Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/07/15

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Subject: Re: [Leica] My New (old) M3 and some problems
From: "Daniel Ridings" <dlridings@hotmail.com>
Date: Tue, 16 Jul 2002 06:19:09 +0200

John,

Lucky guy :) M3's are great.

They don't focus as close as newer cameras. Someone else will probably have 
the details. I used to know the details. I've never felt it was a problem. I 
picked up an older 50/2.8 Elmar a few years back and it doesn't focus much 
closer than 3.5 feet. They were probably made for each other.

I don't have an M6, but it is very possible that the viewfinder is not as 
bright as an M6. It's about the same as my M4. The brighter viewfinder might 
have been what Leica was after when they ran into design problems with the 
newer variant.

The scratches on the mirror ... if it doesn't focus right, it's serious. 
Otherwise, one wonders how they ever got there. Perhaps your viewfinder is 
very dim (things be relative) and someone got itchy fingers, took it apart 
and tried to clean something.

Check the slow shutter speeds, though I doubt it will be a problem. Old 
Leicas that have been lying around can have problems. Watch the curtain 
movement at 1 sec. There's a problem if the curtain sticks and doesn't leave 
the frame totally free. You can see how one of them doesn't go all the way 
across and the other kind of creeps out early. But it sounds like your 
camera has been used. Either way, it's not an expensive repair.

I'd have to be really really unhappy with the viewfinder before I'd let 
anyone tamper with it.

Enjoy
Daniel Ridings
geocities.com/daniel_ridings

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