[Leica] Rangefinder vertical allignmement

[LVisencio@aol.com]

Dear Mr. Small:

A few months ago I purchased I purchased a copy of Gunter Osterloh's Leica
M:The Advanced School of Photography (1987 edition) from the Photographer's
Place. In it I found a copy of e-mail from you relating to rangefinder
vertical allignment. This was dated 1996, so I don't know if you address is
current. I'm a member of LHSA. I've seen your ads in the Leica catalog every
now and then, but I couldn't locate a recent one that had your listing in
order to get you current e-mail address, so here goes:

You mentioned that your M3's and M6's have never had a problem relating to
this allignment. Well, here's my problem. A year ago I purchased a new M6 (I
found out it was grey market after I puchased it). Recently I noticed that the
infinity focus and parallax were slightly off. I contacted the dealer and was
told that this wasn't a warranty problem, but one of handling (although I
can't remember bumping it). So figuring that he wasn't going to take care of
it, I took it to a repair facility (which is listed by LHSA). I was told that
while the infinity focus adjustment could easily be taken care of, the
parallax allignment would require disassembly of the rangefinder since the M6
doesn't have an easy provision for this adjustment, unlike previous models..

I've read several accounts over the years by photographers who have taken
Leicas into war that have held up through all the abuse. I haven't subjected
the M6 to any knocks.. But does this mean that I'm destined to go through
periodic adjustments during the M6's life of "normal" use? This would mean
that even if I shipped it to the dealer for repair, it would be vulnerable to
misallignment if it were mishandled in return shipping.

Is the M6 that delicate? Your comments are welcome.

Sincerely,

Louis Visencio