The metal viewfinder ring is death on glasses. Now I know that there is at least one source to solve that problem. I will probably order from them. Still, that would be easy. If I wanted easy I would be using my M6 instead of my M3. It is the principle of the thing. :)

I have found something called Surface Gard light duty felt pads with adhesive backs. A card of them costs $1.69 US. It has a lot of unusable sizes but 22 that will work. Take an 8 mm cork borer and, voila, you have protection. It works well at 50 mm and above, but I can't see the whole finder for my 35 mm. Moves your eye away from the finder too far, but it still works. The adhesive works well in warm weather. I will need to wait for winter to see if it works in the cold.

Do you have a better solution?

Art

-- Art (AKarr90975@aol.com), July 08, 2001

Answers

Well, yes. When I had M2's nad M4-2 (and on my currente M4) I replaced the metal eyepiece with a rubber M6 eyepiece. Ordered the eyepieces from Leica NJ and bought a custom-fit ringwrench from www.micro-tools.com. It was more economical and faster than sending all 4 bodies away to have it done.

-- Jay (infinitydt@aol.com), July 08, 2001.

Oh yes, I did consider the stick-on felt idea but outdoors the felt would eventually pick up bits of sand or grit and end up scratching the glasses also.

-- Jay (infinitydt@aol.com), July 08, 2001.

Jay:

I will look into it. Here, sand isn't a problem. We still mostly have mud. We are in the non-drought region of the country. We have alread passed the annual rainfall level. I am now looking at a 1 to 2 in rainfall cloud out of the window and will have to sign off before the the great bolts from the sky eat my modum; one more time. :)

Art

-- Art (AKarr90975@aol.com), July 08, 2001.

http://www.cameraquest.com/glasprot.htm

-- Simon Wong (drsimonwong@hotmail.com), July 09, 2001.

Jay,

Could you give more specific instructions (cost, procedure, etc) on how you replaced the eyepiece yourself?

-Richard

-- Richard (rvle@bellatlantic.net), July 09, 2001.

I had the metal eyepiece on my M4-P changed to the M6's rubber- covered version when I sent the camera for a CLA at Hong Kong's Leica service centre. Total charge with CLA: about US$ 150 (originally they quoted me the equivalent of about US$ 200). The CLA took a week, but changing the eyepiece could be done in 10 minutes.

-- Hoyin Lee (leehoyin@hutchcity.com), July 09, 2001.

I have some scrap leather lying around that I ordered from a leather shop when my son and I got interested in making slings some years ago. I unscrewed the diopter from my M3, traced it on the leather in an area where the leather was really thin. This provided the outline. I pressed the diopter into the leather and turned it a bit, making an impression of the glass area, and using a Swiss Army Knife, I cut out the donut-shaped piece of leather. I glued it to the eyepiece using "Household Goop," a kind of glue or cement which bonds disparate materials together, tends to remain flexible, and is easy to remove when it squishes out from between pieces being cemented. I've been using it for years, and it hasn't scratched my glasses. It's also quite thin, so it doesn't noticeably diminish the view I get. I like the idea of using the rubber M6 eyepiece; however, my M6's diopter alone cost $71, and the leather was virtually free. I use a diopter because I'm farsighted and I can't read the camera without glasses nor see through it perfectly with glasses. But often I have no chance to remove my glasses before taking a shot. And I realized, before it was too late, fortunately, that I was even more likely to scratch my glasses (my "plastics"?)when in a hurry, hence the leather protection. Now, if someone would only come up with something to keep the eyepiece and the flash plug from catching on the shirt when wearing the camera around the neck. (And no, I don't carry it there all the time.)

-- Jon Streeter (jonlucien@aol.com), July 10, 2001.