I just came across an amazing
example of neglect of Leica equipment or camera equipment in general for that
matter. I purchased a number of used Leica
accessory items, most of which were in rather good shape. But one item really stuck out.
It is a Leica Winder M4-2. I immediately noticed a strange, white
discoloring of the bottom of the winder, especially the battery compartment. Upon closer inspection, the discoloring was
actually a layer of gritty deposits. I
loosened the locking screw for the battery compartment, only to find out that
it was not coming off. I had to use
considerable force to separate it from the motor. The inside revealed the culprit for the bad
shape everything was in. The batteries had
been left in the compartment for what must be a very long time. While alkaline batteries are substantially
more leak-proof than conventional batteries (which should never be used
anyway), they do leak. And leak they
did. As you can see from the pictures,
the entire inside of the battery compartment was covered with the dried out leaked
inside of the batteries. I did not
attempt to remove the batteries. It
would have been a waste of time because the unit, including the actual winder,
is beyond any possible further service life.
Far be it from me to judge
how anyone should use their Leica equipment.
But this is a level of neglect that is hard to excuse. Simply removing the batteries prior to
prolonged storage of the equipment would have easily prevented this disaster…
This is absolutely disgusting. Why would anyone treat Leica equipment this way?
ReplyDeleteNot just Leica, any camera equipment should not be treated like this. Heck, I had a Holga once and treated it better than that.
ReplyDelete