Re: Leica M7

[Oddmund Garvik <garvik@i-t.fr>]

Don Bledsoe wrote:

<<<It is a mechanical camera that is not battery dependent, therefore it
will work when other cameras won't due to simple failure of an electrical
circuit or the lack of batteries...I can still photograph when batteries are
either dead or simply not available.>>>


Well, you can always bring some share batteries IF you are going far away.
Batteries are light, small and easy to change. An electronic circuit problem
is as difficult to resolve as a mechanical breakdown IF you are in the
bush... In most bigger towns and cities you find repairmen who take care of
it.  

You know, this mechanical vs. electronic camera "problem" is just another
imaginary difficulty, which doesn't have much sense in my opinion. If you
take a high end mechanical camera and a high end electronic camera, you will
find that there is very little difference concerning risk of failure. A
mechanical rangefinder camera may be even more vulnerable due to its complex
construction. 

I think there are no point here, but I often hear this argument, especially
from Leica fundamentalists and "Sunday Explorers". The most fanatic about
Leica "tanks" are those who really don't need such a "tank", who just dream
about traveling in the bush, mountain, desert, Polar areas... There is
nothing wrong about dreaming, but one "best camera" doesn't exist. It
depends upon what you want to do with your camera!

I have been travelling a lot in the bush, in Africa, in South America, in
the Middle East. I spent over a year far up in the mountains of Lebanon
during the Israeli attack and occupation in 1982-83 (Peace for Galilee). I
had a Leica M4, an electronic Yashica SLR taking Zeiss lenses and one of the
first Nikon autofocus P&S (Nikon L35 AF?). The conditions were difficult,
but I had less problems with the electronic cameras, than with the
mechanical M. 

Once I was drinking sweet mint tee with some villagers. The M was hanging
around the neck. A drop of this sweet (sugar) drink fell down and hit the
aperture ring of my 35mm Summicron. I just swept it off and continued
drinking and discussing. The next day the ring was like welded. I tried to
clean up with a Q-tip and alcohol. No way, no possibility of unblocking it!  

I am no repairman and I didn't have those tiny screwdrivers... I had to wait
for over a month before I finally got to Tel Aviv for some days and found a
Leica repairman.

Getting batteries for my electronic cameras was no problem at all. I bought
them from an old merchant coming to our camp on a donkey every now and then.
Batteries last a long time, so you don't need one every day... Some of my
best pictures were made with the Nikon P&S BTW, even if it had a less sharp
lens compared to the Zeiss and Leica lenses. 

The same thing happened many years later while I was living in Paris. I was
in a bar with a M6 hanging around the neck, drinking a Kir (sweet aperitif),
discussing and not taking care. I have a huge, dripping moustache...and the
aperture ring on Leica lenses is so tight... Fortunately I had an electronic
Contax T2 the next morning. 

A camera is a camera. I am repeating myself, but any camera is good if you
know what you want to do with it. Electronic or mechanical? Just a matter of
personal preferences and habits. An electronic M7 will not change the world.
For some photographers it will be *the camera*. For those who don't like it,
there are still all the previous models available. 


Oddmund

PS: I am back in the camp of Leica users again! A wealthy photographer
friend visited me this weekend and gave me a M4 body in perfect shape. Now I
just need to find a good 50mm Summarit and another 35mm Summaron... I am
going to Paris in May and could probably afford one of them at least. I am
back where I started. I bought my first M4 in 1970, the only *new* camera I
ever had. I was young then, and mad. The Leica M is fine, even if I still
think it is far too expensive for what it is...