Leica M6 classic, jammed shutter / curtain

[pmu]

Hi,

luckily this did not happen to me. Instead, I bought the camera in this condition. One camera repair shop told that they can't/don't want (I don't know which) to fix this and the camera would need to be sent to Leica for repair. I want to find another solution, because sending it to Leica would be way too expensive.

The problem: the cocking mechanism and curtains are jammed (see the attached image). That mentioned camera repair had told that there is some kind of pin/stud/tack that came off the shutter and that is causing the jamming. The explanation was very vague, so I have no idea what does that mean. Mentioned camera repair is a "general" repair shop for manual cameras -- not specialized Leica repair.

Any idea what could be the worst case scenario? What needs to be replaced / fixed? How much? Where to send it to be fixed within EU (instead of Leica)?

Thanks if you have ideas how to proceed with this.

 

[Monz]

Dear pmu,

Check out this repair shop and s/h camera dealer in UK:

http://www.apertureuk.com/camera_repairs.html

The repair would cost about £250 + VAT

--
Monz

 

[jbrianfoto]

Same thing happened to one of my M4's a few months ago. I know you are in the EU, but for comparison I sent mine to Yuxion Ye. He had to replace the shutter curtains. Total bill including a CLA was about $450 US dollars. Took him about two weeks to turn it around. My shutter brake had been previously replaced, so that saved me some money. Your M6 may still have a good brake.

Hope you got a good deal on the camera. The good news you'll have a rebuilt camera with a brand new shutter when it's all done. Should be good for another 30 years!

 

[Robert Lai]

Your shutter curtain has fallen off the lath. You need new shutter curtains.
Expensive repair no matter where you go.

 

[pmu]

Thanks for suggestions so far!

If replacing the shutter curtains is the "worst case scenario", that's good news to me... 🙂

Shutter brake - what is that? Is that expensive to repair?

 

[Dez]

Your shutter curtain has fallen off the lath. You need new shutter curtains.
Expensive repair no matter where you go.

I agree with Robert. You can see the curtain material is half pulled out of the metal clamp on the end, to which the shutter tapes attach. This is definitely at least part of your problem. It's not clear to me just why this alone would cause things to jam, however.

This seems to be a common problem which I had recently with an M4-2. It is not a particularly difficult repair, but a new curtain costs its weight in gold, and will probably not be as high a quality as was found in production of the M2/3/4 era, unfortunately. Any competent Leica repair person can handle it without any problems. You should have a general CLA done at the same time, and should expect to pay about $400-600.

Three people I would recommend are:

Don Goldberg, DAG Camera
http://www.dagcamera.com/index.html

Sherry Krauter, Golden Touch
http://www.sherrykrauter.com/

Youxin Yee
http://www.yyecamera.com/

These are all capable people. I suggest you get a committed turn-around time if possible, as they are quite busy, and there are occasional horror stories about long waits to get a camera back.

By the way, it's "shutter brake". This is a friction device that retards the first curtain at the end of its travel, to prevent bouncing and a resulting underexposed strip. It's a bit fiddly to adjust, and can cause a variety of problems. It seems to be the default culprit suggested for almost any problem by repair people who don't know what's wrong. I doubt if it is the issue here.

Cheers,
Dez

 

[Mablo]

Petri,

Check out Will Van Manen in the Netherlands:

http://www.kamera-service.info/index.php/en/

He has a good reputation.

 

[jbrianfoto]

Shutter brake...

Shutter brake...

Thanks for suggestions so far!

If replacing the shutter curtains is the "worst case scenario", that's good news to me... 🙂

Shutter brake - what is that? Is that expensive to repair?

The shutter brake - well - all I know for sure is that it is a part of the shutter and I guess it slows or stops the curtains at the end of travel. They do wear and if there is not enough adjustment left in it, then it has to be replaced. I don't know how much they cost since mine did not need to be replaced. Hope that helps.

 

[maddoc]

This does not look to me as if the curtain came off the metal part but more like something is in the rail blocking the curtain travel. Did you have a look for some small chips of film that might have become stuck in the curtain rail?

Sent from my iPhone using Forum Runner

 

[john neal]

pmu,

If you are on the European mainland, adn cut off from the UK, Will Van Manen is a very good suggestion. In the UK, Peter at CRR of Luton is very good, but phone first to see how busy he is. Also Malcolm Taylor, who has a superb reputation. Depending what has actually gone wrong, and the fact that a full CLA is probably a good idea while the technician has the camera apart, I would guess that you are looking at upwards of 300 Euro

BTW, getting good curtains, should they be needed , will not be an issue for any of the guys named in this thread.

 

[pmu]

Thanks again everyone.

I got tiny bit better description of the problem: it might be that the problem came when a "pin/tack/whatever" came off somewhere from the electronics and went somewhere where it was not supposed to and broke something on the shutter/film transport/cocking mechanism.

At the moment I am thinking to send it to Will Van Manen, but if the repair would be too expensive and I would not want to do it, it would still cost me 120€, because they use UPS to ship the camera back.

I need to look at the UK options (some of them had very poor websites or no websites at all)...

 

[nobbylon]

Petri,

Check out Will Van Manen in the Netherlands:

http://www.kamera-service.info/index.php/en/

He has a good reputation.

Seconded. Will and Cathy will sort this out no problem. They fixed exactly the same problem on an M2 for me a few years back.

 

[pmu]

One more question before I send the camera somewhere:

These mentioned repair shops in EU - do you know who has the best selection of spare parts? I bet many of them can fix the camera, but maybe some of them have better selection of spare parts than others?

 

[Robert Lai]

Maddoc,
I agree that something is blocking the travel of the curtain.

However, the curtain itself is coming out of the lath.
Look at the wide vertical metal bar in the middle of the shutter. That is the lath that holds the curtain edge. Not seen, but on either side of the metal (above and below) are the ribbons that actually pull the shutter. You will see that there is something coming out of that wide vertical metal bar, and that's the shutter curtain edge (in a diagonal of about 5 degrees off vertical).