Leica LTM Oh no ...

Leica M39 screw mount bodies/lenses
brachal

brachal

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Very disappointed right now. The first roll through my "new" IIIf came back, and the shutter on this litttle beauty is clearly a wreck. It sounds good, and looks good, but exposures are all over the place -- from pitch black to "left half good, right half dark", to just what I intended. On top of that there're two pinholes burned through the curtain as well.

Just goes to show you not to fall too much in love with a 50+ year old camera too quickly. It's going back to KEH tomorrow, hopefully for repair, but it'll clearly need a good bit of work. If they won't repair it, I guess I take the refund and try again.
 
This one must have slipped through their QC.

I've bought several screw Leicas from them with no problems whatsoever..
 
Surprised to hear this. KEH are usually superb, but I guess with the amount of equipment they deal with on occasion one will slip through the cracks.
 
Thanks for the sympathy. I'm certainly not trying to throw a brick at KEH. They've always been great in the past, and their customer service people have been very good. I have no doubts that they'll make it right. As has been said, these things happen. I'm hoping it'll be repaired, because I really like this little beauty.

I was (still am) so disappointed because the feel of the camera was so great, and I was looking forward to shooting it all weekend -- and it was my first Leica. Still, I can think of lots and lots of worse things that can happen. 🙂
 
mike goldberg said:
Hi Bill,
Do you have the options of KEH exchange, repair service or refund?
Mike
Click to expand...

Mike,
The short answer is, "yes."
I've been told that they will evaluate the camera for repair, and if that isn't practical I will get either an exchange or refund. They put all three options on the table; repair is my first choice. If they can't fix it, I'll take a refund ... they don't have any other IIIf right now.
 
I bought a 111c with iffy curtains and gave it to a repairman for repair and cla without even trying it. I told him to replace both.

The first roll showed many holes. When I took it back he said the other curtain looked good. Strip it down again. It was still screwed up with banding.

I ate the reair cost, and sent it to Mark Hama who fixed it first try.

Not being able to open the back of Barnacks makes it hard to diagnose these problems.

The only reason I bought it in the first place is the camera was on a shelf in a case for 50 years. It was flawless including the Summitar.
 
Just an update on my IIIF situation, for the happy few who may be interested. 🙂

I sent the IIIf BD ST with the bad shutter back to KEH for repair. The day it arrived, 3 new IIIf's (and a couple of good looking IIIc's) appeared on their website. Rather than wait a two months for the repaired BD, I called them this morning and they will be sending out a IIIf RD as soon as the return in processed -- hopefully next week. I'm very pleased with the help and attitude of their customer service people.

With a little bit of luck, I'll have a beautiful, functional IIIf in a couple of weeks!
 
Good Luck Bill!

Hope that the IIIF RD is in better shape and works for you.......too bad I had a really clean 1946 IIIC for sale like 5 weeks ago for $225, it was online for like 3 hours.....and it has a happy new owner in San Fran who`s taking photos with it now 🙂

Tom
 
brachal said:
Just an update on my IIIF situation, for the happy few who may be interested. 🙂

I sent the IIIf BD ST with the bad shutter back to KEH for repair. The day it arrived, 3 new IIIf's (and a couple of good looking IIIc's) appeared on their website. Rather than wait a two months for the repaired BD, I called them this morning and they will be sending out a IIIf RD as soon as the return in processed -- hopefully next week. I'm very pleased with the help and attitude of their customer service people.

With a little bit of luck, I'll have a beautiful, functional IIIf in a couple of weeks!
Click to expand...

Cool.. Good luck & happy shooting
David
 
When you get the "new" 111F get a roll of negative film (for this test I always use Ilford xp2 for fast processing) and shoot a flat evenly exposed surface at each shutter speed using the same exposure value. Set the lens on infinity and shoot the target from a close distance. Write down the sequence of the shutter speeds. Take the film to a 1 hour processor and you will know whether your shutter needs a cla or not. If all the frames are equally exposed and evenly exposed across each frame , your shutter is probably alright. I bought a 111f a couple months ago, did this test and had the negs the same day the camera arrived. Expect the 1000th and 500th speeds to be slow. That was the case with my camera and I sent it to Youxin Ye for a complete CLA. Camera came back in perfect operating condition within 10 days. I won't tell you the low low cost Youxin charges for a screwmount cla. Put it this way, it is so low that in good conscience I paid him almost twice what he asked. Youxin has done 3 cameras for me in the last 2 years. If I was you, just to fell real confident about the camera, I would send it to Youxin for a cla.
 
My IIIf RD has arrived! Cosmetics are like new, and the rangefinder is superb. My only concerns so far are that the Winding knob and take-up shaft are slightly wobbly -- there's enough play that you can hear the take-up spool rattle a little if no film is in -- and that the 50 and 75 speeds sound a little "geary". Other than that, it's looking good. I've put a test roll through and am awaiting the results. If nothing is terribly wrong with the test shots, I'll probably send it to Youxin for adjusting and to look at the take-up/winding mechanism. So far I'm happy.

Thanks to all for the excellent advice.
 
Good news! Have fun with it. I have a 21mm Voightlander permanantly attached to mine. The 21 lens on the 111F or 111 C is a great set up.
 
Always be prepared for the possibility of problems when buying an LTM. The likelihood it will need work is high. In the end, it's worth it.

Good luck with the IIIf RD.
 
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