Loose Leica M shutter speed dial moves from B to 1000?

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Hello all. I was about to trade in my near mint M4-P for a beat up M4-P and cash to save a few bucks. Two things stopped me. The shutter speed dial rotates loosely, twirling the dial with a fingertip changes the speeds. The dial also rotates 360 degrees, passing between B and 1000. On my camera, the shutter dial needs a firm grip with two fingers to move it and the dial doesn't traverse between B and 1000.

Is this shutter condition normal for a well used Leica or am I going to hear the Chimes O'Doom? The shutter seemed to fire ok at low speeds and the clockwork ticking sound was present. Opinions anyone?

-- Fred Sun (redsky3@yahoo.com), October 28, 2001

Answers

Sounds like "chimes of doom" to me! You'll likely spend more cash on the beater than you'll get in the trade... Why on earth get rid of a perfectly good near-mint M???

-- Jack Flesher (jbflesher@msn.com), October 28, 2001.

Somewhere, on some other forum, someone must have written, "I finally found someone to unload my turkey M4 on, and get a near-mint one in exchange, and all I have to do is throw in a few bucks."

Don't do it, Fred. But if you must, would you like to spend the extra cash on a really neat Minolta color temperature meter? It's powered by those really high-energy PX625 mercury batteries. It's essential for deciding whther to shoot with a skylight filter vs. a UVa. Oh, and a large lightbox with a yellowed plastic diffuser, and ...

-- Bob Fleischman (RFXMAIL@prodigy.net), October 28, 2001.


I have to agree - 'chimes of doom' are sure to be heard.

And coming from London I'm talking Big Ben sized chimes! For goodness sake this deal sounds like the mother of false economies to me. Stick with what you've got - for me the M4P is the best of all the modern bodies.

-- Giles Poilu (giles@monpoilu.icom43.net), October 28, 2001.


Is this a trick question?

-- Andrew Schank (aschank@flash.net), October 28, 2001.

This is the funniest set of messages that I've read in a long while ... thanks. (I'm laughing with you, not at you, Fred.)

-- Dave Yoon (dhyoon@pantheon.yale.edu), October 28, 2001.


On the other hand, it could be a loose screw and cost nothing above the CLA you're going to get, anyway. Chimes of doom? What I mostly hear on internet forums when it comes to repair issues is chimes of fear of the unknown from people who don't know.

As someone who fixes stuff (violins) I gotta tell you, if you listened to violinists about repairs, you'd never want to own one-- they think every little thing they don't understand is cause for panic, and I smell the same fear from a lot of photographers about cameras when the issue comes up. Do yourself a favor if you need a repair: don't ask anonymous people on the internet who never looked inside a camera how scared you should be--go to someone who knows what he's talking about, and ask him.

On the other hand, trading a mint camera for a beat up one and a couple of bucks hardly seems like that great of a deal. . .

-- Michael Darnton (mdarnton@hotmail.com), October 28, 2001.


Hi again. Many thanks for the considerate, creative, and humorous advice. No, I'm not about to give away my camera but if I do, I'll make the offer here first! 8-) I take it then that free play in the shutter speed dial is an anomaly. Thanks again, everyone.

-- Fred Sun (redsky3@yahoo.com), October 28, 2001.

For what it's worth: Not too long ago, I bought a used M4 w. a somewhat loose shutter dial (I did not rotate 360 degrees though) but a simple tightning of the screw on top of the dial returned the feel to normal. For other reasons, I had it CLA'd shortly after, so I don't know if this looseness would have caused me further trouble.

-- Niels H. S. Nielsen (nhsn@ruc.dk), October 28, 2001.

I've been repairing leicas since l975 12 hours a day- there's a loos screw that's easy to get to.

-- Don Goldberg (dagcam@chorus.net), October 29, 2001.

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