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

["B. D. Colen" <bdcolen@earthlink.net>]

Jeff - Having recently purchased a TTL I have to both agree and disagree -
(What else? This is the LUG!)

I, too, have found that it eats batteries. My problem though is that I used
a Tom A. softie, and when I put the camera in the bag, the meter gets
tripped. Now that I'm aware of the problem, I just try to position it more
carefully, or set the shutter speed dial to B or Off when I store the
camera. When I'm shooting, it's
not in the bag, so....

The problem with the not keeping the camera cocked is that then you don't
have a functioning meter when you simply raise the camera to your eye,
unless you advance the shutter at that point.

Now...as to the other aspects. I really like the larger shutter speed dial,
and find it easier to manipulate with one finger with the camera at eye
level. I also like the middle dot in the finder window, and haven't found
any difference in meter settling between the TTL and the "real" M6.

Cheers - B. D.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> [mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us]On Behalf Of
> Jeff Moore
> Sent: Monday, September 27, 1999 8:14 PM
> To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> Cc: jim@brick.org; jbm@jbm.org
> Subject: [Leica] Re: M6 battery drain; -> M6TTL annoyance
>
>
> 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.
>