Leica The pleasures of body maintenance

mike3996

Legend
Location
Finland
My M has gathered nasty sap droplets (or whatever the sticky substance that some trees drop) all around its silvery body over the summer. Finally gave in and gave it a nice clean. All it takes is a Q-tip and some window cleaning fluid, and a cloth to wipe it up. What a wonderful view it is to look through a clear rangefinder window. Not to mention how it makes a definite improvement on focus accuracy.

I like how simple cleanups like these actually contribute towards better pictures, too. That's the beauty of manual and fully mechanical shooting experience.

One of these days I gather enough bravery and perform a wet clean on the sensor. Bought a cleaning kit in the winter but haven't used any of it yet. The few shots I made at f/22 are absolutely disgusting at 100%.
 
One of these days I gather enough bravery and perform a wet clean on the sensor. Bought a cleaning kit in the winter but haven't used any of it yet. The few shots I made at f/22 are absolutely disgusting at 100%.
Try it. I’m not exactly a handyman and I did some pretty stupid things (think a mirror coming back while swabbing), but I never had any damage. I must have done more than 10 wet cleanings in the last years.
 
I think I will try that some time. :) Now that the glass surfaces are clean, I won't do it just today because new finger/palm prints are inevitable, but perhaps in the weekend, or after SiJy is over and I switch lenses...
 
Tree Sap: Yuch! Q-Tips, a Million and One uses!

With Sensor Cleaning: I learned that you need to settle for "close-Enough", usually accomplished after using a blower and wet-cleaning twice. After that, only need to do after a year or two.

I also learned to keep the lens mounts very clean, especially screw-mount lenses. I also learned to put the M-Mount adapter on the screw mount lenses before putting on the camera.
 
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