Leica + floor = bad news.

[alternatve]

Hello,

I was packing up my stuff to go after a long day at school, with my Leica M2 in a thinly padded case inside my crumpler. While I turned away to finish packing my laptop, I thought that I shouldn't let my bag rest near the edge of the table with the Leica resting on top, making it top heavy. Not 3 milliseconds after I thought that that I heard a sickening crunch sound. When I turned around, the bag was on it's side, spilling it's contents, including my Leica on the floor!

When I took it out to inspect it, I didn't notice any other dents (it's pretty beaten when I got it) and the lens was ok, so I thought I was in the clear. However, when I placed my eye over the viewfinder, I realised that the rangefinder was totally out of alignment!

Now what I would like to know is how do I realign the rangefinder and is it simple to do? I already have a broken up FED 1 from a failed shutter replacement exercise and I certainly don't need another. Money is tight and I sure don't want to send it for repair if I don't have to. Any solutions or suggestions would be great. The Leica in question is a Leica M2 with selftimer and lever rewind.

Thanks in advance.

Samuel

 

[kipkeston]

There are two screws that adjust alignment. But i've heard that's what usually happens when it takes it hit. no big deal!

checkout the inside the leica thread for details

 

[Andrew3511]

Vertical alignment is easy. Undo the screw by the frameline illuminator window (careful not to lose it as it is a very short screw and will fall out before you are expecting it) and below it is the vertical alignment screw. A small jewellers screwdriver on that and look through the viewfinder to align it accurately. Adjustment for infinity is not that bad either, there is an eccentric screw on the roller for the rangefinder. Take lens off, adjust rangefinder, put lens back on and focus on something a long way off and see if it's better or worse, carry on until you are happy. It is possible to adjust the rangefinder for 1m as a DIY job but this is getting complicated. There is another eccentric screw holding the pivot of the rangefinder, access is by taking off the little black round thing under the bottom plate revealing a hole you can put a long thin screwdriver through to adjust the rangefinder. BUT this is very fiddly and involves much playing around with tape measures and intermittent cursing. I'm sure I got the information off the web somewhere but cannot now remember where - expect someone else will be able to come up with a link. It's likely that the knock has only caused problems to the roller and the vertical adjustment anyway and I would go for that and see if it focuses OK.

In the M6 you have to remove the red dot to get to the vertical adjuster, a move designed to improve revenue for camera repairers.

Andrew

 

[alternatve]

Thanks a bunch guys. 🙂

The trouble now is the two abovementioned screws don't want to budge! And I don't want to apply excessive force at all. If this continues, I might have to send it in for an expensive repair...

Samuel