During a recent trip I found that my M6's rangefinder focussing patch was/is out of alignment/adjustment. I did not bump it or drop it, it just seems to have gone out of alignment. Perhaps it was all the vibration from the car/plane trip.

The split image lines up correctly on the horizontal axis, all the way out to infinity, but not on the vertical axis. It did not affect my images and accurate focus is still possible, but it bothers me to see an out-of-alignment image in the viewfinder.

This one is my newest M6 (non TTL), still under the Leica Passport warranty. I've never had this problem with any of my other Leica bodies. Any idea how complicated a repair/adjustment this is? And how long does Leica usually take to repair these things under warranty?

Thanks for the advice/help. Sergio.

-- Sergio Ortega (s.ortega@worldnet.att.net), July 28, 2000

Answers

Since it is under warranty, I'd just send it in and have them fix it. I believe the up down allignment adjustments are under the top of the camera, so it needs a descent amoint of work to get to it. The infinity focus can be reached from inside the lens mount area, and ia an easier adjustment. You just spend a bundle on the camera, so it doesn't make sense to me to use it as it is.

-- Andrew Schank (aschank@flash.net), July 28, 2000.

Sergio,

Back in 1994, Popular Photography did a full tear down report along the lines of "Leica M6... how good is it?" They had one of their cheif camera technicians open and fully disassemble both the M6 and an M2... side by side. One of the negative comments, (and there were several), was that the vertical alignment of the rangefinder on the older M2 had precise adjustability via screws on the mount, while the M6 had fixed vertical alignment... which was slightly off on the test camera issued to Pop photo by Leica. My 1988 M6 has been a very tiny bit off since I got it... Focusing is still 100% accurate but point light sources can be seen twice on the patch.

Looking through some of the Leica user group inputs, it seems that this is common. A couple of the people reported long waits, only to have some mis-alignment after they finally get their camera back from Leica USA.

This is particularly depressing for a camera of both the cost and pedigree of Leica. I'd agree with Andrew and utilize the warranty. Let us know how it goes.

Just as an aside... not to brag, my 1966 M2 is perfectly aligned... both horizonal and vertical. Those were the days!

Good Luck, Al

-- Al Smith (smith58@msn.com), July 28, 2000.

It is a very simple adjustment that takes less than a half an hour to do. The adjustment is made, using a special tool, through the access hole behind the red Leica shield on the front of the camera. Unfortunately Leica USA does not seem to have such a quick turn-around time. I had a similar problem and overnight aired it to Leica Canada and they had it back the next business day after they received it. I was impressed!

-- John Collier (jbcollier@home.com), July 28, 2000.

John,

I know that the horizonal adjustment is made through the front... on my M2 and M3'2, I simply removed the cover screw and did it myself with jeweler's screw drivers... But does this work for the vertical adjustment?

Based on the reference material that I've seen, it requires the total removal of the top plate on the older M series cameras. The M6 may be different, but according to that Pop Photo article, it is not so easy. The magazine asserts that adjustment is not so precise due to the RF prism being more fixed in the M6.

-- Al Smith (smith58@msn.com), July 28, 2000.

No, John's right: horizontal adjustment on all M models is on the big roller at the top of the lens mount opening. Vertical adjustment is either via the big screw between the windows, or behind the red dot, depending on the precise model. Horizontal is easy to do at home; vertical takes small screwdrivers on the earlier models, and a special tool on the red dot models. I wrote something about earlier models which you'll find somewhere down below on the earlier posts.

On the screw mount cameras the big screw on the front hides the horizontal adjustment, and the vertical is made by rotating the glass in the RF window near the shutter speed after removing the knurled ring.

-- Michael Darnton (mdarnton@hotmail.com), July 28, 2000.

Thanks to all for the information provided. I'll be sending it to Leica for warranty repair/adjustment in the next few days. I will post the results of this when the work is completed. Sergio.

-- Sergio Ortega (s.ortega@worldnet.att.net), July 29, 2000.

Sergio,

Good luck! While you are waiting for the return of your camera, you might want to do some reading... and see that you are not alone. Go to the site: http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/ And type in "rangefinder alignment" in the search window. You can see how confusing and frustrating this is.

Al

-- Al Smith (smith58@msn.com), July 29, 2000.

Sergio, I had exactly the same problem a few months ago, and mentioned it in photo.net.

Very often, with the M4 and later Leicas, is not an actual misalignment, but rather that the viewfinder patches appear in alignment only if your eye is centered exactly on the exit pupil of the viewfinder. Moving your eye around slightly causes various degrees of seeming misalignment.

The M3 finder, which has a different optical design, does not suffer from this "defect".

So, make sure that this is not the problem, before you send the camera out for repairs. I did not, and the camera repairman was kind enough to point it out to me and save me some bucks.

-- Mani Sitaraman (bindumani@pacific.net.sg), July 30, 2000.

To add, this is not a complicated adjustment, and any competent camera repairman who has Leica experience can do it for you with a same-day turnaround, assuming no backlogs on his part. I don't know how quick Leica is.

If you are in New York City, take it in to Ken Hansen, they used to have an in-house guy who would take care of the small stuff on the spot.

-- Mani Sitaraman (bindumani@pacific.net.sg), July 30, 2000.

I agree with Mani: be sure to experiment with where your eye rests on the viewfinder before sending your M6 off for repair. I've found that my new M6 (.72 TTL) appears to be ever so slightly misaligned on the vertical plane, but that the misalignment disappears as I adjust the position of my eye in the finder.

Dan

-- Dan Honemann (ddh@home.com), July 31, 2000.

Thanks to all who took their time to respond to my problem/question.

As suggested, I tried moving my eye around the viewfinder a bit. The vertical alignment of the image does seem to improve somewhat as I drop my line of sight to the bottom of the viewfinder port. But, as I move too far down, I lose the patch's split image effect altogether. However, the vertical alignment is still off, no matter where my eye is placed.

It's also off at varying degrees at certain focussing distances. Strangely, the closer I focus, the less pronounced it becomes. And, even more perplexing, at infinity distances, it's not very noticeable either. It seems to be most apparent in the middle distances. Maybe my eyes are playing tricks on me!

I'll re-post when I resolve this with Leica. Thanks again, Sergio.

-- Sergio Ortega (s.ortega@worldnet.att.net), August 01, 2000.