Leica M6 TTL Horizontal Alignment (infinity) off

[enero]

I am not a camera repair technician: I would not dream of fixing my Leica rangefinder. The M4-2 I bought a couple of years ago had a similar problem. I immediately brought it to my local camera tech and had him evaluate and repair the camera. He did a thorough cleaning of the entire viewfinder optics and mechanism, aligned everything, and calibrated the rangefinder. The cost was less than $100.

To me, that's a bargain. Get it taken care of properly by a trained technician.

G

I just cant help myself. Its in my nature to take things apart. I'm a tinkerer. Its definitely not for the faint of heart though, and I wouldnt recommend it to to anyone that has the slightest hesitation. But its what I do. And if I do say so myself, do it pretty well. I have taken apart a lot of things that I shouldnt have in my life. So far I havent regretted much. With expensive equipment, such as Leicas, I generally base my decision on whether I can do the repair without damaging the surface, and can do it (properly) with the tools and parts on hand. Ive actually contacted various repair people that we all know in this forum for one reason or another, and many times, they just tell me to fix it myself. And I'm more then happy to save a few bucks if they too are confident that I cant take care of it myself 🙂

 

[enero]

I was able to adjust RF on infinity and one meter after I purchased my M4-2.
Dropped it yesterday 😱, infinity is way off now and I can't re-adjust it. :bang:

ouch! that sucks. Can you identify the problem?

 

[Ko.Fe.]

I can't bring two images together on infinity (moon) by rotating of eccentric screw at the arm's end.

 

[Sarcophilus Harrisii]

I find it interesting that nobody has recommended actually checking the lens focus with an auto collimator or ground glass. Basic repair principles dictate that in the first instance, you identify the problem that needs to be fixed and then you fix it.

It's all very well adjusting the vertical focus alignment of your Ms so the focus patch aligns at the infinity stop of the lens, but, until you have checked the lens focus itself, through the gate, how do you know the lens is actually on infinity at the stop? OK, these are rangefinders, and it is usually the rangefinder system that needs the correction, but without checking the lens, how do you know? Short answer is: you don't. At the very least, some test shots would be needed to ascertain this. The RF has to match the lens. Not vice-versa. Which means that in the first instance the lens adjustment has to be correct. Same applies to any SLR or TLR for that matter, only the details of the design and adjustment technique vary, but in every case the lens that forms the image must be calibrated, and then and only then can the viewing/focusing system be adjusted to match the focus at the gate.

 

[Godfrey]

I just cant help myself. Its in my nature to take things apart. I'm a tinkerer. Its definitely not for the faint of heart though, and I wouldnt recommend it to to anyone that has the slightest hesitation. But its what I do. And if I do say so myself, do it pretty well. I have taken apart a lot of things that I shouldnt have in my life. So far I havent regretted much. With expensive equipment, such as Leicas, I generally base my decision on whether I can do the repair without damaging the surface, and can do it (properly) with the tools and parts on hand. Ive actually contacted various repair people that we all know in this forum for one reason or another, and many times, they just tell me to fix it myself. And I'm more then happy to save a few bucks if they too are confident that I cant take care of it myself 🙂

I tinker with stuff all the time, and do pretty well too, but not my cameras. I reserve my time with them to making photographs: I just want them to work. Same with computers: I depend on them, I just want them to work. For these things that I depend upon to do the stuff I want to do, the money involved is much less important than the time and fun in tinkering.

"Different strokes for different folks."

G

 

[Ko.Fe.]

Hey. My 4-2 is back to normal. It was repaired to be focusing at infinity again.
Prism shifted from its position after I dropped the Leica.