Spectacular Leica M9 sensor corrosion

[Vobluda]

A legendary German engineering at its best.

 

[mcfingon]

I am hoping you get a great sense of achievement out of repairing those two cameras Marty. The minor camera or lens repairs that I do give me a lot of enjoyment by making something that wasn't usable good again, so fingers crossed you can do this bigger project. Here's me working on an easier project, an Olympus lens at night in my shed.
John Mc

Olympus OM-1 Zuiko 28/3.5

 

[robbeiflex]

I once fixed a simple communist era Hungarian camera by bending a spring to put more tension on it. My attempted repair of a Zorki 4K stuck shutter curtain did not go as well and ended in a scrap heap. Whereas I have brought two Rollei 35s back from the dead. What you are doing is an order of magnitude (plus!) more complicated, but then at this price you are well placed on the risk vs reward curve. Be careful and good luck with it!

 

[SolaresLarrave]

Well, Marty, I wish I could share your optimism... but then, I'm very much a four-thumbs kind of guy whose manual skills won't reach that level. However, I won't cast predictions of gloom and doom and hope to see your post announcing your success at replacing the sensor's surface layer. Very best wishes!! 🙂

 

[oftheherd]

I've puttered a bit with some minor repairs. Kudos to you for even attempting such a repair. More to you if you are successful on even one of the cameras. Please keep us up on you work.

 

[Freakscene]

If you don't have replacement glass get a diamond hone and a cheap glass filter that you can remove from the filter ring. Many will come right out with a spanner. The diamond hone will let you file the glass to shape. Do it under running water. Take a little while but gives you good control to really size it properly. I didn this to create an IR filter for a Sigma SD Quattro H's hot/mirror dust shield and to replace the hot mirror in a X100 to make it full spectrum.

Edit: If the cover glass is also the hot mirror get a UV/IR blocking filter and then size it down as needed.

The coverglass is the hot mirror (this is what caused all the problems) and its thickness is critical to the operation of the microlenses bonded to the sensor surface. So I have ordered BG55 and S8612 glass to try. My main concern is that I won't be able to install the firmware that goes with the BG55 glass and will have to figure out a way to get the corrosion-prone S8612 glass to work.

I'll try to post some photos this weekend.

You might want to start with the battery and charger. I'd hate to go through all the grief of replacing the cover glass then finding out the camera was toast from the beginning....

It works just fine, I am almost living at work at the moment while we try to get some fish to reproduce. I have a strange life.

Now, will you still let us know if you aren't successful?

Of course, promise.

I should state that my father was an optical engineer who worked in a research lab at The University of Queensland and did a lot of partner work with Carl Zeiss Australia. I hate working on cameras but I have quite a bit of experience. I am also doing some Optical Engineering subjects in the Bachelor of Engineering program at the university where I work and have access to electronics and optical labs and quite a bit of expertise and assistance.

I will keep you updated but won't provide step-by-step instructions mainly because this is 'at your own risk' work.

Marty