Camera stores are a great
source of anecdotes about photography equipment. This certainly includes some rather odd ones
as well, especially when it comes to camera repair. Some of the strangest reasons for repair on a
camera that I have ever seen are the following:
A gentleman came into the
store with a camera that was obviously water damaged. I asked him if he had gone canoeing. He proceeded to tell me that he had dropped
the camera into a toilet. Happens all
the time.
Another camera was in a very
bad state. It seemed to have gotten wet,
but somehow looked different and strangely discolored inside the mirror
housing. The explanation was that
someone had dropped an egg into it when the lens was removed. I have heard of strange ingredients for an
omelet, but that one is pushing it.
One of my customers had just
purchased a new Leica R4 the moment we received the first shipment of the new
camera. It was less than a week when he
returned with the camera totally beaten up.
Of course I was curious what happened.
His explanation sounded quite familiar; he had walked up to his car and
set the camera on the roof to find his keys.
After driving off he saw his new Leica bounce along the road in his rear
view mirror. We sent the camera to Leica
to have it repaired or replaced under their passport guarantee. A week had gone by when the customer came in
to inquire about his camera. I explained
that it would take a while longer for it to be taken care off.
This Leica was in a car accident. Not only
did it survive, it was used to take photographs
of the accident scene
“I don’t want to wait that
long to try out my new camera,” he explained, “give me another one with the
same lens.”
He left, happy to be able to
shoot with his new Leica R4.
Surprisingly, the camera that fell off the roof of his car was in good
enough shape to be repaired rather than needing to be replaced. That camera became a proud possession of his
daughter.
Obviously, accidents can and
will happen. But I have also seen examples of gross mistreatment of
equipment. I recently came across an
amazing example of neglect of Leica equipment or camera equipment in general
for that matter. I had 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, was 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…
However, there are also
anecdotes of the legendary survivability of Leica equipment under very adverse
conditions. Much of this has been
published in the past, yet it is always very interesting to read more about
it. Here are two accounts form The
Luminous Landscape:
Pan-American Games, Winnipeg
1967
While I subsequently shot the
1967 Pan-American games with my Nikon F and an arsenal of long lenses, during
the opening ceremonies I found myself just a few feet from the dignitaries on
the podium, so I used the Leicas and 35mm, 50mm and 90mm lenses.
As Prince Philip gave his
welcoming speech opening the games a huge thunderstorm broke and proceeded to
drench everyone in the open-air arena, me included. Some large umbrellas were
quickly erected for the Prince and he continued with his remarks, but along
with about 30,000 other people I got soaked.
So did my camera equipment. I
couldn't even attempt to protect my cameras, I just kept shooting throughout
the torrential downpour. I changed lenses and film numerous times and just did
the best I could.
As soon as the ceremonies
were over I handed the film to a courier to race it to the lab and then headed
back to my hotel to dry off. When I took the Leicas out of the bag they were
dripping wet. Totally soaked, inside and out. I opened everything up and left
the bodies and lenses on a table near an open window to dry out. I spent the
rest of the day shooting with my Nikons, figuring I'd pack up the Leicas in the
evening to send back to Toronto for replacement and repair.
But the next day I tried
everything out and was surprised to see that they worked, and worked smoothly.
I never did send it in for repair, then or afterward. I probably put several thousand rolls of film
through both Leica bodies over the next few years and never saw a hint of
trouble.
Canadian Downhill Ski
Championships, Collingwood 1968
My assignment was to shoot
skiers during this important race. The
organizers provided me with a small wooden platform on the inside of a steep
downhill curve and said, "Have a nice day".
I had brought my Nikon F gear
consisting of 2 bodies and several medium-tele and long lenses. At the last
minute I decided to also bring the Leica M3 and 90 and 135mm lenses as well,
(just in case).
The early morning went well,
with the temperature at about the freezing point and with a moderate overcast.
But by late morning the wind picked up and the temperature started to drop. A
light snow started and with the increasing wind created blowing snow conditions
that were just this side of being strong enough to stop the race.
I wish they had stopped it,
because my equipment and I started to freeze up. The first Nikon froze after
about 45 minutes of these deteriorating conditions and the second one some 20
minutes later. Both were caked in frozen snow. I figured that my day was done
but I pulled the M3 out from the bottom of the bag and started shooting as best
I could with the 135mm lens.
I spent 3 more hours on that
frozen ski slope shooting hundreds of frames with the Leica and it never missed
a beat. By mid-afternoon when I called it quits I was half frozen, and my
Nikons certainly were, but the Leica was like the Timex watch in the ads of the
time, they just kept on ticking.
And finally one of my own experiences
I had just added a new Leica
M5 to my camera equipment. That once
again reminded me of all the claims of the legendary reliability and
survivability of Leicas in general. One
thing that had always intrigued me was the claimed ability of Leicas to
function in very low temperatures. Being
that we were in the middle of a Minnesota winter, I decided to put the camera
to a test. The weather report forecast
temperatures of -30F for the next morning.
That seemed to be a good temperature to see how well the camera would
perform in the cold.
To give it a head start, I put
the camera in the freezer overnight.
Then, the next morning, dressed for the occasion, I went to Minnehaha
Park and down to the Minnehaha creek. It
follows a relatively deep ravine which is known to keep cold temperatures quite
well. I purposely carried the camera on
a neck strap on the outside of my clothing to make sure it would cool down to
the surrounding temperature.
I was out in the cold for
about two hours during which I finished a whole roll of 36 exposure film. The camera worked without problems, but I did
notice that the focusing for the lens was noticeably stiffer than usual. But that was about it.
After I finished the roll of
film it was time to go home. Contrary to
my advice to others, I forgot to put the camera into a zip lock plastic
bag. I walked straight from the outside
into my living room. To my horror, the
moment the camera came into contact with the warm, moist air inside, it
instantly froze over with about a 1/8 inch layer of ice. The camera was so cold that the moisture
condensation on the camera instantly froze.
I watched it thaw out slowly, and as soon as any liquid formed on the
surface, I wiped if off.
No harm came to the camera
and it served me well for many years to come.
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