[Leica] Re: M6 battery drain; -> M6TTL annoyance

[Jeff Moore <jbm@oven.com>]

At 14 Sep 1999 19:22:29 -0700, Jim Brick <jim@brick.org> wrote:
> By habit, when I begin to put my M6 away, I look through it and if
> the LED's come on, I frame something, meter, focus, and push the
> release. Then store the camera.
> 
> This has become such a habit, I don't think about it. It just
> happens. And I really enjoy my M6(s), without battery or premature
> release worry.

This is the habit I developed as well.  Unfortunately, I recently made
the mistake of adding an M6TTL to my stable.  This device is able to
suck its batteries dry in short order even when the shutter's been
released -- if you want to conserve your batteries, you have to rotate
the shutter speed dial all the way around to the off position, which
tends to be nowhere near where it should be the next time you want
to pull the camera out of the bag and take a picture.  I'm in the
habit of keeping the camera's controls as close as possible to where
I expect to need them to be when next I use it, so this misbegotten
device now offers me a choice between rendering the camera useless as
it first comes out of the bag, or feeding it batteries like Scotch to a
hard-working Canadian photographer.

And don't get me started on the new meter's slow settle time.  And of
course, when the TTL's batteries are dead, it won't even *trigger* a
flash (its stated reason for being), even a manual one or one doing its
own exposure control.

So for the marginal extra functionality of slightly more flexible flash
fill (something I do pretty rarely, and something that's still pretty
impractical with the M's 1/50th sync) I have a much less reliable and
quick-to-use camera.  My own damn' fault for buying it, I guess.  Are
they still making real M6s, or just these TTL botches?

There'd maybe be enough added functionality to make up for some of the
annoyance if the TTL had a shutter with higher maximum and sync speeds
- -- but I'll always want to have a classic M along when I actually have
to get pictures.  If they've stopped making the pre-TTL models, they've
made a terrible mistake.

 -Jeff Moore

P.S.  If you're wondering why this post is coming so far after the
      thing it's replying to, that's because my original post ended up 
      bouncing, after several days.  I'm guessing that with the
      worsening spam problem, admins are tightening their
      mail-reception screws, and the way I've been relaying mail from
      home for some years is beginning to smell suspicious in today's
      environment.  Bummer.  I'll have to ask Brian for hints.