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A tale of two MP240s and a 50mm.


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I have two M240 P's, one in Silver and one in Black. Both bought used, the silver in December 2018 and the black in December 2021.

 

Act one

The silver is very dear to me and has been a good camera. It occasionally glitches with its shutter but it's very occasional and I always feel it and can redo the shot without a second thought.

The black one I bought because it was a part of a very attractively priced package deal. Its shutter feels sharper in tactile feedback. Sadly this also shows. I seem to get much more shutter shock with this body than the silver one. I can mount a heavy lens on it (7artisan 50mm f/0.95 balances rather well on an M, doesn't feel too heavy at all) and get steady shots but forget about a lighter lens.

The silver M remains steady and on a good day I can take a sharp 1/24s exposure using a 50mm.

I briefly experimented with an M9P in the summer of 2021. It also had some difficulty staying steady when I shot 50mm at 1/60sec. The shutter shock and the results of the black M feels much like  what I got with M9P. Maybe slightly worse? Makes me wonder if my silver M240 is a beautiful exception or is that the black M needs a shutter adjusted/replaced.

Act two

Included in the said package deal I received a nice 50mm Summilux ASPH that I already once bought and sold.

This lens focuses correctly on the black M but on the silver one, it won't go to infinity. There's plenty of other lenses that focus well with my silver M camera (some preowned Leica lenses, a few brand new Cosina Voigtländer lenses) so I am thinking of having the lens adjusted for my silver M regardless of which body is "right".

But one has to wonder: why such a big discrepancy?

Act three: where to go from here?

Up until my December 2021 purchases, my M collection behaved well together. Nothing has changed, of course. The gear that I owned prior, still work nicely. But now with the 50 Summilux reintroduced to my stable I think I'm more paranoid about it all.

I think my only realistic option is to send the camera to Wetzlar but at what cost, and what I might get back. I've been postponing the inevitable.

I believe can at least have the lenses adjusted against my silver M locally. Not cheap of course but doable. The last thing I want to do is to send my good silver M to Wetzlar and have it back misbehaving for some weird adjustment reason.

What do you think? The 50mm Summilux ASPH having some rangefinder trouble is a common occurrence among Leica users I think.

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Interesting on the slightly different shutter mechanism and feel, what's the shutter glitch though? I don't remember I encountered it with my M240 silver that I sold, as well as my current silver M-P although haven't shot a ton with it yet. Can't tell the feel of the shutter between the two although I didn't have them side by side.

I had the 50 lux asph briefly and yes, it does seem to be out of sync with my old M240, while mounting many other lenses on it seems to focuses fine. It's a gorgeous lens but not worth the headache to send for service especially in where I live.

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On 6/20/2022 at 11:06 AM, mike3996 said:

What do you think? The 50mm Summilux ASPH having some rangefinder trouble is a common occurrence among Leica users I think

My silver M240 works fine with my 50/1.4 asph. I would send in the lens to a good repair shop for a CLA. 

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On 6/20/2022 at 2:05 PM, Casey Jefferson said:

Interesting on the slightly different shutter mechanism and feel, what's the shutter glitch though?

The shutter is snappy and good, 99.9% of the time. But sometimes it simply stumbles in the rhythm and prematurely closes. In this case there'd be a dark underexposed band in the image. I think it may have to do with the electronical contacts from the shutter trigger maybe. I encounter this maybe 2-3 times a year  so it's not worth pursuing.

On 6/20/2022 at 2:05 PM, Casey Jefferson said:

I had the 50 lux asph briefly and yes, it does seem to be out of sync with my old M240

6 hours ago, lct said:

My silver M240 works fine with my 50/1.4 asph.

I bought one 50 Summilux Asph in 2019 and it was perfect with my silver M. However I sold it later because I didn't feel it had enough justification being in my collection. The person who bought it from me, reported it was misbehaving on his M10, wanted to cancel the purchase. I stood my ground because rangefinder calibration issues is an unfortunate, common event of this world. The bad karma was repaid when I bought this another copy of the Summilux which is now in need of CLA.

Edited by mike3996
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