Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/08/07

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Subject: Re: Never change a winning team ...
From: "Henning J. Wulff" <henningw@archiphoto.com>
Date: Wed, 6 Aug 1997 23:17:28 -0800

>I even would like, that Leitz offered a M6 without lightmeter additionally,
>because the red arrows irritate during the picture creation process. In the
>end you give more attention to the correct balance of the red arrows than to
>the pic (that's the reason why I bought an additional M3 yesterday ... and

Take out the batteries, if the diodes distract you. It distracts me if I
haven't metered for each shot if the light keeps changing.

Danny G. has taken a lot of heat for this, but for me a CLE style automatic
M6 would be a definite improvement. Most of the time I meter with the M6's
built in meter, usually choosing an area to meter that corresponds to the
18% value I desire, and an aperture preferred camera with AE lock is ideal
for that. It is a lot faster than matching diodes, and always more
consistent than relying on your last metered value that you set five shots
ago on your M4. And sometimes the irritation with the arrow diodes is that
you can't see them in bright light. The M6 is a _slow_ camera in a lot of
situations. I shoot a lot of 4x5 stuff, and that is slow, but there too I
sometimes wish I could be faster when the light changes, or a streetscape
is free of cars for a few seconds and I have to get a couple of shots off.
I like slow; but I like it to be my decision when to be slow, and not have
it forced on me continually by the camera.
Leica can do it; witness the R8, which has a metering system way beyond the
simple CLE system, and many people still consider it to be a genuine Leica
product.
The M6 is technologically up to the beginning of the Sixties. Maybe by the
millenium we can hope for one that can match 70's technology. And keep the
M6 or the M6J or reincarnate the Leicas with the non-standard lens mounting
threads for whomever it pleases :-). Hey, who NEEDS a standardized lens
bayonet sytem anyways?


   *           Henning J. Wulff
  /|\     Wulff Photography & Design
 /###\      henningw@archiphoto.com
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