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Experience with the MP

<font color="119911">Erik,
about the misaligned film track, putting perforation holes into the image area. My old M6 does the same thing. It did it when I got it used. I asked Leica to fix it when I sent it off a year ago. There was also a problem with the film slipping and image overlapping, so I thought thise might be interrelated problems.

It cam back marginally better as fare as film tracking, and mostly better for overlapping film. If I'm not careful, it does it at the end of the roll.

Now, when I printed in the darkroom I also printed borders, as you describe, so I was annoyed by this. I was annoyed more so because the film was tracking at an angle.

To continue my ramble, you know some of Cartier-Bresson and others prints are horrible in this regard. Not that I necesarrily dislike it, but if you don't want it, you don't want it. I think the screwmounts tended to be worse in this regard. I imagine this might be especially irksome to folks who shoot slide film.

Last thing, being a bulk film loader, I noticed variations in manufacture of the film cassettes tended to also cause a variation in the amount of perforation holes showing.

Really, you would think Leica would be able to fix this on your camera and make it work. You know, be able to do what it takes and make it work. hmm..

Well, good luck with things!
ciao,
garth
 
One of the long standing "precision" aspects of Leica bodies has been their winding mechanism. On a roll of 36 exposures, the spacing between frames has always been uniform. Yhis certainly continues to be true in my M6 (Panda).
Bodies that do not allow for this, should be returned to the factory.
Colin
 
Garth,
Thanks for your reaction! Yes, the old screwmount bodies really suffer from this disease (the perforations in the image area, or better the reverse of that, the image area on the wrong place, you know what I mean), this is because these camera's have no film guides. For these camera's however there is a remedy: glue a small ring of felt or bicycle innertube on the inside of the bottom-plate, just there where it pushes the film cassette, so that this cassette comes about 2mm higher in the camera. Also check with a piece of worthless film by looking into the filmgate opening with the shutter at 'B'. Different makes of commercially available cassettes all have different positions in the camera so check carefully.

But this problem should never occur on a M-Leica, for these have guide rails. Never had any problem with my M3's, but on the MP there was it. I like to imitate Cartier-Bresson, but not in this respect! The MP I have now is from this side good, but the upper frame line (in landscape-position) is not 100% horizontal but bows a bit from the middle to the left, I mean it is not straight, but bows. My M3 cameras have perfect frames, but the 3 MP's I have tried did not. As a bulk film user you will be disappointed that the old Leica-cassettes do not fit into the MP.

greetings,

Erik.
 
Dear Friends,
This may be a "left field" question but:
Does anyone know of a good touch-up paint for a black Leica M6 Classic?
Thanks,
Vinicio
 
Vinicio,
A Leica M6 is not a painted camera, but a chrome one (on zinc). Zinc cannot be painted, because it melts in the oven. I don't think it can be touched up either. Maybe it's possible to have it re-chromed or something, ask Leica camera in Solms.

Regards,

Erik.
 
>>>A Leica M6 is not a painted camera, but a chrome one (on zinc). Zinc cannot be painted, because it melts in the oven. I don't think it can be touched up either<<<

I thought mine is a painted one?? Here's a link to my M6TTL. http://www.cameraquest.com/lm6lhsa.htm

Thanks in advance for any expertise.
jeff in texas
 
Jeff

The special addition Black Paint M6s have a Brass top plate not zinc as with normal M6s

best regards, Craig
 
Vinicio,
Humbrol do a black silk finish enamel paint in very small pots for model making. In the UK it is just GBP1 per tin. If you use a small camel hair artist's brush and apply very carefully in a dust free environment, you can achieve a very good finish. I have touched in a number of places on various cameras over the years and you would need a magnifying glass to see where. Word of warning however, this does reduce the value of the camera from a collectors point of view, notwithstanding that it looks better. Wilson
 
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