I am having my M6, (classic, 1986) undergoing a CLA and repair to the brightline selector. My repair man said to me that the famed, Lieca wax seal is missing. I bought the camera from Cathay Photo in Singapore, complete with a warrantee issued from Schmidt Scientific, the importer. Does anyone know if M6's all came with the Lieca "L" seal, or what seal is suppose to be on the ring? The repair man asked if I had ever had work done, and I had not. I also bought the camera as a new sale, with a trade in on my old M3. So what gives?

-- Paul Nelson (clrfarm@comswest.net.au), October 16, 2001

Answers

You might want to reconsider your choice of repair person. This one seems to have never worked on a M6 before. Leica stopped using the wax seal during the production of the M4-2.

(source: Leica-Users archives and the fact my M6 does not have one)

Cheers,

-- John Collier (jbcollier@powersurfr.com), October 16, 2001.

I bought a "new in the box" 1988 M6 classic that came without the seal. Additionally, I have a book, "Leica M Photography" by Brian Bower that has a detailed photo credited as being from Leica, showing the front of the camera to explain the white dot on the shutter curtain, and the seal is clearly missing (page 27).

All of my M2's, M3's and M4 had the seal, and since I always had maintenance performed by Leica USA, they always came back with the seal. As of now, my M6 has not needed any work, so I don't know if they would apply a seal now.

-- Al Smith (smith58@msn.com), October 16, 2001.

None of my M6's ever came with a wax seal in place, just a black screw in the 12 o-clock slot. The black screws marr easily, so it is relatively simple to tell if the camera has been opened by closely examining the slot on that screw...

-- Jack Flesher (jbflesher@msn.com), October 16, 2001.

PS: I suspect that if an M6 HAS a wax seal in place, it has been worked on by a repair facility that makes a habit of re-sealing ALL M's it works on...

-- Jack Flesher (jbflesher@msn.com), October 16, 2001.

I reiterate what John said: I would not give my M6 to be CLA'd by anyone who doesn't know M6's never had wax seals. Between Leica Canada (Lisle-Kelco), Kindermann, Leica USA, DAG, Reinhold Mueller and Sherry Krauter, I think there's a decently-long list of trustworthy Leica specialists to choose from. Call any one of them and they will not suspect an M6 should have a waxa seal.

-- Jay (infinitydt@aol.com), October 16, 2001.

Paul;

Living in Singapore, I know Cathay is one of the few reputable dealers there. They would not have sold a camera that was not 100% legit or Kosher.

Schmidt, on the other hand need to be watched every step of teh way IMHO, as they have denied warrantee claims because I bought equipment in Hing Kong, from a reputable dealer. They are the importers for both Singapore and Hong Kong,as well as Taiwan etc.

The origin of the word "sincere" is from the latin for "without wax" as wax was used to repair broken statues and pottery without the buyer being immediately aware. In this case beware wax, as it was not there in the first place and deal with sincere people.

Cheers

-- richard ilomaki (richard.ilomaki@f,mglobal.com), October 16, 2001.

On a cautionary note, the Leica seal or "L" seal means very little. Any authorized Leica repair facility this past century would apply a precious "L" to you M2,3,4 after a complete CLA.

-- ray tai (razerx@netvigator.com), October 17, 2001.

Hi Paul and everybody,

Just to agree with precedent mails; you could have a look on: http://www.imx.nl/photosite/leica/m/bodies/choosem.html Erwin Puts wrote here the famous "seal" ended in 1981, before M6 if I'm not wrong. Hope to help you Alain

-- alain.besançon (alain.besancon@chu-dijon.fr), October 17, 2001.