

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Dear Tom-

Perhaps I should have asked this in one of my previous post... If you recall, I asked a question about my M3 RF patch being too high, or too low when i focus?

Well, I sent it to Sherry & she fixed it very quickly. Works great. However, I never did anything to it before I sent it to her. I mean I treat all my cameras with "kid gloves". I don't swing them from my neck two at a time, or sling them on my shoulders. When I shoot I use a gordy strap & I cradle the camera w/ lens in the palm of my hand ready to shoot. When I am not shooting; they are stored in padded/lined drawers that are custom made for the gear. When I travel, (which isn't much these days), I pack them in PELICAN padded foam cases as "carry-on's" & when I walk the city they are either in my billingham, or domke padded camera bags, with one camera, (ONLY), in the palm of my hand; ready to shoot.

Is it just the M3 series, mine is a 1961 version SS model, or is it ALL, (I have a M2 "lever-Rewind", M4 v.1967, & a Leitz Wetzlar M6 "Classic"), that you really have to watch like a hawk, or a paranoid person who needs to have children!? :bang:Any suggestion(s), would again, be most helpful?

Cheers,

LV1

Thank you again
 
I do not store my cameras / lenses (any of them) in a place a) without light coming in (drawer) b) together with any non-synthetic fabrics or leather. Darkness and especially leather are ideal for growing fungus. Other than this I only try to handle my cameras with due care to avoid expensive repairs. Scratches ... I stopped worrying. :D
 
LV1,

While I too perhaps over care for my cameras (carry-on only) I use them an never have worried when it's just me. When carrying around one or two kids under four, they were put away for another day and the Bessa came out. Leicas are truly only happy when they are being used. Keeps the parts moving well and things opening and closing at the right time. They are not meant to be left in dark closets or in air-less cabinets. Show them the sun, make them part of your life and share the magic you create.

My M4-P traveled a lot with me once I got my M6. It came along on business and fun trips and was bounce up and down on several flights I do not want to remember. Never had a problem with her alignment. I've heard of folks riding bikes on cobble stone roads and wondering why their alignment might be a bit off after a few months of riding everywhere. An old friend said to me many years back.... Keep her clean, do not keep cleaning her, but by all means use her!

Leica and Nikon rangefinders are up for just about any challenge you can throw at them. They have proven themselves with a lot worse than either of us could and come back working.

B2 (;->
 
BTW, with four Ms in your stable I'm not sure Virgin is the right moniker. But having been with more cameras that a gentleman should I will not point fingers..........

Welcome aboard.

Hey Tom, what are your thoughts (speaking of being with more cameras then......)

B2 (;->
 
Leicas are not particularly fragile as precision rangefinder cameras go. But they are precision rangefinder cameras. The "weak point" of the rangefinder design is the rangefinder mechanism itself. Which is one of the reasons the SLR ultimately won out among PJ's and war photographers.

You've got to smack a Nikon F a lot harder to put it's focusing mechanism out of commission than a Leica M3. And if something in the focusing got out of whack, it was usually immediately obvious looking through the lens of an slr. With an RF, you might not know it until you looked at 30 rolls of film that was out of focus.

And of course our ideas of a tough camera have changed. An all metal, 60 year old camera design never imagined the use it would be put to. A high-end pro Nikon or Canon SLR these days is made incredibly tough on purpose.

You don't have to baby an M, but rangefinders are not too difficult to knock out of alignment.
 
My cameras are not "babied", though I try to take reasonably good care of them. However. they are tools and if I am doing something in inclement weather, the camera(s) better be prepared to be out in it too.
I have found that the worst culprit to mis-aligning rangefinders is bumpy flights ( and the habit of putting the bag with the camera on the floor of the plane - surprising amount of vibrations - even in a modern jet).
M's are very tough and i suspect that with time screws holding rangefinders in place "seize" and add to the toughness. I have less problems with M2's than with later models.
Of course, if you drop a camera, all bets are off! That easily dislodges the prisms in the finder. Banging them together in a bag is usually fine. When I travel, there are three cameras along and all fit into an unpadded Brady fishing bag. I tend yo use a towel as a wrapper for one and it does double duty as a divider. Most of the time, one camera is around my neck and two in the bag though.
We are all looking for "pocketable" cameras - most of my rangefinder problems has come from this habit! M2/M3 with small collapsible lenses nicely fit in a jacket pocket and I swear that car doors are attracted to these! There is a bit of a sickening sound when you close the door and that Elmar REALLY collapses! Modern cars are too cramped - lets get back to big. old clunkers with bench seats! Global warming be damned!
 
Thank you to all who answered this thread. Perhaps I just worry too much and that gets in the way of taking pics. I will mellow. Thank you all!


Best,

LV1
 
>>>( and the habit of putting the bag with the camera on the floor of the plane - surprising amount of vibrations - even in a modern jet).
>>>>M's are very tough and i suspect that with time screws holding rangefinders in place "seize" and add to the toughness. I have less problems with M2's than with later models.

