Leica LTM RF Brightness and Contrast -- How much will a CLA Help?

Leica M39 screw mount bodies/lenses
Frank Petronio

Frank Petronio

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And who is best at doing it in the USA?

I've had half a dozen Ms and LTMs and the LTMs are always dimmer than the Ms, but I've never had a truly cleaned up LTM either. Will a good CLA job bring the RF contrast and brightness up to M levels or is it just always going to be a notch dimmer because of design and age?

The LTM RFs are not unusable, I just wish they were a bit better.

thanks
 
Frank: in my experience, it depends. Some perceived dimness is often related to dirty glass surfaces. Other times it is RF de-silvering, or a combination of the two. There are folks who will re-silver an LTM RF patch, but a Bessa-T might cost less.

Ben Marks
 
Frank Petronio said:
And who is best at doing it in the USA?

I've had half a dozen Ms and LTMs and the LTMs are always dimmer than the Ms, but I've never had a truly cleaned up LTM either. Will a good CLA job bring the RF contrast and brightness up to M levels or is it just always going to be a notch dimmer because of design and age?

The LTM RFs are not unusable, I just wish they were a bit better.

thanks
Click to expand...
I don't think you'd ever get one up to M level, because of design etc., but a good clean up will make make a difference - depending on the present condition of course!
Dave.
 
I have a IIIf that was serviced recently, not by me, but the RF is right on the money and the brightest I've seen. Comparing it to my M3, it is quite close in actual brightness, but I think the M3 seems brighter because the RF/VF window is so much larger. That said, I've been able to use the IIIf in very low light. Though not having a well defined RF patch makes it less convenient than the M3.

I think Dave is right though, condition is important. If you've got one that's really dirty, it couldn't hurt. One that's relatively clean might see less benefit.
 
I have a IIIa with a new beam-splitter mirror. The secondary image doesn't have as much contrast as my Canon 7s, but it's quite usable.

The original mirror was silvered, and the originals are pretty much all terminally tarnished by now. You can't clean them, the silvering just comes off. They have to be replaces.

The replacement Leica mirror in mine is aluminized. You can also replace it with a gold-coated semitransparent mirror, in which case the two images will be different colors (one blue, one yellow).

It's the small eyepiece of the screwmount Leicas that dooms the RF to be dim and squinty. The light just can't get out.
 
I have had the beam splitters changed on two of my LTMs because the RF patch literally could not be seen. This was done by DAG during a CLA and they are now perfectly usable, but I don't think they ever compare to my Ms RF patches. As others have said, I would think it is just a design difference. The third LTM is usable as is for some reason.

Bob
 
I have a 1936 Leica II and after I got it back from Youxin who CLA'd it the viewfinder was much the same but the rangefinder was remarkable and a match for any M I have. The viewfinders are squinty on screwmounts though and I seldom use mine for this reason.
 
I had a IIIC that Youxin Ye replaced the mirror on, cleaned the glass etc., etc. and while it improved, I had to put the little orange filter on the front of the RF window to make it really usable. However it never got to the level of clarity of my MPs.
 
I bought a IIIc from Youxin on eBay for $107.50 that he had done a CLA on and replaced the beamsplitter and shutter curtain. I expected to have to buy an aux. VF and started a thread asking for suggestions and then placed a WTB ad. JohnTF pointed me in the right direction to buy a clean lens at a very good price. The lens arrived yesterday and I cancelled the WTB. The VF and RF are crystal clear. I don't know how they were before, but they are amazingly clear now. Maybe I just got lucky.
 
Frank, a new beam-splitter (half-silvered mirror) is what you need. Makes a world of difference. When it is replaced, the entire V/F and R/F can be cleaned.
 
When Youxin Ye did the full CLA on my 43' IIIC K the RF camera back seeming even brighter than new!

Add a OKARO to a newly CLA`d VF and it`s simple and very fast to focus, I still prefer LTM Leica`s to focusing my M6........(but in 5 weeks I`ll have the 0.85 finder in my M6 so that might be a different story then? We`ll see ;)

Tom
 
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