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…
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