[Leica] BESSA R3Aor M7

[billgem at hotmail.com (Bill Marshall)]

Neal, your comment about R3A rangefinder being close to M7's .72 mag needs 
some elaboration. Here's my 2 cents. The effective base length of the R3A 
even with its 1:1 mag is 37 mm. The M7 has an EBL of 49 mm or 1/3 greater - 
not close. There are certain lenses that you just can't focus precisely on 
the shorter base length of the R3A & others that you can't focus as 
precisely as on the M7. The R3A is close to the EBL of an M7 with .58 mag, 
but even there the longer physical base line has certain mechanical 
advantages that can't be addressed by higher mag, e.g. the effect of the 
range of tolerances will be magnified on the shorter base line. 

The 40 mm frame lines may work well for you with a 35 mm lens (although not 
everyone would concur), but the .72 M7 includes 28 mm framelines & an R3A 
can only accomodate a 28 mm lens with an external VF. 

This is not intended as a knock on the R3A, which is a fine camera in its 
own right. I own an R2 with CV lens & am very happy with it, but the 
question here is regarding a comparison of the R3A & the M7, and there are 
ways in which the two just don't compare. The Zeiss Ikon, on the other hand 
does have 28 mm framelines & it has an even longer base line & higher mag 
than the M7, yielding an EBL of 55 mm or 50% greater than the R3A. In this 
regard the ZI is a legitimate alternative to the M7 without loss of 
features. 

Cheers,
Bill

> "The 1:1 view finder makes the R3A's rangefinder about equivalent to the 
> .72 mag of the standard M7 (it's not exact but close). Also I've found 
> that the 40 mm frame is close enough to a 35 mm to be no great problem.

Neal F"