Can the rangefinder window be cleaned?

[dancook]

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Got a small piece of orange fluff in the rangefinder, Leica won't give a price until it's been sent away to another country to be looked at..

it can't be seen in focusing, but I am selling the camera and it might put buyers off.

I was curious if it can easily be DIY?

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[LBJ2]

Your question sent me on the hunt to learn the same...just incase 

Not sure if the top cover removal process for the M9 might be similar to the M10 or not? To me... looks like a job for a professional. 

 

[dancook]

Yea I think i'll pass on that

[Mark II]

There is a description of how to do it here:

I cleaned my finder at the beginning of the year. It is quite straightforward, although you have to be very careful to properly seat the rubber seal when reassembling.

[lucerne]

To be clear.  As an experiment, while looking through the optical viewfinder, put your finger over the window (its not a viewfinder window), with dust in it, and watch the focus square disappear.  The dust is not on or in the optical viewfinder.  It is on the window that collects light to illuminate the focus square. 

The video from LBJ2 shows how to reach the focus square light box on an M9 but not how to open it for cleaning.

 

 

 

 

Edited May 4, 2021 by lucerne

[yukosteel]

It should be easy to clean that dust particle from rangefinder prism window after elevating top plate. I removed some dust from the M10 rangefinder window last week following this post recommendations. When putting the top plate back, just stop at about 4mm closing distance, accurately align the rubber strip, and then slowly move plate to 2mm closing distance and double check that rubber strip remains flat on all perimeter, and finally slide plate to its place completely. It really takes about 5-10 minutes.