The M3 and survival of your glasses

The metal viewfinder ring is death on glasses. Now I know that

there is at least one source to solve that problem. I will probably

order from them. Still, that would be easy. If I wanted easy I

would be using my M6 instead of my M3. It is the principle of the

thing. :)

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I have found something called Surface Gard light duty felt pads

with adhesive backs. A card of them costs $1.69 US. It has a lot

of unusable sizes but 22 that will work. Take an 8 mm cork borer

and, voila, you have protection. It works well at 50 mm and

above, but I can't see the whole finder for my 35 mm. Moves your

eye away from the finder too far, but it still works. The adhesive

works well in warm weather. I will need to wait for winter to see if

it works in the cold.

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Do you have a better solution?

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Art

Well, yes. When I had M2's nad M4-2 (and on my currente M4) I

replaced the metal eyepiece with a rubber M6 eyepiece. Ordered the

eyepieces from Leica NJ and bought a custom-fit ringwrench from

www.micro-tools.com. It was more economical and faster than sending

all 4 bodies away to have it done.

Oh yes, I did consider the stick-on felt idea but outdoors the felt

would eventually pick up bits of sand or grit and end up scratching

the glasses also.

Jay:

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I will look into it. Here, sand isn't a problem. We still mostly have

mud. We are in the non-drought region of the country. We have

alread passed the annual rainfall level. I am now looking at a 1

to 2 in rainfall cloud out of the window and will have to sign off

before the the great bolts from the sky eat my modum; one more

time. :)

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Art

Jay,

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Could you give more specific instructions (cost, procedure, etc)

on how you replaced the eyepiece yourself?

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-Richard

I had the metal eyepiece on my M4-P changed to the M6's rubber-

covered version when I sent the camera for a CLA at Hong Kong's Leica

service centre. Total charge with CLA: about US$ 150 (originally

they quoted me the equivalent of about US$ 200). The CLA took a

week, but changing the eyepiece could be done in 10 minutes.

I have some scrap leather lying around that I ordered from a leather

shop when my son and I got interested in making slings some years

ago. I unscrewed the diopter from my M3, traced it on the leather in

an area where the leather was really thin. This provided the

outline. I pressed the diopter into the leather and turned it a bit,

making an impression of the glass area, and using a Swiss Army Knife,

I cut out the donut-shaped piece of leather. I glued it to the

eyepiece using "Household Goop," a kind of glue or cement which bonds

disparate materials together, tends to remain flexible, and is easy

to remove when it squishes out from between pieces being cemented.

I've been using it for years, and it hasn't scratched my glasses.

It's also quite thin, so it doesn't noticeably diminish the view I

get. I like the idea of using the rubber M6 eyepiece; however, my

M6's diopter alone cost $71, and the leather was virtually free.

I use a diopter because I'm farsighted and I can't read the camera

without glasses nor see through it perfectly with glasses. But often

I have no chance to remove my glasses before taking a shot. And I

realized, before it was too late, fortunately, that I was even more

likely to scratch my glasses (my "plastics"?)when in a hurry, hence

the leather protection. Now, if someone would only come up with

something to keep the eyepiece and the flash plug from catching on

the shirt when wearing the camera around the neck. (And no, I don't

carry it there all the time.)