I was shooting a demonstration against Jean-Marie Le Pen on Saturday in Paris. I had gone through 4 rolls, and just finished a firth. I rewound the film, loaded a fresh one, advanced the film and proceeded to attempt to shoot. Nothing! The shutter had locked in the cocked position and I could not (and still can't) release it. I thought "batteries" so I went to manual (1/60 & 1/ 125) and still could not fire. I changed the batteries and still the same problem. It is almost as if the trigger lock has malfunctioned and now both "off" and "on" position are locked tight. The release has the same amount of give (almost none) in both positions. It does not even trigger the metering. As much as I fiddle, load and unload film, etc., I can not seem to release the shutter.

It just happened that I was right next to Maison du Leica on rue Beaumarchais, so I ran and and asked for help. The owner had never seen anything like it (though he had only seen a couple of M7s so far, and had none in stock) and had no idea as to the cause of the problem or a solution for it.

Anyone have some feedback? BTW, I do have backup, so no need to remind me.

Thanks,

Anam

-- Anam Alpenia (aalpenia@dasar.com), April 29, 2002

Answers

I sympathize with your problem. Though so far I haven't had any trouble with the M7. I was wondering if it could have anything to do with a problem with the on-off switch (which is plastic), since when the switch is in the OFF position, the shutter release button remains locked. Did you try jiggling the release button a few times before leaving it in the ON position?

-- Eliot (erosen@lij.edu), April 29, 2002.

Eliot,

I was thinking the same thing, and tried shaking and jiggling with no result. #^$%#&$%

Anam

-- Anam Alpenia (aalpenia@dasar.com), April 29, 2002.

I feel for you. I once went to shoot Magic Johnson and my battery went dead in my EOS 1n. Couldn't shoot a thing!

So from then on, I have taken no chances. I will alwyas try to take two camera bodies and make sure that one of them is one that I have relied upon for some time, and has proven it's reliability. Of course, this could also go wrong. Sometimes, there's nothing you can do regardless of all the preparation and precaution taken prior.

Better luck next time...if there is a next time....or similar.

-- Kristian (leicashot@hotmail.com), April 29, 2002.

Could this be another R8 happening all over again?

-- Karl Yik (karl.yik@dk.com), April 29, 2002.

Thanks Anamm, Sorry about your dilemma. I've been there. Mine was with a Rollei years ago at a wedding. I was planning to buy am M-7(.58) as a third body but you have convinced me to get another M-6. Maybe three years or so down the line, when all the "bugs" are safely confined to the Solms vault.

-- Ned Learned (ned@kajabbi.com), April 29, 2002.

Good idea, Ned.

-- Anam Alpenia (aalpenia@dasar.com), April 29, 2002.

i second the idea to go to every anti-le pen demonstration available and show the world that there are decent non-racist people in france. it is a nightmare to see how the world and especially europe is moving to the far right at the moment. see france, austria (haider), UK (Oldham), Germany (Schill in Hamburg)...the list goes on and on.

-- stefan randlkofer (geesbert@yahoo.com), April 29, 2002.

And I'm bid how much for my Leitz M6?

-- Glenn Travis (leicaddict@hotmail.com), April 29, 2002.

I hate to admit it but figured it was just a fluke. The same thing happened to me but fortunately it happened when I first took it out of the box. The shutter locked up when I was playing around with it. So I just packed it up and shipped it back for a full refund to HK. The replacement M7 I made sure this time, had the passport warranty and also bought here in the good old US of A. I was reluctant at first to share this since I bought it from HK and figured it was damaged during shipping. But after reading your post it seems like the same problem. So far the new M7 works like a charm. Sorry for your bad M7 experience. This should be a wake up call to Leica QC.

-- John Abela (jamriman@yahoo.com), April 29, 2002.

Thanks, John. It seems that we have a trend. I wonder how many more are out there? Well, at least Solms knows it has a problem. USA Passport will prove valuable after all. Never needed it for the good old M6, but then all the bugs have been corrected year ago. I think M7 is still beta, for sure.

FYI everyone, I had shot about 50-60 rolls before the problem surfaced.

-- Anam Alpenia (aalpenia@dasar.com), April 29, 2002.

And I'm bid how much for my Leitz M6?

Don't be so smug. My last Leica to bail out on me was none other than the "legendary" Leitz Wetzlar M6. I discovered during an important shoot that 1/15 was occasionally (every 4th to 10th shot) firing at 1/8. No big deal as I was shooting print film, but potentially disastrous had I been shooting chromes.

-- Anon Terry (anonht@yahoo.com), April 29, 2002.

It must be annoying to have a brand new camera go wrong, but I think all cameras have faults. My M6's: no flash sync on three out of four contacts, preview lever stuck at 35 on one body, both rewind levers squashed out of shape. And the bloody AE doesn't work on either of them!

