M7 Production Run

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Leica Photography : One Thread

How many M7s were produced in the first run? There have been reports of the film advance locking up. Is this a proven fact? Until this is resolved, I am not going to buy a M7. Will wait on QC to correct any problems that may crop up in the 1st run. Anybody know of any otgher known problems?

-- C> W> Satterfield (cwsat@istate.net), May 06, 2002

Answers

CW. This type of information is usually not possible to come by for at least a few years after the production run is finished, so I doubt if you will be able to find out anything this soon. But I have to tell you that initial production runs tend to be in the range of 2,000 or 3,000 to 10,000 or so cameras, and problems are often corrected or minor changes are made within a production run. For example, the first production run of the M3 was 10,000 cameras, and a number of changes were made within the first run (for example, addition of the screw and then service seal at the 12 oclock position of the lens mount, changes in the film track, changes in the shape of the top and bottom plates, etc.

More recently, the following changes to the M6 were all made within the first production run: metering circuitry modified (so the diodes flashed when the light was outside of the metering range, diodes on for 11 sec instead of 9 sec), plastic strap lug protectors added, rubberized protectors around eyepiece for viewfinder, and a few others I won't mention.

Leica will continue to make minor modifications of their cameras throughout the tenureship of the camera, for example, the low light sensitivity of the M6 meter was increased several times. You can never predict when these will occur.

-- Eliot (erosen@lij.edu), May 06, 2002.


Moderation questions? read the FAQ