There is an outfit containing a chrome M6 classic with an all metal film winding lever on ebay at the moment. I thought this was a special edition exception to the plastic tip lever. Anybody know anything about this?

-- Jim Shields (jim.shields@tasis.ch), July 09, 2001

Answers

To my knowledge the only M6 classic with an all-metal (M3-style)wind lever is the M6J which also has other M3 cosmetics and an 0.85 mag finder. It came as a set with a special version of the now-current 50/2.8 Elmar, which has a silver-chrome ring surrounding the front element (the production model has a black ring)and should have the same serial# as the body, which runs from 1954 01 through 40, 1955 01 through 40 and so on up until 1994 40. Otherwise, someone may have swapped the standard M6 wind lever for an M3 lever, a simple 30- second operation.

-- Jay (infinitydt@aol.com), July 09, 2001.

Could it be that the original plastice tip broke off, so they had an M3 lever installed?

-- Jack Flesher (jbflesher@msn.com), July 09, 2001.

Is this the M6 (classic) you are talking about ? It's clearly not original.

-- Lucien (lucien_vd@yahoo.fr), July 09, 2001.

Yeah, that's it. It's the lever I want without having to buy a millennium or M6J or any other fancy model. I talked with the owner. He doesn't know anything about it. Says he's handled these before.

-- Jim Shields (jim.shields@tasis.ch), July 09, 2001.

Yep, looks just like the lever on my M3. Maybe you can call around and find a lever from a parts camera at one of the repair places.

-- Andrew Schank (aschank@flash.net), July 09, 2001.

I have an M2 with this style lever, and before fitting one to a mint camera, be farwarned that it will beat dents into the shutter speed dial.

-- Mark Wrathall (wrathall@laudaair.com), July 10, 2001.

They are still available new from Leica. I just ordered one and the cost was $40.25CAN or $26.48US. You will also need the tool to remove the shutter release bezel. They are available from:

http://micro-tools.com/

I find the new style levers are difficult to use when an auxilary finder is mounted.

Cheers,

-- John Collier (jbcollier@powersurfr.com), July 10, 2001.

Are they available in black chrome? or just "M3" silver?

-- Andy Piper (apidens@denver.infi.net), July 11, 2001.