-- rob (rob@robertappleby.com), April 29, 2002.

The same thing happened to me with my brand new Leica M6 TTL 0.72. The shutter jammed in the middle of a roll after only a month of light use. It took Leica USA two months to repair and send it back to me. I am glad I had the USA Passport Warranty, but I was very angry at having to wait two months for it to be fixed!

-- Muhammad Chishty (applemac97@aol.com), April 29, 2002.

At the camera store where I work the most common "first fault" with manual advance cameras were people excited about their new purchase when first holding it would often depress the shutter and advance the winder at the same time, often resulting in jammed shutters. Stephen Gandy has reported this happening with several new bessa customers and with M6's but wasnt sure if the M7 would do the same, maybe something to be conscious of when winding on be sure realease is not depressed. Better safe than sorry.

-- Joel Matherson (joel_2000@hotmail.com), April 29, 2002.

Actually Phil, all things considered you may in fact be right. Almost none of my posts here really have anything to do with "Leica Photography" as discussed in this forum (equipment fetishism and what Lord Puts says in his bible). I tried to get some interest going in a serious photo club locally whose members would leave their equipment at home and just bring their pictures and assignment ideas. No response. I suppose it's true that most "photographers", like audiophiles, car freaks, etc., just use their equipment for Viagra substitutes instead of what they're supposed to be used for. I'm going to stop wasting my time posting here and get cranking on some of my projects. Thanks for the revelation.

And don't worry, I won't let the door hit me on the way out.

-- Anon Terry (anonht@yahoo.com), April 29, 2002.

Two months - mon dieu! Maybe they have enough practice by now!

-- Anam Alpenia (aalpenia@dasar.com), April 29, 2002.

my brand new M6-TTL was overexposing by about 3 stops when i bought it...i had to exchange it...

-- Dexter Legaspi (dalegaspi@hotmail.com), April 29, 2002.

What evidence would lead anyone to believe the M7 would somehow be a departure from Leica's ongoing product cheapening and spotty QC?

-- Jay (infinitydt@aol.com), April 29, 2002.

Jay wrote: "What evidence would lead anyone to believe the M7 would somehow be a departure from Leica's ongoing product cheapening and spotty QC?"

What a horrible thing to say! One highly regarded European analyst referred to the Leica M7 as "one step closer to perfection." You doubt this?

ROFLOL!

-- Robert Schneider (rolopix@yahoo.com), April 29, 2002.

The problem with buying any product that has been recently introduced is that you become a beta-tester for it. I cannot envisage paying to become a beta-tester for anybody. I expect to get paid. Anam, maybe you should send Leica a bill.

-- Vijay A. Nebhrajani (vijay_nebhrajani@yahoo.com), May 01, 2002.

Something similar happened to me when changing rolls with the M7 and fortunately things unstuck. But I could not fire the shutter until I rewound the (unexposed) film (carefully, to leave the leader). Unfortunately for Anam things did not resolve so easily. I suspected at the time it was because I was in AE mode with the lens cap on when doing the frame advances and the meter made the decision for max exposure time (many seconds) and I wasn't clued into this while I was winding to go to the -1 frame since I wasn't looking in the finder. Now I am careful to move out of AE mode and to set a shutter speed when shooting the -2 and -1 frames with the lens cap on.

Not that I am satisfied with this arrangement...

Matt

-- Matt Sachs (mattsachs@attbi.com), May 02, 2002.

Anam,

Have you tried a good bang on the head of one of the demonstrator with the M7?

It might work you know...

The guy at the Maison du Leica is a nice chap but more salesman than a technician. He used to work for Hasselblad a few years ago.

Well, we are off subject. Too bad, I started to like the M7, I'll probably stick to my plastic R7... Cheers.

-- Xavier d'Alfort (hot_billexf@hotmail.com), May 02, 2002.

Dear Anam,

Turns out my frozen M6 had slipped a gear. This could be your problem. My M6 was bought used in 1989, but things happen. Stephen Gandy's techicians unstuck it for $175. I was going to be charged anywhere from 172000 or 250000 yen to have this single operation done in Japan. Be happy you are in Europe, good friend. And in Paris! And that you have that warrenty. Still, this is totally nuts and something you don't expect from Leica. Things have fallen off and had to be glued and screwed on my Hexar RF but so far it shoots. What does this say?

By the way, a pox on LePen.

Hope this is the last trouble you have with the M7.

best,

Alex

-- Alex Shishin (shishin@pp.iij4-u.or.jp), May 02, 2002.

Matt,

Interesting - another thing to think about when I finally get mine repaired - In my case, I was was in the middle of a roll, so no lens cap there..maybe it did slip a gear like Alex said...who knows....Leica, I hope!

Xavier: wait until suckers like myself work the bugs out, the go for it!

-- Anam Alpenia (aalpenia@dasar.com), May 02, 2002.