M6 classic jammed

[mrtoml]

I was out street shooting this morning in Portobello Road market in London with my 'new' M6 and it completely jammed up. The winder stuck half way. Taking off the lens revealed that the shutter curtain had only half cocked.

I removed the film and tried fiddling with the shutter curtain and the wind mechanism, but it is completely stuck. This is annoying as this is a fairly unused camera that has only had about 20 rolls through it.

Anyway as I happen to be in London for a few days I decided to take it straight to a repair shop. It was with some trepidation that I went to a Leica dealer for the first time (the Classic Camera in Pied Bull Yard). This was made worse by having read recent reports here of the snobbery and unhelpfulness of some dealers and so on (plus I had a CV 35mm on the camera rather than Leica glass).

Anyway they turned out to be very sympathestic and helpful. The guy I spoke to actually managed to unstick the shutter (I don't know how), but he said 'hang on' and shot a few more frames and sure enough the shutter jammed again and he said there must be something wrong with the winder. So they are going to show it to their repair man next week.

The other thing I noticed was that another customer in the shop was asking about M7s and was obviously completely new to RFs. But the salesman was extremely patient and friendly and talked him through the ins and outs and let him handle various cameras. So I can heartily recommend this shop to those in the UK.

I am a bit annoyed with the camera as this is the first time that I have ever had a camera fail on me in the field and it's a bit ironic that it is the Leica, but at least I have my Bessa as backup until they sort it out. 😉

Anyone else had this problem with their M6?

 

[Krosya]

I had shutter jammed on me in M6. Not sure what caused it. I sent it to DAG, he took care of it, plus I had him do CLA and Flare fix while at it. I have it back and - So far so good. He thought that I tried to wind film while that little lever for rewind was engaged. Or rewind film with that lever NOT engaged. I don't remember doing either, but I could be wrong.- just didnt pay attention. He had it fixed / unjammed within a day. It's all the other stuff took 3 weeks to do, well, it took him 2 days, but I guess with his work load it took 3 weeks, plus shipping time.
So, I hope it's easy fix and they will be able to help you. Good luck.

 

[ben lloyd]

Do you still have the camera, or left it with them? If you do, try it without film and see if it happens. If all seems good when dry firing, but then does it again with film try:

http://www.asc.upenn.edu/usr/cassidy/leicaslacker/rewind.html

Hope this helps.

 

[JNewell]

Ugh, I wish my memory was a little better. My M3 did this and I kinda agonized over it. In the end, I found something in one of the old repair "manuals" that, ***if I recall correctly,*** basically suggested using more force, which worked. The camera came "unstuck" and worked fine thereafter.

At any rate, I should make the point that this is not something that's confined to M6s or other recent cameras. My M3 is a 1955 body.

 

[mrtoml]

Do you still have the camera, or left it with them? If you do, try it without film and see if it happens. If all seems good when dry firing, but then does it again with film try:

http://www.asc.upenn.edu/usr/cassidy/leicaslacker/rewind.html

Hope this helps.

Thanks. But it wouldn't work with or without film. I left the camera with them for their repair expert to have a look at it next week.

 

[mrtoml]

Anything else to ask for?

Anything else to ask for?

I had another thought.

While my camera is in for repair anyway is there anything beyond the standard service they are going to do that would be worth thinking about now rather than doing it later for more £££?

The camera is a late model M6 classic .85.

Thanks.

 

[dspeltz]

MY new MP jammed after one roll last month. It had to be returned to Leica.

 

[PaulGuy]

You might consider a CLA and having them do the finder upgrade to the flare free optics.

I had another thought.

While my camera is in for repair anyway is there anything beyond the standard service they are going to do that would be worth thinking about now rather than doing it later for more £££?

The camera is a late model M6 classic .85.

Thanks.

 

[back alley]

MY new MP jammed after one roll last month. It had to be returned to Leica.

could you post this in the zeiss ikon section...😉

 

[traveller]

could you post this in the zeiss ikon section...😉

😀 😀 😀

But seriously mrtoml, jamming cameras are real bad karma. I hope it will be back to you soon. And I will phone Zeiss tomorrow if they can tell me when my ZI will be back.....

 

[Robert]

I had a shutter jam on my 'new' M6ttl, with no warranty I was thinking of a large repair bill.
I had a look inside the back and noticed a very small piece of film so after removing this and several attempts with gentle pressure the jamming cleared. Relief!!

 

[rncamero]

Mark, I don't have an M6, but a similar thing happened to my M2. Winder was stuck halfway, but shutter curtains were wide open. Turned out to be a broken shutter curtain - a $90 repair job. Was sort of a blessing in disguise - had it CLA'd at the same time, and it came back with a much brighter viewfinder, and a stronger sounding shutter.

 

[wontonny]

I had my shutter jam once before on my m6...then i managed to get it unjammed and it's been working fine ever since hahah