[Leica] My favorite Leica Hands down M2

[john <bosjohn@mediaone.net>]

Well, just for something different, I find the M2 to be my perfect Leica. I
think the M2R with its rapid loading was the penultimate Leica. I know every
one will grouse about having to set the film counter by hand, but hell, I just
wind until the film stops.

I know all the wonderful things about the M3 finder, especially keeping both
eyes open as the finder is .95 or something like that, but I ware eyeglasses
and I gatta really work to see the whole frame and I can't stand those rounded
corners.  The 50 mm and 35 mm are my favorite lenses, I use the 35 as a normal
lens and the 50 as a slight tele.  I think of the 35 as an inclusive lens and
the 50 as an exclusive lens if you understand what I am trying to say.  In the
M2 and subsequent Leicas I can see the 35 frame about as well with my specs as
the 50 mm frame in the M3, hard but doable and I don't need the distortion of
the eyes or the inconvenience of the extra finder.

My M2 just back from its recent CLA is as silky smooth and the shutter chulnnk
just as whispered as my old M3 I used to own #701243 an that friends was
mostly bench built, and the smoothest and cutest Leica I have ever owned. Even
the beveling around the top plate was done by hand and all those extra screws
here and there. But I have owned and used 2 M3s and 5 M2s and 1 M4-2 with the
M4-2 winder (the one that goes schlomp! schlomp! with a kick like a mule when
it advanced the film.) over the years and I always come back to the M2.  If it
just had a rewind like the M4 it would be perfect, well almost perfect, well
at least great.  My vote is for the M2.  I just got an M4 and its winding is
not nearly as smooth and silky as the M2, I was surprised, otherwise the M4
would be my favorite, all the pleasantries of the M2 with rapid load standard
and a rewind crank that does not look like a sherman tank turret.
John