>>>Of course, if you drop a camera, all bets are off! That easily dislodges the prisms in the finder. Banging them together in a bag

>>>Modern cars are too cramped - lets get back to big. old clunkers with bench seats! Global warming be damned![/quote]

Tom, I had heard about the vibrations of planes, though I did not suspect a difference between the floor and the overhead. Good to know.

As far as dropping, Jorge gave me his M4 and CV 50mm that had dropped about 20 feet in the case, hitting on the lens hard enough to dislodge the diaphragm leaves and achieving a somewhat altered view of the world via the view finder.

He was feeling pretty low, but Igor shipped out the camera and lens, with all returning looking and working rather well. A testament to a tough camera, and only a small mark on the CV lens he had been prepared to sell for parts.

Your comments about the car have me well warned, and you are absolutely spot on about getting cameras in and out of smaller car doors while carried.

All this said, the purpose of the camera is to make a good, or the occasional very good image, and if it takes a bruise to get it, that is what it takes. There is, however, a bit of tape here and there on some of them. ;-)

Regards, John
 
As long as there is no impact damage and all the glass is scratch free I don't care, when I am working quite often I put 2 cameras on one shoulder. If you are worried get some insurance in the scale of camera expense Leicas (except M8) are not really that expensive.
 
My brand new MP3 developed rangefinder misalignment after about 6 months.

Probable cause: 2x 30min train ride per day.

I always did put the camera on a litte desk or beside me on the couch.
Don't do that.

Vibrations can be a threat. The intensity, but even more the exact frequency of the vibration seems to be important. I think I just had bad luck that that train had a frequency in its ride that resonated with the rangefinder mechanism.

Keep the camera in a well padded bag to reduce impact from vibrations.

Dries
 
Even better - keep the camera around your neck and take pictures of fellow passengers. Your body will dampen the vibrations and the picture taking will make the trip feel shorter too.
 
Only have one M, a nice, but obviously heavily used 1963 M2. I had it CLA'd and use it regularly. I take good care of it. It is after all my most expensive 'classic' camera by a comfortable margin.

However, upon closer inspection a Nikon FM2 I just bought turned out to have a distorted prism housing and bent accessory shoe. These cameras are built like tanks, how did they ever even DO that?!? I anticipated big trouble, but the first roll I put through it was fine. I like tough cameras!
 
I often carry two cameras around my neck when I work a crowd. The secret into not banging them together all the time is to have one strap way shorter than the other.
 
One around my neck, one hanging on my left shoulder, one with a couple of wraps of the strap around my right wrist. That one just hangs flopping about from the wrist when I'm using another camera. If your intention is to get photos your cameras are going to get battle scars. It goes with the territory. Buying used pre-scarred Leicas is a great way to save money and your heart won't stop when you bang the camera and pick up a new dent. After thirty or forty years they all look pretty much the same anyway, and in the majority of cameras the rangefinder will retain its alignment and the shutter will still function. On the rare occasion when for no logical reason something goes amiss blame it on the duppies.
To make them behave put ten coffee beans in your camera bag.
 
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RE: Loosening screws

I heard from a friend who travels a lot for magazines and newspapers that a "Leica tech" or repairman told him one time that aircraft have high frequency vibrations which have a wavelength about that of some of the screws in cameras. The vibrations cause the screws to loosen.

True or not, it seems to make sense. All I know is that he has to have his cameras done about once a year (not necessarily surprising) for various things, and lenses seem to be especially vulnerable.
 
One assignment I had involved multiple flights on "bush planes" ( Beaver and twin Otters - neither one is known for a "vibration" free airframe) as well as some regular flights. The Hasselblads did reasonably well in padded Halliburtons, but my M4-2/M4P's lost some parts! The frame selector lever fell of on two of them (easy fix - nail polish on the screw). Biggest problem was that both my M4-2 lost the lens release buttons. Thus I had a choice of using them as fixed lens cameras - or brutally use a small screwdriver to push the release.
One of my Super Angulons also developed a case of "wobbly" rear element cluster. That was fixed with nailpolish again! All four bodies went to Leica for "screw tightening" after the job anyway. Oh, one of the 100mm f3.5 Planar's for the Blad's kind of disintegrated (springs/screws/lens retainers started to fall out of the lens once I was back home). OK, it was a multiple week job - so this was the cost of doing business.
 
I tend to stay fairly close to home but I've done plenty of helicopter shoots for developers, sometimes weekly for months on end. I guess they don't get the high frequency vibrations of jet engines but at times it feels like it'll jar your teeth loose. It's really noisy with the door removed but I never dropped anything. My Hasselblad 500C and the Leica M's never developed any loose screws or elements.
 
Al. I think the choppers have a different type of airframe vibration. They tend to have a "buzz" that just rattles, as you say, the teeth, but leave lenses and cameras alone. The flights also tend to have shorter durations than multihour "hops" with Beavers or Twin Otters.
One way of ensuring loosening of screws is to leave a camerabag on the floor of the cockpit or in the planes passenger area. The floor is thin enough to vibrate like a drumskin! In choppers, with doors removed, I always tied bags and cases to the seats - would have hated seeing a case shoot out at 3000ft!!!!
 
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