[Leica] Listen to the heart or the brain?

[tedgrant at shaw.ca (Ted Grant)]

Richard asked:
Subject: [Leica] Listen to the heart or the brain?


>I have a .72 M7, I'd like a .85 body...
> > My brain says another M7
> My heart says MP
> My pocket book says WTF, get a M6.
> > Arrrgghhh...<,

Richard,
A couple of things. Usually I'd say "heck man go with your heart!" ;-) But 
if you already have one Leica M and are about to add to it with a different 
viewfinder, without question buy the exact same body model and body action.

There's nothing more frustrating than working with two or three M's that do 
not work in unison with your fingers and experience intuition. No matter how 
bright something else is, or as I see a number of other posts with positives 
for other body models. If your fingers are accustomed to moving and 
adjusting the camera as though you're breathing, then all of a sudden you 
have to learn to breath a new way when instinct is established in the use of 
the older one? Trust me you'll get right ticked off if you shoot in a hurry.

Given I've always worked with 3 M's on most assignments, I unfortunately had 
to work with one M7 and 2 M6's for a short period before the other M7's 
arrived and it was, quite frankly a huge pain in the butt! :-(

So from experience and fingers trained to respond intuitively with the M6's 
after 15 years use I screwed-up settings because they weren't identical 
cameras. And as soon as the remaining M7's arrived the handling mistakes 
disappeared immediately.

Twins mon ami, twins! In body and the seeing change becomes natural as soon 
as you look through the viewfinder.

ted