Leica use and abuse

[mooge]

when I asked my local friendly photo-guru how and why he had acquired his Leica, he mentioned that durability was an issue. His (now mine, now in bits in my bedroom) Canon FTb had to be repaired after a long biking trip- apparently from the vibrations that loosened stuff up. his M-4P on the other hand, was bought used, and has been in use for 20 or so years without maintenance.

and on the Leica FAQ, I found this:

When I was in college, in Ohio, in the 1960's studying photography we had a few students with Leica equipment. It was very expensive stuff (compared to Nikon F's that most of us had).

I was told that the Leica reps had a little trick to get people to buy their equipment. They would hold a get together with photographers to show off their stuff. They always picked places (meeting rooms in hotels, universities, etc) that had concrete block walls. After their song and dance people would still say why should they pay more money for Leica stuff. The rep would then stand maybe 20 feet away from the wall, throw an camera body against the wall, pick it up and show that is still worked fine. They would then offer anyone to try it with their cameras. They sold a lot of cameras this way.

that's a hyperbole, right?

anyway, any 'o you have any Leica abuse survival stories you'd like to share?

cheers,
Dragunov

 

[__hh]

not a leica story, but...

canon 5D with 24-70 lens attached. Shooting on the beach when a sudden wave crashed onto the rocks and covered camera drenching wet....

All I could do was wipe the camera as much as possible with my partially wet t-shirt. Got back to the hotel, let the camera & lens intact and flushed it with tap water.

Camera and lens was let dry overnight in the hotel room. I have not had any issues with either body or lens.

Very surprised.

 

[Al Kaplan]

I don't coddle mine and they frequently bang against one another and other things when I'm using them. They range in age from about 40 to over 50 and wear their scratches, dings, and dents with pride.

 

[35mmdelux]

i've banged them around (unintentionally) and been hit by rouge waves and still going.

PS: i've known people hit by rouge waves and did not survive to talk about. proceed w caution.

 

[peter_n]

I've used my Ms well and had nothing untoward happen to them. They've been on many plane rides, car rides, bike rides, hiking up hill and down dale, etc., etc. and they just look a bit worn, that's all.

 

[tbm]

When my oldest brother was a teenager, he borrowed my father's M3 one day, put it in his backpack, put the backpack on his motorcycle seat, and took off. Suddenly the backpack's top cover opened and the M3 flew out, landing on asphalt with numerous bangs (ouch!). My father had to send the damaged M3 body to Don Goldberg to fix it, needless to say.

 

[Roger Hicks]

The trick of throwing Leicas 20 feet seems deeply unlikely, and not just because I doubt the Leica would still be working. It's a heavy thing to throw 20 feet indoors...

Mine get banged around (not deliberately), taken on motorcycle and Land Rover trips and even dropped occasionally (not usually very far, though my 35/1.4 Summilux has fallen 5-6 feet onto cobbles and my 90/2 summicron at least two feet onto stone). Everything works fine BUT I once had a viewfinger glass crack because some cretinour jobsworth at LAX ran the camera through an X-ray machine without a case or box or anything. It bounced down the steel rollers like a jumping finsh and slammed into the metal end-stop.

Cheers,

Roger

 

[Ronald M]

I recall a two stories. One a PJ had dropped a SL out of a Phantom jet over the Mojave desert. It was found a few years later and either still worked or was repairable. Pics were in LFI. This was a good 20 years ago.

From the same era, I attended a Leica sponsored lecture given by Fred Maroon in Chicago. He relates a story of how he had a model shoot in Mongolia which involved the entire group traversing siberia on the Transsiberian RR and a final leg on horseback. About 12 cameras made the journey, half Nikon F, half Leica. Upon arrival, none of the Nikons worked, but every Leica did.

That`s back from when Leica did a decent job of user education. Walter Hoyne in the US and Benser in Europe. All this stopped by 1988.