Re: [Leica] M7 wish lists

[Erwin Puts <imxputs@knoware.nl>]

>The M6 is fully capable of taking beautifull photographs as it currently
>stands, for this reasen I don't really believe it is obsolete (I'm
>expecting delivery of a new M6HM as I type this).  But when its features
>are compared in a checklist with other cameras, it LOOKS obsolete.  If it
>never existed, no designer in his/her right mind would propose such a
>camera.  Its success depends much on its history.
>
>Dan C.

I do not think that comparing the list of features of any object to another
one can give you any clue of which product is 'obsolete'. If you look at a
simple tools like a hammer (in existence for many years) or a pencil or a
brush, one might be inclined to state that its features  are substandard
compared to whatever you wish.
The point I would like to make is that any tool (and a Leica is essentially
a tool) is obsolete when it no longer can function to do its job
efficiently as designed and as needed. In the Netherlands we have zillions
of bikes, arguably a very obsolete tool, but its energy balance is
unequalled. Compared to any other transport device it is, however, lacking
any list offeatures you could enumerate.
But a bike is an excellent tool, not to be surpassed in its intended
application space for ages. So is the Leica M: within its domain is it is
unsurpassable, and any model its its descendancy (the very mythical M9)
will be much alike it.
Counting features is no sensible way of comparison. Usability and goal
orientation is.  So for its intended purpose the lack of features is a
bonus, not a missing part. The success of the Leica does not depend on
history. No tool does. Its success depends on having all the means onboard
to make photographs as opposed to making snapshots.
Erwin