Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/09/28

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Subject: Re: [Leica] My M6 TTL drains battery even when off!
From: Martin Howard <howard.390@osu.edu>
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2000 18:17:35 -0400

Tristan Tom jotted down the following:

> I concluded that my unit was draining the battery even when off.
> Since it is new, I sent it back to the vendor for a replacement. This
> was a bit disconcerting, given the fact that it's a Leica. I hope
> that I just got a bad unit and this is not indicative of the M6 TTL
> model.

Ah, yet another one who's stumbled upon Leica's dark secret.  The M6 TTL is,
in fact, manufactured by the same people who make the Holga (check out
http://www.asc.upenn.edu/usr/cassidy/leica-h/).  Which, of course, explains
why every other Leica camera falls apart in the hands of its owner upon
being taken out of the box.  You're lucky you didn't have to assemble the
bits yourself.  Quite common, I'm told.

The other little known fact is that a major shareholder in Leica is Varta.
Yep, the battery manufacturers.  In fact, the design team behind the M6TTL
made it the most battery-economic camera in history, only to have a team of
well-dressed muscle arrive from Varta and lean on them.  So now, it drains
the batteries even when switched off, to ensure a steady current of money to
Varta.

Your intreped reporter,

M.

- -- 
Martin Howard                     |
Visiting Scholar, CSEL, OSU       |    What boots up must come down.
email: howard.390@osu.edu         |
www: http://mvhoward.i.am/        +---------------------------------------