Re: Why A Leica M

["Charles E. Dunlap" <cdunlap@rupture.ucsc.edu>]

>>Most
>>are locked into battery operation. No power, no performance.

>Here we go again.  You don't complain because you have to replace the film
>in your camera; you carry extra.   I don't understand this fear about
>battery power.  Even Stan Tamarkin has a silly comment about it in his
>latest newsletter, where he worries about replacing the battery for the new
>Contax G2 he's reviewing while in Vienna, etc., etc..  As I have said
>before, the answer is simple: carry spares!  They're small!

1) M6 batteries don't go dead nearly as frequently as those in all
electronic cameras.

2) When the M6 battery goes dead the camera is still the fully functional
device  that the M2-M4 are. It does not revert to a single shutter speed as
the few electronic cameras with some non-electronic abilities do.

3) Most importantly to me: the M6 functions un-perturbed in cold weather.
I've had all-electronic cameras get very strange at 30 deg. F and below. In
one instance this behavior was not even apparent until several rolls of
vacation film came back underexposed. The transparency film was of varying
origin yet the results were the same in each roll. To combat this problem
the Gs can be fitted with a cold weather battery pack (at a cost of $200).

I don't fear battery power, but I'd rather have a camera that doesn't need it.

- -Charlie