Leica ain't perfect...

[Wolfgang Sachse <sachse@msc.cornell.edu>]

> From: "Nicolas Levinton" <nicolev@jet.es>
> Date: Wed, 8 Jan 1997 00:37:20 +0100
> Subject: Loose M6 Range-viewfinder eyepiece

> When I came home from buying my M6, I started touching every single
> milimiter...  ... mistakes, I unscrewed the Range-viewfinder eyepiece..
<snip> ...

>... downtown Buenos Aires. Suddenly, I realized that the eyepiece was missing,
and that without it I couldn't shoot looking through the finder...
<snip> ...

> So, in conclusion: If you unscrew it or change it for another one, screw it
> really hard.

	Hi Group -

	I lost the same eyepiece in Edinburgh, Scotland in the
	Summer '95 and it make my M6 useless for the rest of my
	trip to southern Europe. Unlike Nico, I had NOT fondled
	any `mm' of my M6, the damn thing just fell out somewhere.
	Having only one M-body and there being no such eyepieces
	available on some of the islands I later visited, it
	really screwed up my photography for the rest of my trip!
	
	Returning to the States, I bought a new one ($75) and
	Leica (NJ) suggested I use a VERY SMALL amount of glue
	to fix it in place. I'm sorry I didn't listen to them.
	I thought `no glue holding my M6 together! Well one day
	last October, I lost the damn thing again this time on
	campus (mind you that by then I periodically insured
	that it was firmly screwed on!) Fortunately, I back-tracked
	my steps and found that little buzzard on the sidewalk,
	undamaged. Now I've put a little (VERY LITTLE) amount of
	Duco cement to fix it in place. Pain in the neck!

	But then I've also lost two of those flash sync plugs
	(that plug into the flash sync connector at the center
	rear of the camera) and two of the $40 lens caps (OK,
	these losses were probably my stupidity). And I've
	noticed that the battery cover (at front) has also come
	loose once - but did not lost it (yet!).

	I met someone in Salzburg who told me that he once
	lost the little screw which holds the plastic handle
	on the film advance lever in place. It's a very short
	screw and unusual thread, so I check mine periodically.
	And have, as yet, never lost mine.

	But with that first loss -- same as Nico's loss - I lost
	my Leica "Innocence". I had often imagined that the Leica
	was the world's finest camera. Non-sense. Maybe there is
	no such thing as the `finest'. The Leica is a good camera
	but it's got some bad or even weird features, like pieces
	of it falling off every once in a while! We sometimes put
	up with a lot. I wonder what Oskar Barnak, the immaculate
	engineer, would say?

	Amazingly, I've NEVER had pieces fall off of any other
	cameras that I've used over the years - mostly Nikons.
	But like sticking with an old friend, I seem to always
	hang onto my Leica. Maybe it's silly.

	-- Wolfgang

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    Wolfgang Sachse                             Cornell University
    sachse@msc.cornell.edu      http://www.msc.cornell.edu/~sachse
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