I know that new black and chrome lenses have quite different weights, due to brass vs. aluminum construction. My local Leica rep. said that the bodies also have different weights. Leica's web page doesn't seem to support that statement - Leica gives one weight and identical details of the construction for both black and chrome M6 bodies. Am I right on this?

-- Thomas Herbert (therbert@miami.edu), October 30, 2001

Answers

No. "Chrome" is always heavier as you say. Leica Catalogs and Leica Handbooks give the exact weights. If you'd like, I'll copy them all here for you (but only if you like).

-- Michael Kastner (kastner@zedat.fu-berlin.de), October 30, 2001.

Jeez, I must have read the question wrong. At least my answer is wrong. Right answer => M6TTL bodies in chrome or black each weigh 600 g. In contrast to lenses, the two bodies are indeed built identically. Here, the inner and the outer surfaces are built out of the same materials. It's only that the very outsides (about a micron thick) have different colourings. Sorry.

-- Michael Kastner (kastner@zedat.fu-berlin.de), October 30, 2001.

Thanks! I thought the body weights were the same.

-- Thomas Herbert (therbert@miami.edu), October 30, 2001.

The Titanium M6 was heavier than the chrome or black due to the brass plate...

And of course, the black paint M6 is heavier as well....

-- Steve Hoffman (shoffman2@socal.rr.com), October 30, 2001.

Hi Thomas!

Sure don't know why I can't keep out of this titanium discussion, but to add onto Steve's news, look into me@home.com's suppling us with the file http://www.schmidtgroup.com/data/f-DownloadFile/M6TITAN.PDF provided in http://www.schmidtgroup.com/CGI-bin/news.asp?popup=1&id=40 found in last month's posting "M6 Titanium" (http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=006SBq).

The M6TTL Titan weight of 610 g is exactly 10 g more than that of black or chrome, due to it's top and bottom cover, both of which are made of 0.8 mm brass, and both of which are titanized. The finder is 0.72 and the dimensions (W x H x D) are 138 x 79.5 x 38 mm, exactly the same as those of black or chrome.

-- Michael Kastner (kastner@zedat.fu-berlin.de), October 31, 2001.