I use an M6 with a 35mm lens. The other day I was thinking about a 90mm lens so I used the lever to see the 90mm frame in the viewfinder. The brightlines on the right hand side of the frame are very dim or just not there depending on my eye position or the brightness of the scene I'm viewing. The 75mm frame is the same way. The other frames seem OK. Any thoughts?

-- jeff schraeder (jeff@engineperformance.com), July 19, 2001

Answers

My M6 does the same thing.

-- David Cunningham (dcunningham@attglobal.net), July 19, 2001.

If I well understand your question, no problem, I have the same one with my M 0,85. Really no problem because, with the 90 Apo Asph, on right hand, you see the lens, and the frame line with difficulty !! Funny, isn't it? Regards, Alain

-- alain.besançon (alain.besancon@chu-dijon.fr), July 19, 2001.

Jeff:

I have the same problem with my new M6 TTL 0.72. It is certainly annoying! I also have two M3's and their viewfinders are far better - the rangefinder patch never flares out, and the frame lines never disappear. So much for progress!..............................

-- Muhammad Chishty (applemac97@aol.com), July 19, 2001.

I am still waiting for the special edition M3 TTL to come out. In my fantasy, Leica finally decides to dig up the old production stuff for the M3 and figures out a way to stick a Minolta CLE style metering system inside the camera without messing up the finder. Why is the finder better in the M3, anyone know?

-- Andrew Schank (aschank@flash.net), July 19, 2001.

Okay, here we go. I had to wait first till I got home where my M6TTL (0.72) is stored. I tried to see if I had the same problem (using my 2/35 ASPH). I do not notice any such problem, either with the 90 or with the 75 frame. There may well be a slight dependence on my position standing around looking towards the object to be shot at. The only thing I can tell you is that that side of the frame in the viewfinder which appears a tiny bit brighter is that side turned more away from the source of light. E.g. if more light is coming more from my right side into the camera, it is the left side of the frame which appears somewhat brighter (to me). But not much.

BTW, I am 54 years old and my eyes have been coughing out more and more over the last 10 years. That's why I always wear glasses. Maybe you need a pair, too.

Here's looking at you. Mike

-- Michael Kastner (kastner@zedat.fu-berlin.de), July 19, 2001.

Recently against some opinions here,purchased M6. I hate the dissapearing frame and rngfdr flare out. However,the added? silence of shutter,the TTL metering, the nice advance lever.Enjoying the grip.Will try it out on the old M3.The built in meter absolutely terrific.If you cover the middle window when the spot flares,lose frame but focus is working again. I only have 50 and 135mm lenses.So no real problem with 50 to lose frame for awhile.Only people with leica tolerate this sort of thing. Whatever else is'nt as fine as old M3,certainly thrilled with trade of Pentax 6x7.Great camera but I never used it due to size and weight and NOISE.

-- jason gold (leeu7@hotmail.com), July 19, 2001.

Jeff, with either of the problem lens mounted, focus at infinity, then run the focus all the way to 1 meter. Watch the bright frames, if the weak side seems to come and go in intensity, then the internal adjustment on the mask is a little off. I noticed this with my M 4-P and mentioned it to the folks at Kindermann the last time I had it serviced. They paid special attention to cleaning / adjusting the finder and the problem is now gone.

-- Peter J. Hanlon (peter.hanlon@3web.net), July 19, 2001.

Yeah, mine does it too. The position of the light source does make a difference. But with the light centered in the frame, the frame lines are weaker on the right. Something else to be unhappy about, along with the whiteout problem.

-- Bob Fleischman (RFXMAIL@prodigy.net), July 20, 2001.