Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/11/04

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Subject: Re: [Leica] M6 0.85 finder problems
From: Dr.Alexander.Kraus@gmx.de
Date: Mon, 4 Nov 2002 09:36:06 +0100 (MET)
References: <Pine.BSF.4.21.0211031201250.66864-100000@birdland.jangowski.de>

Hi Martin,
this problem is well known. It occurred when Leica switched from a plane
mirror in the (middle) illumination window to a parabolic one, in order to make
the frames brighter. Probably this was also necessary to make room for the
LEDs in the M6 - that I don't know.
On a meeting with Leica staff at the photokina in Cologne, we addressed this
problem and Leica assured as a solution is on its way. This flare problem
has nothing to do with the coating of the viewfinder and occurs as well with
the M7.
This whiteout problem is indeed annoying. I also tried Lutz Konermans shade
and it worked, but I found the right parts of the frames very difficult to
see under certain circumstances. Thus, I stopped using it. Instead, I just use
a finger to darken middle window if rangefinder flare ocurres! This works
very well and doesn't cost anything ;-)
As others pointed out, the whitout problem does not occur with any of the
older Ms, such as M2,3,4,5. The M5 does even offer TTL-metering and thus is my
favourite Leica M!
For Portraits, the M3 is certainly the best choice, especially if you don't
use TTL-metering anyway. Try it out - I guarantee the M3 is exactly what you
are looking for :-)
Best regards,
Alexander



> Hi all,
> 
> after several years of "stamp-sized negative" bashing I recently couldn't
> resist any longer and bought a like-new M6-TTL with the 0.85 finder and a
> Summicron 2/90. 
> 
> A few days ago, I took it for a first test ride. We had a big family
> meeting on Nov. 1th, so I took my faithful Mamiya 7 with the 4/80mm lens
> and the M6. I intended to make totals and group photos with the Mamiya and
> take portraits with the M6. The meeting was at the cemetery where our
> ancestors are buried, there were 8/8 clouds, ideal for portraiture in the
> open.
> 
> After using the Mamiya 7 (and the Mamiya 6) for a few years now, the Leica
> was not very different. Since the light didn't change, I took a incident
> reading with a Gossen lightmeter and ignored the builtin light meter of
> the M6, using Delta 400 in the Mamiya and Fomapan 100 in the M6. Switching
> between cameras for totals and detail shoots was easy, but one thing was
> _really_ annoying: while the Mamiya finder is bright and the focusing is
> very easy, the focusing spot of the Leica was very often unusuable.
> Especially when using the camera in portrait orientation, the center spot
> got very bright and didn't show any details, making distance measurement
> impossible. I have to wear glasses and had to move the eye into a very
> specific position to be able to focus correctly. The Leica films show a
> large percentage of negatives with wrong focusing (sometimes completely
> off...). Ok, the 90mm Summicron was used wide open at 1-2m distance, and
> the zone of sharpness is much narrower than I had expected, but I never
> had so much bad focused pictures before. The Mamiya finder didn't ever
> showed such a problem... am I too dumb to use a Leica correctly, is this a
> general Leica problem or could this be a problem with this specific
> camera?
> 
> Martin
> 
> | Martin Jangowski                         E-Mail: Martin@Jangowski.de|
> |                        Netzwerke und Multimedia                     |
> | Voice: +49 7946/940790                         Fax: +49 7946/940791 |
> | Snail Mail: Von-Olnhausen Str. 4            74626 Bretzfeld Germany |
> 
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In reply to: Message from Martin Jangowski <martin@jangowski.de> ([Leica] M6 0.85 finder problems)