My First DIY Leica Repair...

P. Lynn Miller

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Feb 12, 2007
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This must be the week of Leica break-downs...

Yesterday... the meter in M5 just quits, one exposure it is fine, next exposure it is gone... deader than yesterday's stockmarket report. OK, I can live without a meter for abit until I get around to sending to Sherry or Don for a CLA.

Today... I am sitting at my desk getting my cameras ready for a concert shoot tonight... I notice something funny looking on the leading shutter curtain... a whopping great big hole! The size of a couple of pinheads!

The one time when I really need the M5 and Nokton 50/1.1... it is out of commission! I know, I should have a second M5, but...

So off to the workshop... a dab of bicycle tube repair cement on both side of the curtain followed by a matte black paint job. The curtain is light-tight... but for how long... hopefully long enough to get me through tonight.

I may as well get the tools I need to overhaul the M5. Knowing how to field-strip and repair the M5 would give me the same level of confidence in using a Leica M as my Nikon F's. I do not like when things break, but I hate when things break that I cannot repair myself.

Grrr...
 
Yeah, Ms are just a bit too complex for me to strip and rebuild. With the SLRs I used to use, I'd just buy another broken body and frankenstein them into one working body. When i needed a new rewinder I spent 100 euros, and did it myself. But for anything more difficult than that, M parts are expensive enough to just say whatever send it of to someone who really knows what he's doing.
 
Today... I am sitting at my desk getting my cameras ready for a concert shoot tonight... I notice something funny looking on the leading shutter curtain... a whopping great big hole! The size of a couple of pinheads!

Lynn, any idea how the hole got there? Burn hole?
All the best, Ljós
 
Okay guys, an M camera isn't rocket science.

Correction, from M4, including M4p, etc, the M's are very basic.

M6 and newer have a CPU chip, for the meter, and except for very basic mechanical things, DIY isn't recommended.

Then, you the have the M5. It has a meter movement built throughout the camera, blocking some of the robust basic mechanisms of the M4 and earlier M's, complicating the mechanical because you may need to remove parts of the meter. And galvanic meter movements are extremely delicate - slip a tool and the movement is destroyed.

Some of the legendary greats don't even like to work on M5's.

So, don't let me discourage you from learning an M, but the M5 is "grad school" stuff, where the "M's" are "first year basics".

....Vick
 
The shutter curtain fix got me through the night and looks like a solid repair that will hold up for a long time.

I am not too worried about opening up the M5, it is more of a time issue. I have a dozen other projects on the boil at the moment. I was intending to send the M5 to Don Goldberg or Sherry Krauter... is there a preference of one over the other especially when considering an M5?

Thanks!
 
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My recommendation is Sherry Krauter. Both Don and Sherry are expert on the M5 (I understand they both worked or trained in Wetzlar on the M5 assembly line), but I get the feeling that the karma is better between Sherry and the M5.

...Vick
 
Sorry to hear of your M5 troubles.....🙁

Today i received my M5 ...serial # 13467xx /chrome/ 1972 ...?
2 lug my favorite way to wear !!
hopefully she will be in no need of service for sometime
 
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