Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/02/16

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Leica M5
From: "Henning J. Wulff" <henningw@archiphoto.com>
Date: Tue, 16 Feb 1999 23:19:40 -0800

This adoration of the M5 escapes me. I bought one when it came out, and
kept it for about 5 years. The pictures I took were about as good as the
ones I got from my M4's, and I did appreciate the meter and the shutter
speeds in the finder. Things I did _not_ appreciate were the bottom rewind
crank, both strap lugs at one end (fixed later of course), the loose
feeling shutter dial, the noticeably larger and less comfortable shape, the
lack of 1sec on the dial, and most of all, the clatter of the semaphore,
which also influences the wind feel. In fact 'feel' is the downfall of the
M5, unless you just don't like the feel of the traditional M body. I found
eventually that I was using my M4's more and more, and so sold the M5 and
got some M4-2's (sometimes you just can't get ahead :-)).

I now use M6's and M4's, and find that although the overall quality of the
M6 is maybe not quite up to the M4's, at least it feels as good, the meter
responds promptly at all light levels, and I know why the M6 sold a lot
better than the M5.

   *            Henning J. Wulff
  /|\      Wulff Photography & Design
 /###\   mailto:henningw@archiphoto.com
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