Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/11/17
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 11:27 PM +0100 11/17/06, Philippe Orlent wrote:
>What made you so unhappy with the M4-2?
>It was my first Leica, and a whole world opened up to me. Never left
>me in shame.
>
>Philippe
Quite a few things. Quality control was not up to expectations. I'd
bought it pretty much as soon as it came out, and the winder for it
that arrived shortly after. The less said about the winder the
better. It was truly terrible; Eumig and Leica should hang their head
in shame for producing that!
The M4-2 was in the shop a couple of times immediately after I bought
it. Fortunately the shop at that time was very close and responsive,
so I had it back quickly. The wind mechanism bound, the rangefinder
adjustment was somewhat loose so that every little bump caused it to
go off.
Then, on a little trip that included Crater Lake in Oregon, I was
shooting with a 35 Summicron on the M4-2 and a Hologon on an M4, and
also with a Konica T-something with tele lens, and after shooting
with the M4-2 I let it drop as it was slung from a strap off my left
shoulder, and instead of stopping when it reached the length of the
strap, it just kept on going....and going.... It hit the first rocks,
bounced and hit some more rocks. About 20 feet down it stopped. The
camera had serious damage, and so did the Summicron. The eyelet had
pulled out of the body.
Leica gave me a new M4-2 and Summicron. I sold the M4-2 and the
stupid winder and didn't buy another Leica until the M6 was out a
number of years.
--
* Henning J. Wulff
/|\ Wulff Photography & Design
/###\ mailto:henningw@archiphoto.com
|[ ]| http://www.archiphoto.com