Just got a used Leica M6

[Magus]

Post deleted by posters request

 

[Nachkebia]

Enough now, I let you play around now lets get serious, I mean get back to friend choosing thingie... 😀

 

[jaapv]

Just kidding...😀

 

[JohnTz]

All,

Thank you very much for all of the responses and the advice. I am very excited to own this camera. I will share some photos when I think they are worthy of the forum. If there are any good local Leica clubs or hang outs in Chicago let me know.


After all of the responses I decided to just shoot the camera and not worry about CLA until there is some kind of issue or untill I shoot MANY rolls of film and it just feels like the right time to get it cleaned.

Thanks again,
John

 

[Ben Z]

Hi all,

Just wanted to introduce myself. My name is John and I have always wanted a Leica M. I am just an amateur photographer. Mostly vacation and family pictures, but I am an engineer and I love nice mechanical things.

I live in the Chicago area so if anybody can recommend a local shop for a CLA that would be great or otherwise I can ship it to the recomended shop.

Hi John, you sound a lot like me. Same photographic aspirations, my history is in R&D for medical/dental equipment and while not educated as an engineer I worked with engineers and share the fascination with mechanical workings. Put the lens on infinity and look at a really far-away object with sharp outlines (like the moon at night, or something else maybe a mile off) to see if it lines up vertically and horizontally. Make sure the frame lines respond to mounting/removing the lens and to the preview lever, and that the frame lines move down and right as the lens is turned to close focus. Listen to the shutter at 1 sec through 1/4 and it doesn't hesitate and seems the right timing by looking at a watch or clock with a sweep second hand (and enough room between tick marks to see fractions of seconds) and at 1/8 and 1/15 you should also hear an 'aftersound' like a little metallic rattle. Open the back, take off the lens and hold the camera up to the light and at 1/1000 you should see a brief glimpse of the entire frame. If you intend to use a flash, make the same observation through the back at 1/50 with the flash, you should again see the entire frame lit up briefly (don't point the flash at the camera or you'll be seeing nothing but purple dots for an hour 😀 ) First with the shutter wound and then fired off, check the shutter from behind with a bright pen-light in front, in a darkened room to look for pinholes in the curtains. Check the meter against another meter you have, make sure to have the lens at infinity and pointed at a uniform thing like a painted wall. The film advance should work smoothly. That's what I do to check things out.

There is (or was, last time I was downtown) an old-time camera repair place down the block from Central Camera, across the street and upstairs. I think it's called International Camera Repair. But I never used them for Leica, because Don Goldberg, the best in the land, is close by near Madison, WI .

 

[Magus]

Post deleted by posters request

 

[JohnTz]

Excellent info! Thanks BenZ!