Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/09/17
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search][An apostate comes back?!] Ok, my plane out of LaGuardia was put off two hours and I made the mistake of returning uptown from West Village and buying a pretty clean M3. Not the kind of investment that you'd get soaked on (and since there is a liberal return and M3s are pretty price-stable (and this one relatively cheap), what the hell?). Some questions for M3 users: (1) What is the story with the RF brightness? I didn't see any fog or separation on mine and compared it to about ten M2s. Nothing really notable in differences, but even compared to a Hexar RF, well... let's just say that the 0.91 finder on the M3 seems to be more than overcome by its old-school brightness. Short of replacing the entire RF mechanism (which defeats the purpose of the M3), is this a question of changing beamsplitters? Like I said, it looked like every other M I saw from that era, so I can't imagine that there is anything about this one. (2) Is there any way to permanently disable the 50mm frame? It really doesn't do much (since it subtends all of the finder), and rounded courners are not pretty. Is there a way to mask the outside of the illuninator window (are you listening, Dr. Blacktape???). (3) Are some M3s quieter than others? This one is a SS PV (927xxx) and it is far more quiet than any M I have encountered. Does it have anything to do with the shutter brake someone was talking about earlier? (4) What was the trick for allowing the RF to work at 0,7m? Well, it will be an interesting experience. The M3 is a much different beast from the M6 (and sufficiently different from the Hexar RF), and over the next couple of weeks it will be interesting to see how much more difficult it is to use the M3-type loading and rewind. I am most interested in finding out whether or not the finder really improves the long/fast lens experience, especially as against a Canon 7, which has a 0.85x magnification and a lot clearer finder. I hope it does - it's a nice camera. Any tips or tricks would be appreciated. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dante Stella http://www-personal.umich.edu/~dante