Any ideas?

[cmiller@berkshire.net (Curt Miller)]

Hello Folks and Happy New Year -

I've go a small problem and rhought someone might have a suggestion.  I have
a 50 Summicron (black, Canada, sn/2.9 mil.) - 3rd version.  This lens is
well-used but was overhauled by Leica Northvale about a year ago.  The
problem is that the detents for aperture setting are so worn as to be almost
non-existent.  I mean there is not much of a click anymore and it takes no
effort to move the aperture ring.  In itself this is not much of a problem,
however, the proximity of the aperture ring to the focus lever is a problem.
I was shooting in Boston the other day and had set my aperture/shutter speed
combo set and put the camera to my eye, focused and released the shutter on
one of those 'decisive moment' images.  To my horror, the aperture moved
from f/4 to f/8 during focusing and before exposure.

This is not a once-in-a-while occurrence, it happens constantly if I'm not
ever aware of its potential.  It's not that the two functions are 'connected
by friction,' it's simply because of their proximity to one another and the
way the finger moves the focusing lever or ring.  It's somewhat of a design
problem but I suspect more of an issue of wear - a less-used identical lens
does not do this since the click detents are tight (I've tried my buddy's).
Does anyone have any practical suggestions?  I had thought that Leica would
have worked some minor miracle during a CLA, but no.  This has become more
than a little irritating and makes it somewhat frustrating since we want to
believe that well-used-but-not-abused Leica gear will function well for a
loong time.

Later the same day I used my son's (originally mine since new) 1966
Spotmatic with 55/1.8, through which I had put many thousands of rolls of
film for 20 years.  I was simply amazed of the lens' flawless functioning
despite IT'S equally hard use, and of its lack of similar type of annoyance
(or of any other anomalies for that matter).  I could hear the ghost of my
father (who was a Leica/Rollei user) over my shoulder saying for the
millionth time: "it's not the camera..."  He had worked in the industry for
40 years and in his later years got royally frustrated by Leica's pricing,
considering what he believed to be their failure in producing products of
quality sufficiently superior to the Japanese to warrant the enormous
difference and this appears to me as an example of what he meant.  Sorry for
this digression but I'm annoyed by this $500 lens' behavior (and the photos
it costs me) and really need to vent.

TIA,

Curt

Elizabeth Mei Wong
Henry Curtis Miller, M.P.A.


Pittsfield, Massachusetts
In the Berkshires, next door to Tanglewood