Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/07/05

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Subject: Re: [Leica] R4 meter cell? (was: Vintage M observations)
From: Doug Herr <telyt560@cswebmail.com>
Date: 5 Jul 2000 12:15:21 -0700

On Wed, 05 July 2000, ralph fuerbringer wrote:

> 
>  sas mckeown's puts it there are 4 generations of r4s, the first three are
> loaded with electronic problems. mine had a cds cell(like all the first
> three generations ),the book says to avoid serial nos below 1.6000,000. the
> 4th version  finally got a silcon cell years after i dumped mine. it also
> says leica only repairs these under its signature service which cost
> $235 in 96.i was discussing the r4 at introduction not after it was
> "fixed"? many years later.
> 

There is no question the early R4 bodies were crappy.  My literature (Leica's sales brochure for the "R4 MOT electronic") states that the camera uses a silicon photo diode.  AFAIK, "R4 MOT electronic" was the name used on the earliest R4 bodies.  The literature is not available to me right now (it's at home) but I believe it's dated 1980.

Which is right?  Only a service technician knows for sure.  One thing we both agree on is the "magic" serial number of 1,600,000.

Doug Herr
Sacramento
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/telyt
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