Re: [Leica] Coming In From the Cold

["Dan Post" <dwpost@email.msn.com>]

Marc;
Ya spoiled my chance to sell Leica-Lube, distilled from Unicorn earwax and
guaranteed to work at any temp! RATS- back to the drawing board.
Dan'l
- -----Original Message-----
From: Marc James Small <msmall@roanoke.infi.net>
To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
Date: Wednesday, December 24, 1997 3:35 PM
Subject: Re: [Leica] Coming In From the Cold

>At 03:39 PM 12/24/97 -0500, Bill Caldwell wrote:
>>>From Minnesota winter experiences, I have used both a M3 and a CL
>>outdoors to -30 F.  I have not had an internal lubrication sticking
>>problem in either camera.  However, if the camera body and lens were to
>>be used outside for significant periods, it is generally suggested that
>>they both be winterized.
>
>
>I'm having a lonely Christmas eve, so I DO appreciate the opportunity to
>pontificate a bit on matters historical.  (Or, if you will, matters
>hysterical!)
>
>When the Germans occupied Norway in the first winter of the Second War,
>they found that their Leicas were freezing up.  (I understand that the
>Rolleis and Zeiss Ikon cameras MF were not so afflicted, though I believe
>the Contax RF's had woes similar to the Leicas.)  The Gnomes of Wetzlar
>pondered this a while and changed the bearing on which the shutter curtains
>ran from a friction bearing -- that is, a bear-metal hole with a bare-metal
>spindle sticking through it -- to roller bearings, yclept 'kugellager' aug
>Deutsch, and this cured the problem.  (Zeiss Ikon modified Contax RF's by
>relubing them with a lighter-weight grease, but this meant treated cameras
>were not as durable when exposed to warmer temperatures, so the Leitz
>solution, for once, was preferable.)
>
>By the end of the War, and some extensive cold-weather service in the
>Arctic, Norway, and Soviet Union, Leicas were found to function without a
>qualm with only one roller-bearing, and so the Postwar IIIc's, and all
>cameras hence, have been so constructed.
>
>The point?  You don't really need to 'winterize' a Leica:  the design was
>made to accomodate the worst that a Russian winter could toss at it, and,
>pace Garrison Keilor, even Minnesota looks mild by comparison.
>
>I DO have it on good authority that Robert Byrd, Amundsen, Admiral Byrd,
>and Santa Claus never 'winterized' THEIR Leicas, so why should you?
>
>Marc
>
>
>msmall@roanoke.infi.net  FAX:  +540/343-7315
>Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!
>