leiya107
Newbie
I'm new to this forum. So, hello everyone. And since as it's Christmas, I wish you all a very happy-snappy Christmas!
About 3 months ago, I acquired a used "good user" condition (aka quite beat up) Leica M4-2 from a Leica dealer in London (not gonna tell you who it was, but perhaps you can have some fun and games guessing who it was after reading my experience?) after having shot with a Voigtlander R2A for about a year and loved the rangefinder experience (and the film "workflow", from own development to scanning, not yet done printing though). I ordered it from their website. And when it arrived, all was well, except the 1/8 shutter speed which was more like 1/4. I was actually quite angry because I assumed a camera bought from a Leica dealer/repairer should be at least fully functional. I sent it back and they offered a free fix. So I started using the camera after a 3-week delay. I loved it very much and considered it a step up from my R2A even though there's no meter, as I found no meter actually makes the whole shooting process faster and exposure-wise more satisfactory (by avoiding unreasonable shutter speeds picked by Aperture-priority).
However, about a month ago, my wrist strap suddenly snapped and my lovely m4-2 dropped hard onto the ground. It's ironic because 99% of the time I don't use straps and as it turns out using straps are way more accident prone for me than going strapless. The accident knocked the rangefinder extremely out of place. So I took it back to that dealer/repairer for a repair. I gave them instructions as to what to fix on top of the obvious malfunctioning rangefinder (e.g. frameline selector being slightly loose, hence sometimes both 35 and 50 are visible; and a general cleaning). One week later, they gave me a quote for a service. So I suppose they gave it a full "CLA". About a week ago, they told me it had been fixed and I went there to pick up. Of course I checked the camera right there in the shop before I paid. I was actually quite happy with the service/CLA.
I came home and played with it for the next few days. And it was then I felt the camera might have become worse compared to before it was dropped:
1. I think the RF patch is quite a bit less contrasty than it used to be, making it harder to see. Perhaps it could be me seeing things - it could be just as contrasty as before and I just forgot. But is it possible that a cleaning of the RF mechanism can make it less contrasty/worse?
2. I noticed the frame lines don't move (as in no auto parallax correction): they're stuck at the same position from near focusing distance to infinity. Now, I'm around 60-70% sure the RF patch was contrastier before. But I'm not sure if the framelines actually moved before I dropped the camera. I never really pay close attention to the framing of a rangefinder, I concentrate more on the *timing* (isn't that the whole point of choosing RF over SLR or EVF?), so I really can't say the framelines auto-parallax-corrected before I dropped it. Are all Leica M's supposed to have auto parallax correction, or was the M4-2 so cheaply made that they skipped this feature? Or could it be that the repairer overlooked the faulty parallax correction? Also, how does the parallax correction look like? On my Voigtlander R2A, only the framelines move diagonally while the RF patch stays. I've seen YouTube videos on how Leica M9 focusing works and it looks like even the RF patch moves diagonally as well, hence the patch stays in the middle of the moving frame lines. On my M4-2, neither the framelines nor the patch move. They just stay the same. Should I go back and shout at the repairer (it will have to be after Christmas and New Year, so maybe I'll have waited too long and they might consider a new repair?)? Or is it a common trait of old Leicas (it's not that old, is it, 1979?) and I should just learn to live with it? Like I said, I pay full attention to timing and accurate focusing and almost no attention on framing anyway. So why bother?
I'm eager to hear your comments and advice! Thank you guys!
About 3 months ago, I acquired a used "good user" condition (aka quite beat up) Leica M4-2 from a Leica dealer in London (not gonna tell you who it was, but perhaps you can have some fun and games guessing who it was after reading my experience?) after having shot with a Voigtlander R2A for about a year and loved the rangefinder experience (and the film "workflow", from own development to scanning, not yet done printing though). I ordered it from their website. And when it arrived, all was well, except the 1/8 shutter speed which was more like 1/4. I was actually quite angry because I assumed a camera bought from a Leica dealer/repairer should be at least fully functional. I sent it back and they offered a free fix. So I started using the camera after a 3-week delay. I loved it very much and considered it a step up from my R2A even though there's no meter, as I found no meter actually makes the whole shooting process faster and exposure-wise more satisfactory (by avoiding unreasonable shutter speeds picked by Aperture-priority).
However, about a month ago, my wrist strap suddenly snapped and my lovely m4-2 dropped hard onto the ground. It's ironic because 99% of the time I don't use straps and as it turns out using straps are way more accident prone for me than going strapless. The accident knocked the rangefinder extremely out of place. So I took it back to that dealer/repairer for a repair. I gave them instructions as to what to fix on top of the obvious malfunctioning rangefinder (e.g. frameline selector being slightly loose, hence sometimes both 35 and 50 are visible; and a general cleaning). One week later, they gave me a quote for a service. So I suppose they gave it a full "CLA". About a week ago, they told me it had been fixed and I went there to pick up. Of course I checked the camera right there in the shop before I paid. I was actually quite happy with the service/CLA.
I came home and played with it for the next few days. And it was then I felt the camera might have become worse compared to before it was dropped:
1. I think the RF patch is quite a bit less contrasty than it used to be, making it harder to see. Perhaps it could be me seeing things - it could be just as contrasty as before and I just forgot. But is it possible that a cleaning of the RF mechanism can make it less contrasty/worse?
2. I noticed the frame lines don't move (as in no auto parallax correction): they're stuck at the same position from near focusing distance to infinity. Now, I'm around 60-70% sure the RF patch was contrastier before. But I'm not sure if the framelines actually moved before I dropped the camera. I never really pay close attention to the framing of a rangefinder, I concentrate more on the *timing* (isn't that the whole point of choosing RF over SLR or EVF?), so I really can't say the framelines auto-parallax-corrected before I dropped it. Are all Leica M's supposed to have auto parallax correction, or was the M4-2 so cheaply made that they skipped this feature? Or could it be that the repairer overlooked the faulty parallax correction? Also, how does the parallax correction look like? On my Voigtlander R2A, only the framelines move diagonally while the RF patch stays. I've seen YouTube videos on how Leica M9 focusing works and it looks like even the RF patch moves diagonally as well, hence the patch stays in the middle of the moving frame lines. On my M4-2, neither the framelines nor the patch move. They just stay the same. Should I go back and shout at the repairer (it will have to be after Christmas and New Year, so maybe I'll have waited too long and they might consider a new repair?)? Or is it a common trait of old Leicas (it's not that old, is it, 1979?) and I should just learn to live with it? Like I said, I pay full attention to timing and accurate focusing and almost no attention on framing anyway. So why bother?
I'm eager to hear your comments and advice! Thank you guys!
