I asked Leica for two spare parts: vulcanite for a back door ($10), and a rubber eyepiece ($70). Is the eyepiece mount made of gold? I guess the magnifier is more resonable at: $225-70 = $155. Does the magnifier come with a rubber eyepiece; if not, $225+70 = $295!!!

BTW, bought the vinyl and some sync terminal plugs ($2.60).

-- chris chen (chrischen@msn.com), March 20, 2002

Answers

The eyepiece is no more ridiculously overpriced than the body. The magnifier has a rubber ring on it just like the eyepiece.

-- Jay (infinitydt@aol.com), March 20, 2002.

I guess Leica parts are similar to car parts. Have you ever priced out a car by its individual parts?

-- chris chen (chrischen@msn.com), March 20, 2002.

Hi, Couldn't resist to pop up on this subject, folks: The Scoop, my eyepiece for the M - is about to be released. And, just like the rest of my collection it's going to be dirt cheap...;o)
Cheers

-- Lutz Konermann (lutz@konermann.net), March 20, 2002.

RE: The eyepiece for the M series, it is not just a piece of glass with rubber around it all. It is a 15 diopter optical flat (with rubber around it). Check with an optometrist and see what they have to say about a precision optic in that size.

-- Ian MacEachern (iwmac@sympatico.ca), March 20, 2002.

15 Diopter. Really. I thought it was -0.5 diopter.

-- Bob Fleischman (RFXMAIL@prodigy.net), March 20, 2002.

Bob,

The end correction is around that, (so as to give a virtual viewing distance of about 2.5 to 3 feet, which is often why, when one has bifocals the additional correction is needed to give you that specific range) but if you remove the eyepiece, (sometimes they are not very tight, as on my M4-P) and you look through the viewfinder, you will see how strong the eyepiece really is. I had mine checked by my optometrist, and that was the figure I was told.

-- Ian MacEachern (iwmac@sympatico.ca), March 22, 2002.

Can someone enlighten me:
Can you unscrew the eyepiece yourself?
I have an M4 with the metal piece, and I tried to unscrew it -but it was so tight that I gave up -thinking that it was either permanently attached or that it had some kind of "counter"screw which had to be released from the inside of the topplate.

And Lutz: You will let us know -I hope?

-- Niels H. S. Nielsen (nhsn@ruc.dk), March 22, 2002.

I got back my M3 from service yesterday and noticed something that I had not noticed before -that it has a rubber eyepiece. I have always read about the problems that people with glasses have using older Ms, but had never actually noticed that mine had a rubber eyepiece. Now I read this about diopters and am beginning to wonder if the rubber eyepiece is a problem for those that do not wear glasses. Should I take it off?

-- enrique munoz (dem331@yahoo.com), March 22, 2002.