Re: [Leica] To M7 or not to M7, c'est la question - LONG

["Simon Lamb" <simon@sclamb.com>]

My original question was most certainly not a lame attempt at rib-poking
humor!  I genuinely wanted to know how the relationship between locked
exposure and aperture worked.  After all, it would be slower to meter off
human skin, open up a stop to compensate by using the exposure compensation
dial on the back and then point, focus and shoot.  Much simpler to meter,
open aperture a stop while bringing the camera to the eye, focus and shoot.
I just wanted clarification that the meter was indeed not linked to the
aperture, and that has I think been confirmed.

I think this would be a very quick and easy way to use the M7.  The metering
would be more accurate, the extra stop could be achieved as one would with
an M6 and the image not lost at all.  The M7 sounds more promising the more
I hear.

Simon

SthRosner@aol.com wrote:

> > 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.


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