Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/08/02
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]>Wondering if anyone is willing to opine on the virtues of the M7 >versus the MP. Due to the exceptional generosity of my boyfriend, I >have my choice! >Thanks! >-Liz >www.lizlizliz.com Liz, I have never held an MP in my hands, so perhaps I should not answer your plea for an opinion. Still I will, as I have had two M6s (non TTL) for a number of years, and they behave like MPs, and now I have two M7s. The M7 and the MP look pretty similar - but there is a lot of difference between the two. How large the difference is, that is very subjective, like there are people who think margarine and butter is the same, more or less, and then there are others who would only use one of them and never touch the other. I never touch margarine. I find MP and M7s very different. If I were to give the piece of advice you seek to a person who is unfamiliar with the M cameras, then my advice would be: get a used M6, see how you like the M-type shooting and then go from there. If you do not like it, sell your M and make a small loss (or gain) and write it off to experience. No great deal. In your case, assuming you are going to use you camera, and not use it to look at and show other people, my advice if you should get the MP or M7 would depend on the type of pictures you make. If you need a camera for fast work, like I do, I would recommend the M7. I shoot only b+w, and I want my negatives to be dot on exposure wise and I also like to work in difficult light situations. Here the aperture priority is an advantage, but remember, correctly exposed negatives do not come automatically. There are several ways to beat the system in order to get perfectly exposed negatives in difficult situations, but I usually use the exposure lock facility. Sometimes I use the exposure compensation dial on the back of the camera, but then one runs the risk of forgetting to set it back to zero. If you shoot landscapes, you do not need the automatic exposure of the M7. If you shoot quickly from the waist, then the M7 is a real advantage (unless you have measured in advance and set the aperture and shutter speed correspondingly.... and the light has not changed (sunny side/shady side of the street)). The M7 metering is always better in those case where you can not look through the viewfinder and where the light is changing. Like in real cramped quarters where you place the camera against the wall to get as much as possible of the opposite wall on the negative. Or when you photograph people who change the position and thus the light situation and you are quite busy keeping them in focus. For architectural type indoor shooting the M7 has the advantage of the accurate real long exposure times. The MP will let you expose for longer than a second, but you have to measure the time yourself. I found it difficult to measure times like two or three seconds accurately and there a second means a lot exposurewise. Of course, if you shoot at 22 or 23 seconds, a second more or less does not matter at all. There is a risk that you get lazy shooting with the M7, that you start thinking that you have a camera with an automatic program. That this is not so you will soon see. The proofs are all the negatives shot at f/2 in bright sunshine when you thought the aperture ring had not moved from the f/8 you had used an hour ago.... Even with an M7 you need to think about aperture and exposure time. And about the adjustments you need to make to the values suggested by the camera. Etc etc. Sorry that I could not be of any help with your decision making. Chris - -- Christer Almqvist D 20255 Hamburg and / or F 50590 Regnéville sur Mer please look at my NEW b+w pictures at: http://www.almqvist.net/chris/dozen/ old pictures still at: http://www.almqvist.net/chris/new - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html