leica m3 Help me, Leica M3 yellow point faded, i cant see and focus ....

[Mac Ky Nhu]

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Help me, i have body Leica M3 silver DS, but yellow point faded, i cant see and focus.

How to fix it ??? Thank all

IMG_8219.heic

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[andybarton]

Hi. Can you upload your image as a jpg, please?

[hepcat]

14 minutes ago, andybarton said:

Hi. Can you upload your image as a jpg, please?

Here's his photo as a .jpg.  Not that I think it to be of much help.  

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

[jankap]

If you shake the camera, is there something loose?

In the mouth of the camera, the rangefinder coupling moves in and out? Carefully please!

Edited May 1, 2024 by jankap

[Mute-on]

Do you mean the focus patch (small rectangle in the centre of viewfinder) is not visible?

[Mac Ky Nhu]

9 hours ago, Mute-on said:

Do you mean the focus patch (small rectangle in the centre of viewfinder) is not visible?

Yes, it not visible  

[adan]

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If nothing is visible in the viewfinder at all, that sounds like the split-prism that puts the two focusing images together, has decemented.

If the scene and framelines are visible, but only the focusing patch has vanished, that sounds like de-silvering - or a slippage - of one of the three prisms that conduct light from the small window (below the shutter dial) to join the large window at the eyepiece.

Another possibility: something internal (frameline mask?) has come loose and is blocking the light path from the small window to the eyepiece.

Also common - but usually obvious and only intermittent - is a finger of the right hand covering the secondary small RF window.

Note that the M3 RF/VF is a different design than all those that followed.

Here is an internal diagram (3rd picture). The split-prism is the"cube"directly in front of the eyepiece, with the diagonal dividing line being the cemented surface. The prism chain for the secondary RF image extends over to the right. The frameline mask in part way throught that prism chain - with a rectangular cutout in the center for the RF image to pass through.

https://leicasocietyinternational.org/blog/2019/08/homage-to-the-immortal-leica-m3-predecessors-and-progeny-of-the-most-influential-rangefinder-35mm-camera-ever

[Mute-on]

@adan Is the frameline mask not a glass sandwich that, if delaminated completely, would also render the focus patch blank?

[adan]

Glass sandwich mask in the M3, yes.

But the mask transmits light, while the main prism that combines the two images (and does "fail to blackout") reflects light, off a semisilvered surface (two-way mirror, more or less - overlays the rf secondary image with the main view of the subject).

I've seen some separation - in lenses transmitting light

http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Lens_separation

- and unlike failed split-prisms,

https://www.reddit.com/r/Leica/comments/ve0nqf/m3_rangefinder_view_dark/

they don't go "black" - they just show transparent Newton rings, or sometimes white bubbles/blobs where air leaks into the glass/cement/glass interface.