LEICA M6 TITANIUM

[jia_shi_li]

Is the Titanium version of the M6 more bondable against use and wear?

[eliot]

The collective wisdom is that the titanium plating (only the surface

is titaium) does make the camera more resitant to scratches and

wear. But who really knows. People who buy the titanium M6 are not

likely to test its wear resistance characteristics by frequent or

hard usage.

[mostly sports]

Wouldn't the brass topped cameras be the most wear resistant? M4 and

LHSA M6?

[henry_chu2]

Mitchell, The titanium finish is obtained by bombardment of the

brass top plate with titanium. It is actually a few angstroms thick.

It is unlike the chrome and black chrome finish which is applied

to the surface. The titanium is more durable. I have had one in

use for seven plus years and it shows only a few faint bright

marks. Because it is a brass based topplate, it subject to dings

and dents. I have a couple of small dings and dents.

[roberto_watson_garc_a]

Henry what shape those dings take, does the titanium mask bends,

brakes, or separate?

 

<p>

 

or just follows the brass ding shape?

[eliot]

The titanium covering renders the surface more resistant to the

normal wear, acids from fingers, and superficial scratches; but it is

too thin to prevent dings and dents. The latter would require that

the entire thickness of the metal was composed of titanium. The

resistance to dings and dents reflects that of the underlying metal

(which in this case is brass). Thus, the titanium plating provides

cosmetic protection but not additional protection to the internal

components.

[henry_chu2]

Eliot is right about the lack of protection from dings and dents.

The ones I have are the ones similar to those seen on the M2's,

3's, and 4's. It's the brass that is soft and yields to the trauma.

The finish seems to hold up better than, let's say, a black

chrome M6 where the black rubs off and a silver finish can be

seen.

[karl_yik1]

How comes this is just a coating and not titanium throughout? its not

as if the body shell is that hard to mould?

[skip_williams]

Titanium is a pretty difficult metal to machine, requiring special,

high cost tooling. The top plates of the current M6TTL/M7 are

machined from a single billet of brass on a CNC machine. It's

probably not a cost that Leica wants to invest in, IMO.

[kenny_c.]

I am using all (100%)Titanium (shell) hand-waist watch and frame for

my eye glasses. They are all in odd shapes which I think are no

less easy to make than a would-be solid top/bottom plates of a Leica

M camera. I probaly paid only a little more (may be double or $100

more) for each over the non-Titanium material products. All

Titanium camera shell, if used, could be perfect meterial. Not only

for its tough and light weight but also its dull to look and fun to

touch traits.

[andrew n.bra hrefhttp]

<I>How comes this is just a coating and not titanium

throughout?</I><P>

 

See the long, detailed answer in the FAQ at:

<A

HREF="http://nemeng.com/leica/043b.shtml">nemeng.com/leica

/043b.shtml</A>

[david k.]

Just stumbled across this thread, and there seems to be a lot of confusion and mis-information about the M6 Titanium.

This is quite easy to understand as the Leica marketing department probably doesn't know either, if they did they did a terrible job of relaying it to potential buyers.

So ironically they have turned the most durable finished Leica into a collectors item as there were not many sold.

As a M6 Titanium owner and someone who also works in the aerospace industry, I can tell you the Solms engineering people did an excellent job on this product, its too bad the marketing guys dropped the ball.

The Titanium finish as people call it is in fact Titanium Nitrite - TiN, You will find this at your local hardware store on all kinds of cutting tools (drills, blades etc.) and is the toughest finish known to man. Much tougher than pure Titanium metal, so while Titanium is used in the aerospace industry for it strength and light weight, TiN is also used in the aerospace industry to protect surfaces working under extreme conditions. TiN is vacuum deposited in a slow and expensive process, but the result is one of the best wearing surfaces known.

On the M6 Titanium the top plate is brass, so if the camera is dropped the soft brass material will dent easily, however the wear resistance of the Titanium Nitrate finish is exceptional, - some people even think it looks nice!

[kivis]

<p>Found one in Japan in excellent condition on the cheap. Yipee for me.</p>