I am new to the M6 and would like to know if it is OK to use the M6TTL in a drizzle or light rain.

-- David Enzel (dhenzel@vei.net), August 05, 2001

Answers

I do! No problems at all. I just wipe it down when I come back inside. The main problem is keeping drops of rain of the front of the lens. In serious rain, I would keep it covered in a water proof bag or under a coat until you are ready to shoot.

Cheers,

-- John Collier (jbcollier@powersurfr.com), August 05, 2001.

I ditto what John wrote. Also, I usually keep a trash bag folded up in my camera bag for extra security. If it starts to pour, I pull the trash bag over my camera bag (with a hole punched through for the strap). My M6 is fairly well protected underneath my photo vest. I would not shoot in a monsoon, but for the odd rain storm, it works very well.

-- David (pagedt@attglobal.net), August 05, 2001.

David , I have just a slight varation on the same theme . I have found that the bags that my paper is delivered in is the percise size and with a whole cut in the bag and hood reinstalled over the lens works great. Shot for hours in heavy rain using this system, much easer then it would seem to manipulate the controles the it would seem. I just have a couple in the the daily walk around kit at all times. Chuck

-- Charles C. Stirk Jr. (ccstirkjr@yahoo.com), August 05, 2001.

A sad story: My 1984 Leica M6 (bought new) recieved a few (very few) drops of spray on the top plate accessory shoe when I was on a ferry. I was mortified and cleaned it down with a damp cloth and dried it totally, immediately.

18 months later, the camera's meter failed. A drop of water had penetrated into the flash hotshoe contact and corroded the wiring right down into the camera. Repair cost was one third of the camera's price.

Perhaps this sealing problem has been fixed, but I would always now keep some type of protection on the hotshoe contacts in wet weather.

-- wayne murphy (wayne.murphy@publicworks.qld.gov.au), August 05, 2001.

I saw the Nat. Geo. videotape of David Alan Harvey shooting in Puerto Rico. At one point he gets sprayed with champagne while shooting in a victorious 'beisbol' team's locker room. I asked him later in the workshop what happened to his M6/35ASPH and he said the camera was totalled and the lens needed a strip-down cleaning. But he got the picture he was after!

I've done a lot of shooting around fountains and gotten well-misted (but not soaked). I've noticed some condensation inside the front viewfinder window on my M4-P after such an encounter.

So the M6 is not indestructable - it just depends on how bad conditions are and how badly you need the picture.

But an all-electronic AF body would have stopped working after 1.5 seconds, not 1.5 years, as in the previous answer. 8^).

"I use my camera like I use a toothbrush" - Donald McCullin

-- Andy Piper (apidens@denver.infi.net), August 06, 2001.

Wayne,

I assume your drop of water was salt water. You have to be very careful with any camera around salt water. Rain is fresh water and will evaporate with little or no effect.

Cheers,

-- John Collier (jbcollier@powersurfr.com), August 06, 2001.