Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/08/24
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Originally, I wrote: >Some people have indicated that they took cost reduction >measures on the M4-2 which make it less desirable than the M4 but thats >another topic. Then, Eric Welch wrote: >Some people is not terribly reliable. I do remember there are fewer >parts >in an M4-2 than in an M3/4 like amount of things to adjust on the >shutter. >But people don't seem to complain about the M4-2/P/6 shutter being >unreliable, no? On the rangefinder too. But my M6 focuses just fine. No >matter how dedicated a company is, they still have to work within a >budget >I suppose. >If you ask me, any benefit from the minimal "better" quality of an M4 >over >it's descendants is not worth not having a meter, or saving a buck - >they >are overpriced due to collectors. (Just an opinion, mind you based on my >being a user). Your are right, the phrase 'some people' is not very reliable. It is a cop-out for making statements without qualification in print, similar to 'undisclosed sources'. However, if you wish me to disclose my sources, I can gladly do so, citing 'right or replace' techniques used by the more modern Leitz/Leica on its M4-P and M6, largely to keep the M-series economic against the Japanese onslaught. I still maintain that the superb engineering of the M4 produces a better camera than the later models - although this is not something I can back up with personal experience as I only have an M6. I did used to assist a photographer who used the M4 and exchanged it for an M6 soon after it came out and almost immediately returned it because it was more 'plasticky', but he was a curmudgeonly old sod at the best of times (I can say that with ease, as you can't libel the dead). It is unfortunate that the M4 is so popular with collectors, as I believe that it is a superb camera, more like an 'off-road' M4-2 than something to be stuck in a glass case. And, as for metering, I find that after the first quarter of a million exposures or so, you tend to go native.