upgrading my Leica M6

***UPDATE***
Unfortunately, I can no longer recommend Red Dot Repair. While I had a great experience, I’ve seen close friends have very poor experiences. Little to no communication, months of waiting on gear to be returned, things I would never want to deal with on a camera repair, especially a Leica.

Please look into alternatives, such as YYE or DAG.

Sleepwalk MD Camera Straps available now!

[mattdayphoto]

**UPDATE**
Unfortunately, I can no longer recommend Red Dot Repair. While I had a great experience, I’ve seen close friends have very poor experiences. Little to no communication, months of waiting on gear to be returned, things I would never want to deal with on a camera repair, especially a Leica.

Please look into alternatives, such as YYE or DAG.

[vuhlandes]

It was practically mint when I got it and yeah I’ve definitely used it “ 🤣🤣🤣🤣 I love it

[klausmoritzpeitzsch]

Care, Love and Affection - CLA - we all need it :-D Thx for sharing your experience and talking about the blocked frame lines.

[markhinkle]

The MP viewfinder upgrade was the best thing I ever did. Much better to my old eyes.

[KarinMajoka]

Sounds like money well spent, Matt! I did not even know that it is possible to have framelines blocked out - but that’s actually pretty genius and makes the viewfinder appear so much cleaner.

[erichartke]

The simplicity of framelines is something I love about my M2!

[adolphlopeziii]

I literally dm’d him this past week and we agreed on the viewfinder/CLA & frame line modifications. I’m so glad I did, I have a feeling a lot of folk will be reaching out to him lol.

[TimFitzwater]

I don’t shoot a lot of rangefinders so I found this fascinating. Interesting those things can be done. I took apart a camera that didn’t work about a decade ago and realized how special camera repair people are. (I never put that camera back together)

[MARKLINMAN]

I just ordered a classic M6, Cant wait for it to arrive. I shoot with an X-PRO 3 but i have a funny feeling i will LOVE my new M6. My first LEICA EVER.

[boozelala]

The only modification i have done are some custom scratches on the viewfinder, cant
recommend it though :(

[TonyWodarck]

Yesss just got my M6 TTL back today from Jadon. He upgraded my finder and did a full CLA. So stoked. Great dude, awesome communication and fast service.

[ZachBie]

My M6 needed a CLA as I was having framelines stick and not want to freely change when I swapped from a 35mm to a 50mm.
I sent it in for a CLA and MP finder upgrade to Sherry Krauter (I was living in Japan at the time). I got the camera back the week before I was to go to Hong Kong and everything seemed to be perfect. When I developed the film on my return I noticed that there was a light leak in the camera that ruined a few negative that I really would have loved otherwise. So I sent the camera back from Japan to the US to have the light leak fixed. The leak was fixed with some ugly adhesive felt on the inside of the back door and returned with an inability to focus all the way down to 0.7m. The M6 has just become the problem child and now I just stick to my M3 instead.

[LillySchwartz]

Yeah, I definitely need to think about that viewfinder upgrade! The M6 viewfinder is better than most rangefinders, but occasionally the flaring issues do get in the way!

[thornleychan]

Man now you got me wanting a totally unnecessary CLA haha

Had my M4 modded and serviced by the legends at Cameraworks U.K. a couple years back: Water-repellent and fingerprint proof Schneider Viewfinder upgrade, stealth matte black duracoat (usually used on firearms) repaint, changed to MA framelines (with 90mm and 135mm blacked out), and replaced cold shoe with hot shoe.

Oh yes, it is definitely my dream camera.

[JonnoDoesStuff]

$150 for the viewfinder upgrade!? That's way cheaper than I was expecting

[agoglanian]

Glad my old 35 Summicron is serving you well man :). I think it's great to bring some first-hand opinions on some of these upgrades for those considering it. I definitely concur with your findings having done the MP finder upgrade and masked frame lines in particular on past M bodies. Well worth the cost if you're going to use it frequently.

[volkerkoehne]

Fully agree, upgrading to MP viewfinder is totally worth it

[alexgrd]

I had an MP finder upgrade done on my previous M6 Panda it was a and day and night focusing experience for me. Enjoy!

[Messier.]

That’s awesome, I wasn’t aware frame lines could be removed. Glad you got the issue fixed and the mods done. I had a Nikon D70s years ago that I converted to shoot IR, that was pretty fun, and fun to mod too. Thanks for the content Matt, hope you and the fam are well!

[Exploredinary]

I need to get my M7 viewfinder upgraded! I deal with that flare issue most of the time in sunlight!