Re: M use

[hmphoto <hmphoto@delphi.com>]

>I shot only Nikon for 20 years, and happily
>shot with my FM-2 and FE-2s for years. In the late '80s I dipped my toe
>into AF Nikons and before long I had completely changed my kit to AF. I
>shuffled lenses and bodies, I switched to Canon EOS (which I still have
>now) but I have never truly embraced any of them. A bit over a year ago I
>bought my first Leica M for a personal camera, just to carry around. Within
>2 months I had added a second lens, and found the Leica going to work more
>and the EOS staying at home. Now I have a complete Leica M kit and find it
>is my #1 work camera for 35mm film.

Tom,

I feel much the same as you do.  I also started out shooting Nikon and 
have floated into the Canon camp for my SLR gear.  While I find the Canon 
bodies ergonomically (SP?) easy to handel they are a little to automatic 
for me.  

I recently bought an M6 with the 28 and 90 2.8 lenses and find I am using 
them more than my EOS gear.  I returned from shooting a magazine project 
in North Carolina Friday.  On this Trip I needed to shoot appx 10 
diffenent shots (which was kinda hard to do as I arrived right as the 
remains of Danny were pounding Charlotte!)  Anyway I used my M6 for all 
but 3 of these shots.  The only reason I used the EOS gear was I needed 
TTL flash fill on 2 of them and on the 3rd I needed a longer lens than a 
90.  

Over the years the camera bodies I have liked using the most have been 
the manual variety, probably because I have always done manual exposure 
and have never found any use for apperature prioity, shutter prioty, 3 
program modes, and all of the other electronic BS that now comes on 
cameras.  Heck the Canon cameras come with so many user programable 
functions you can't pick up someone else's EOS1 and shoot with it.  I had 
this happen to me.  A friend asked me to shoot a photo of him with a 
billboard he did the photography for in the background using his camera, 
a EOS1 just like mine.  Well he had the custom functions set different 
than mine and I had the devil of a time figuring out how to expose and 
focus the damn thing!

For me the M is a great camera.  Full manual exposure, nice rugged feel 
(as I have only had it about 1 1/2 months I have not yet determined if it 
is as rugged as it feels.) and very well built sharp precise optics.  I 
don't even miss the motor drive too much and this is the first camera I 
have owned without one since I was in High School!  I also find I use it 
more and more everyday.

Harrison McClary
hmphoto@delphi.com
http://people.delphi.com/hmphoto