Just finished a CLA on a Leica M3 and a Nikon F... the difference was wild.

Everyone says the Leica is a watchmaker's camera, but after 3 hours, the Nikon's shutter curtain mechanism was just more straightforward to adjust. Has anyone else found certain 'simple' designs to be a real pain to work on?

3 comments

3 Comments

ivan2301mo ago

Leica fans will tell you it's a precision instrument. Then you spend an afternoon trying to get a tiny spring to sit right with tweezers. The Nikon just lays out its whole plan for you like a simple map. Sometimes "over-engineered" is just a nice word for "annoying to fix.

jessefoster1mo ago

An entire afternoon on one spring?

cora56220d ago

I gotta push back on calling the Leica "over-engineered" in a bad way. That tiny spring you're cursing with tweezers? It exists because the shutter has to fire precisely at every speed from 1 second to 1/1000th with a single mainspring. The Nikon F is simpler because it uses a more basic curtain design that trades some accuracy for easier assembly. Leica had to cram that mechanical precision into a much smaller body with tighter tolerances. Not saying it makes it fun to work on, but there's a reason those M3s from the 50s still run like new while a lot of F bodies need curtain replacements by now. The annoyance comes from the design goals being totally different, not from one being better engineered.