Most reliable M645?

[Screwdriver]

I have a collection of M645 bodies, 500's and 1000's. I wanted to send a few in for a CLA. Which ones should I invest in?

Thanks in advanced...

 

[Ektagraphic]

I have the 1000s and 500 and I love them both. I would invest in the 1000s because it will give you the extra shutter speed should you ever need it. Great system! I am not sure why one would be more reliable over the other because they are so similar. The 1000s came after the 500 so I would guess it is slightly newer.

 

[suzyj]

Either is great.

One thing you should do is have the foam in the prisms replaced, before it turns to mush and destroys the silvering on the prism. I just got a lot of three PD prisms for the princely sum of $16.50, all because of damaged silvering.

I used the prism out of an unmetered finder to replace the stuffed one in one of the PD ones, so now I've upgraded my unmetered prism to PD for very little money, but it's a crying shame about the other finders, especially as they could have been saved if the original owners had paid attention.

PS: Want a super? I'm ditching mine now that my M645 meters

 

[Christiaan Phleger]

Umm, not to sound trite, but my guess is that the original owners probably didn't know that the foam would cause that in the long run. For that matter I don't think Mamiya knew that as well, I think the 35mm Olympus had the same problem.

 

[GKR1]

I've non metering prisim, does foam issue apply to it as well, or is just metering PD type prisims that have silvering issue.

Thanks

 

[suzyj]

The foam issue also applies to unmetered prisms, though I haven't yet seen an unmetered one with damage.

Here's what a PD one looks like when it's really stuffed. This is my worst example:

And here's the foam that causes the damage: