Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/07/02

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Subject: Re: [Leica] To M7 or not to M7, c'est la question - LONG
From: SthRosner@aol.com
Date: Tue, 2 Jul 2002 12:16:35 EDT

> Wow, I hadn't thought to try that until now. If you lock the exposure by 
>  pressing the shutter half way that exposure stays locked and you can 
>  fiddle with the aperture all you want. After all the camera has no idea 
>  what aperture the lens is set at, heck the electronics don't even know 
>  what lens you have or care if there's a lens mounted at all.
>  
>  > If you have locked the exposure by half
>  > depressing the shutter, can you open up the aperture by a stop and 
>  > achieve
>  > the required overexposure, or will the camera change the shutter speed
>  > accordingly to keep the original aperture/shutter speed ratio?

So let me get this, I aim my M7 at the floor or grass, depress shutter 
release half-way to lock in exposure, raise camera to view the decisive 
moment, notice that an adjustment is required, open up the diaphragm by a 
half-stop, check it all with my Gossen Luna-Pro with the spot-meter 
attachment attached (I don't have a Pentax spot-meter), focus and notice that 
my decisive moment has fled across the great water to Paris where it is being 
captured by a descendant of HCB with a IIIf, a collapsable Summicron and a 
very accurate guesstimate of the exposure, honed by years of experience. Did 
I get it right?

All that is a lame attempt at rib-poking humor. A couple of months ago after 
the early M7 banter, I had finally decided to stick with M6, to the point of 
buying a second early Wetzlar M6 (I use flash extremely rarely and am not 
wild about the TTL's higher topplate, slight tho' it be). Previous owner had 
committed grave sin leaving camera in sun without lens cap; resulting hole in 
shutter curtain, resulting in his paying for a complete overhaul by Ernst 
Hartmann and his friends at Leica Northvale, replace shutter curtain, 
overhaul shutter mechanism and adjust speeds, adjust meter, clean switches 
and complete clean and lube. His total cost: $431.25 And in my opinion worth 
it for this is now literally a better-than-new M6. 

Sherry Krauter told me why when I commented that this M6 shutter is the 
smoothest and quietest I've ever experienced, it's really like butter. She 
said that Leica finished the M6 cameras "dry", i.e. with relatively little 
lubrication. It's not bad, it's not dangerous to the mechanism or to your 
health, it's just different. A CLA to levels standard with the M4 and earlier 
M's introduces somewhat more lubricant with the result that I have 
experienced.

That said, with the raves Tina, Ted and others have given the M7, I began to 
reconsider my reconsideration. Surely point, focus and shoot is better 
(faster?) than point, measure, adjust, focus and shoot? Incidentally, Sherry 
mentioned to me that the M7 shutter, being electronic, is not susceptible to 
the differing levels of lubrication that other M's are. It is quiet by nature 
and by birth. 

Well I'm still reconsidering. But I don't have the kind of film through-put 
that Ted, Tina and others report, 40 rolls per week or per job. And one of 
the few aspects of photography I've never had problems with is accurate 
exposure. In my early days I didn't have a meter, I used one of those varying 
density visual doodahs that permanently kept the guesswork in exposing ASA 10 
Kodachrome with zero latitude in a IIIf with an f/3,5 lens and occasionally a 
127/4,5 ELNY Wollensak!! Even then I had very few images not properly exposed.

So my jury is still out; I'm very happily using two Wetzlar M6s and a 
Leicaflex SL. And looking forward to more comparative reports on the M6-M7.

Seth       LaK 9
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Replies: Reply from "Simon Lamb" <simon@sclamb.com> (Re: [Leica] To M7 or not to M7, c'est la question - LONG)