Leica M2 light leak threads

[nickthetasmaniac]

Thoughts on this leak that's started showing up on my M2?


It's been showing up across assorted frames with a few different film stocks.






Thanks, Nick

 

[Peter Jennings]

I’m no expert, but the most common leaks I’ve seen discussed are ones through the strap lug or back door. Try taping each off with electrical or gaffers tape one at a time and making some test exposures.

 

[Larry Cloetta]

Some M2 bodies are susceptible to this very specific type of light leak. If you do a general Google search for Leica light leaks, and one for M2 light leaks, there will be some internet posts which contain example photos. The only photos which you will find which show this exact presentation of the leak (between frames, elongated triangle, located bottom third of the frames) will be from an M2.
You have an internal leak of light which is entering through the rf window and is not being properly shielded by one of the baffles, for one reason or another. I have had extensive conversations with Don Goldberg about htis exact thing. It isn’t that common, but it’s an M2 thing, and they all present exactly like that. Some photos of the relevant light baffles are in this thread: https://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=164369&highlight=M2+light+leak

There is another thread here on this forum somewhere where a European member whose name I cannot recall also demonstrates and explains the same thing.

FWIW, as a side note, Don Goldberg was quite adamant that he had never once seen an M body which actually leaked light through the back door.

Good luck, it’s really annoying, but it is fixable.

 

[davidnewtonguitars]

I had that light leak on my M2, and I eliminated it by renewing the cloth tape under the back door hinge.

I did follow the directions given by the thread Larry references, but nothing came of it until I did the back door remedy. DAG explained to me how to renew the glued-down cloth. It is a very slow leak and it crosses the boundary between frames, which can't happen if the light comes when the shutter opens. It happens when you are shooting on a bright day, or when the camera sits with light hitting the back. The point of leak, on mine, was the upper right corner of the door where the hinge point wore away (or peeled up) a corner of the cloth seal that sits in the hinge channel.
Here's my leak:

 

[nickthetasmaniac]

Thanks for everyones thoughts. I'll look read through the other thread and see where that gets me.

A few tidbits for context...
- My M2 is a later build ('65)
- This leak appears to have only emerged after I had some work done on the body to repair a blacked-out viewfinder...

 

[nickthetasmaniac]

FYI

OK, after a whole bunch of back and forth with the repair techs, they are pretty sure they've fixed the light leak mentioned above.

What they said is that they've applied a black mask the the light leak entrance, which they believe to be the rewind lever.

This is the first time I've heard mention of the rewind lever causing leaks. Any thoughts on this?

 

[davidnewtonguitars]

I reported in MY M2 light leak thread (wish the M2 leak threads could all be merged) that when I tape the back door the leak disappears. Since I don't want to have to tape up the door at every film change, I applied a felt seal in the door gutter, and with a 6 shot test strip with HP5 on a super sunny day, the leak failed to appear. I will report back if it reappears in the future.

 

[nickthetasmaniac]

Leica M2 light leak threads

Hi all, over the years there have been a number of threads relating to a light leak particular to the M2. There's snippets of useful info in all of them, so I thought it would be helpful to have them compiled in a single spot for future use.

This is what it looks like:



Here are the threads:

https://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=158453

https://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=164369

https://rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=166544

Feel free to link to any other useful info or discussions about this particular problem.

 

[nickthetasmaniac]

... (wish the M2 leak threads could all be merged) ...

Done (kind of). I've started a thread in the Repair/Camera Care forum listing all the individual threads talking about this issue.

Hopefully if anything else is dug up it can be added to the list.

https://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2891617#post2891617

I reported in MY M2 light leak thread ... that when I tape the back door the leak disappears. Since I don't want to have to tape up the door at every film change, I applied a felt seal in the door gutter, and with a 6 shot test strip with HP5 on a super sunny day, the leak failed to appear. I will report back if it reappears in the future.

The techs replaced all the seals the first time it went in for this problem, and my first test roll after showed the same issue, so I don't think it was the door for me. They also looked at the RF baffles (as mentioned by Larry Cloetta) and didn't seem to think that was the issue.


Patching the rewind lever was their second attempt, and they've run a test roll through to check and seem convinced they've fixed the issue.

I'll burn my own roll and report back.

 

[nickthetasmaniac]

The techs replaced all the seals the first time it went in for this problem, and my first test roll after showed the same issue, so I don't think it was the door for me. They also looked at the RF baffles (as mentioned by Larry Cloetta) and didn't seem to think that was the issue.


Patching the rewind lever was their second attempt, and they've run a test roll through to check and seem convinced they've fixed the issue.

I'll burn my own roll and report back.

UPDATE:

OK, so I have now put two rolls through my M2 since the last repair attempt (patching the rewind lever hole).

No change, the leak is clearly visible across multiple frames on both rolls.

I'll send it back and report back on how we go...

 

[nickthetasmaniac]

UPDATE:

OK, so I have now put two rolls through my M2 since the last repair attempt (patching the rewind lever hole).

No change, the leak is clearly visible across multiple frames on both rolls.

I'll send it back and report back on how we go...

OK, so I have just received the M2 back from Camera Clinic (official Australian Leica repairer) and the leak is still there. This is now the third time the camera has been sent to try and fix this specific issue and fair to say I'm getting frustrated.

I believe Camera Clinic are going to cut their losses and give me a refund, so where to from here? Should I put up with it (it's not hugely intrusive and usually only appears on a few frames per roll), or try another repairer, possibly even send it to DAG or Sherry in the US?

Thoughts?

 

[Huss]

Do not send it to Sherry. Try DAG. And of course include samples, what supposedly was done so far etc.

 

[nickthetasmaniac]

Some M2 bodies are susceptible to this very specific type of light leak. If you do a general Google search for Leica light leaks, and one for M2 light leaks, there will be some internet posts which contain example photos. The only photos which you will find which show this exact presentation of the leak (between frames, elongated triangle, located bottom third of the frames) will be from an M2.
You have an internal leak of light which is entering through the rf window and is not being properly shielded by one of the baffles, for one reason or another. I have had extensive conversations with Don Goldberg about htis exact thing. It isn’t that common, but it’s an M2 thing, and they all present exactly like that. Some photos of the relevant light baffles are in this thread: https://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=164369&highlight=M2+light+leak

There is another thread here on this forum somewhere where a European member whose name I cannot recall also demonstrates and explains the same thing.

FWIW, as a side note, Don Goldberg was quite adamant that he had never once seen an M body which actually leaked light through the back door.

Good luck, it’s really annoying, but it is fixable.

Larry, I thought I would follow up on this for anyone who stumbles across this thread in future.

I've been doing a lot of digging, trying to figure out what's going on with my (still unsolved) M2 leak, and I've come across a lot M3 owners reporting what looks like an identical issue.

https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/194385-leica-m3-light-leak/

https://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=106283

https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/293251-light-leak-with-leica-m3/

 

[Rob-F]

I shoot my M2 in a Luigi half-case, which I imagine helps to not get light leaks.