Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/02/14

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Subject: [Leica] M4 vs M6 viewfinders
From: Warrick Lawson <wal@da.saao.ac.za>
Date: Sat, 14 Feb 1998 23:11:18 +0200

> From: Erwin Puts <imxputs@knoware.nl>
> Date: Fri, 13 Feb 1998 21:06:38 +0100
> Subject: Re: [Leica] New M6
> 
>>Does the new M6 viewfinder have the same magnification as the M4?  I have a
>>M4 and just acquired a 35mm Dumincron for it.  I have noticed that the 35mm
>>framelines on the M4 can not be seen with spectacles on and with the bare
>>eye you must be very clost to the port.  For this reason, I am about to
>>purchase a M6 with its traditional finder.  With this camera I could see
>>the 35mm frame lines with my glasses on.
>
> No, the M4 has the same magnification as the M6 (.72). The M6HM has 0,853
> If you have some trouble with the M4, the M6 will not help you. In both
> cases the distance to the ocular is critical.
> Erwin

Erwin

Despite the identical viewfinder magnification on the M1, M2, 
M4 and variants, M5 and M6, I find it much easier to see the 
35mm frame on the M6 than on the M1, M2 and M4-2 that I've 
owned over the years.  Some of this difference seems to be
due to the less-obtrusive eyepiece blind just in front of the
ocular in the M6 (and maybe the M4-P).  It's a small rectangle
on the early M's, but much larger and slightly rounded on the 
M6.  This seems to reduce vignetting at the extremes of the 
viewfinder field.  But I wonder if there's also been a redesign
of the viewfinder optics to give, eg, more eye relief?

Warrick