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Screw loose - Crash with Leica M because of finger loop


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On this latest 6 week trip I finally stopped using my finger loops about 2 weeks ago as I noticed they were continually coming loose. During the day I had to tighten them 3 or 4 times. Something told me it was not right and I stopped using them and have not mounted them since then. I use neck straps, but continue to use and like using the hand grips, although I must say that the GPS models are getting a bit loose as they are made of plastic.

 

Of course we have to be careful when walking with any camera, but a fall, trip or a drop from our hand is due to our own lack of diligence and not that of Leica. If the loops are coming loose on their own then this is a Leica fault and not ours and an accessory we can no longer count on "helping" us with holding the camera steady and securely in our hands.

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Of course we have to be careful when walking with any camera, but a fall, trip or a drop from our hand is due to our own lack of diligence and not that of Leica. If the loops are coming loose on their own then this is a Leica fault and not ours and an accessory we can no longer count on "helping" us with holding the camera steady and securely in our hands.

 

 

I've shown the problem more than 3 months ago and has been laughed at.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/yz303xa40gk1c31/dieSchlaufe_derFilm.mov

 

The possibility to unmount the loop only by using the loop for me is inacceptable - 100% a construction fault.

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I like that you posted the movie on "Dropbox" :)

 

I prefer the finger loops or wrist strap over a neck strap because:

I wear spectacles which I remove to focus; hence there is a string round my neck to hold them.

I usually have ear bud speakers in my ears; hence there is a cable round my neck.

I always have a shoulder bag; hence there is a strap halfway around my neck.

 

It's tricky enough keeping these untangled and taking them off in the right order without adding a camera strap.

 

Furthermore, when you take a camera strap off your neck it tries to catch on things, and when the camera is placed on a table it hangs over the side to catch someone's foot as they cross and uncross their legs.

 

It's easy enough to tighten the loop screw on every pick-up. There should be a warning about this printed in bold letters with a photo of a crashed camera on the box.

 

By the way, I can't reproduce the unscrewing by twirling the loops shown in Unbekannter Photograph's movie from a screwed tight start.

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I have reported the issue to my contact at Leica. We will see if there is any reaction or simply the useless instructions to keep checking and tightening. Since putting on Loctite Blue Gel about 10 days ago, mine has stayed 100% tight.

 

Wilson

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The problem is that unless you have both sides of your strap connected to one lug, which I am equally nervous about, it is quite difficult to use the camera with the finger loop. It all then becomes a bit self defeating. I am using the camera, when using my Loctited finger loop, with a Leicagoodies HOOK on one end of the strap, so that I can quickly switch it backwards and forwards from both strap ends on one lug to using two lugs for actually carrying the camera around rather than using it.

 

I am basically depending on Leica repairing the camera if the one lug fails.

 

Wilson

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Thanks for the heads up I also have found that the finger loop screw does come loose and requires tightening on a regular basis. An old habit from film days of testing / turning the film take up spool with out thinking has been morphed into continually checking the screw I think I will add locktite I also have the neck strap wrapped around my wrist as double insurance

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  • 1 year later...
 

Hi everyone,
 
Well the very thing we all dread with the Leica loop has happened to me.
I had my loop unwind and the Leica Q go crashing to the cement busting the compensation dial off the top of the camera a causing damage to the top plate.
I was furious as is expected, I had raised my worry with Leica Australia already .... and here we are.
 
I spoke with Leica Australia they asked me to send the camera, loop and grip in, I received a reply 3 weeks latter informing me the FAULT WAS MINE.
 
I would need to have the camera sent to Germany for a the repairs at my FULL expense
 
NOT acceptable AT ALL, it is obvious by the feedback here and elsewhere the loop has a tendency to work loose, even if you are dilegent you can be unlucky.
 
I will be contacting Leica Australia Monday to further discuss this unexceptionable issue

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No insurance?

Commiserations, and it shouldn't happen, and Leica should take responsibility - contact Wetzlar, they may be more obliging-  but I must add that I would have stopped using the loop as soon as I noticed its tendency to work loose. Probably I would have replaced it by the Leicagoodies offering.

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I would be really shitty over this. Ask to speak with Ryan or Vitas.

They are very responsive to reasonable and sensible requests.

 

I have a soft/thin leather neckstrap (Arte di Mano) because of it's versatility: either over my neck/shoulder, or in use with the strap wrapped around my camera carrying hand (like Agrove). I cut the wider padded part from the neckstrapstrap: no less comfortable around the neck with it removed, and much easier to wrap around my wrist.

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Any Leica will fall sooner or later, by your fault or by sombody elses fault. That's where insurances are for. If you don't have an insurence against this, then you are accepting the risk. Still I am sorry it happened to you.

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Sturdy neck straps are not safe either, because you allways risk tripping and falling down, camera first. Or you can slip to a banana leaf (like the old comics :D). Everything has a possiblity to happen.

In that case you can protect the camera with that loop by not letting touch the ground

 

 

Camera goes into a bag when not actively doing pics, just my opinion

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  • 2 weeks later...

My Q is the first camera on which I've used the finger loop. It was a used Q, and came supplied with a large finger loop and handgrip. On all my other Leicas I use either a shoulder or wrist strap.

 

I like the loop - didn't think I would.

 

Expecting the screw to loosen, I have adopted a routine with the Q which has now become subconscious, to check the screw before, and regularly during, shooting. But oddly, I've never found it loose, even after the camera's been jiggling around in my bag for a few hours of travel. The loop screw has no trace of Loctite from the previous owner. However, the OP's experience is a bit chilling; hope the camera is sorted soon and Leica do the decent thing.

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I have never trusted or liked neck straps. Most of my 'camera accidents' were caused by them.

I now have several alternative techniques that work well.

The nearest to a strap that I trust are a wrist strap and a cut down neckstrap from which I made my own wrist strap.

Both attach using the original Leica lug attachment that I consider superior, certainly to screws.

I also use my own design streetshooter for swing and hands free carrying.

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