Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2007/03/27

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Subject: [Leica] My one week with the M7
From: tedgrant at shaw.ca (Ted Grant)
Date: Tue Mar 27 14:02:09 2007
References: <bda.126cb860.333ad919@aol.com>

Dan offered:
> I recently bought and then sold an M7.  I paid $ 2000 ( mint-, used )  and
> sold on ebay for $ 1975, so I guess I paid $ 25 for the week I used  it.
>
> Why did I sell it ?  Well, compared to the M6, I just didn't find it  to 
> be
> any great leap forward in a camera...Sure for Leica it may have been a 
> leap,
> but for me it wasn't a big enough difference to warrant owning the M7 when 
> the
> M6 suits me well.  And one other comment, does it bother anyone else  that
> the sharp edge of the hot shoe is so close to the winder ?  I have 
> scratched
> myself on a few occasions grabbing the camera....
>
> Anyone else with similar thoughts ?<<<<<<<

Nope!!
But then I'm a working photojournalist and not a techie nit picker! But then 
I feel deeply for you and your scratches! Like,  heavens get a life! 
Scratches be damned!

I have always worked with 3 M type cameras at the same time for roughly 50 
years hanging off my neck! Until the new M7 appeared on market.

We were about to start shooting our new book, "Women in Medicine. A 
Celebration of Their Work." A B&W tribute to the women; doctors, nurses and 
technicians involved in medicine when the M7 became available. And with AE 
lock making it a fast and no fiddle diddle camera for my style of working on 
documentaries.

Ordered one to have a try. Shot 3 rolls of Tri-x at ASA 800 under all kinds 
of lighting conditions with nothing more than a fixed aperture and shot as 
soon as the shutter speed came up in the view finder.  3 rolls and every 
exposure right on the mark. Now I said nothing about picture content as it 
wasn't relevant, the exposure was and they were all perfect to the extent 
that we printed one roll all with he identical enlarger time and development 
and every frame was perfect for printing. Other than a slight dodge or burn 
where necessary! If necessary.

If anyone wishes to challenge this save your breathe and buy the book, the 
proof is right there!

Ordered two more M7's and immediately went on the road shooting in hospitals 
of North America. 500 hundred rolls and a few months later and not a spoiled 
frame due to ...." M7 picking the exposure"  No nicks, no whines nor 
bitching as it's the best damn Leica RF made!

At the moment far better than all the blather about the M8!

So your complaint,  "read whine" about a little sharp edge is pointless! 
Actually if I'd have found this a distraction,  hell I'd have got a very 
fine metal file and nicked the edge off and carried right on shooting!  See 
it's so simple when one thinks KISS about things rather than whine!

It seems of late the list is beginning to take on a new meaning and maybe 
needs a new name.......

The "Leica Whiner's Group!" Or something more fitting to the useless banter 
about neck straps, sharpie edges and the colour magenta!

Wouldn't it be far more beneficial to all if everyone went out and took 
pictures for a few weeks?

ted












Replies: Reply from reid at mejac.palo-alto.ca.us (Brian Reid) ([Leica] My one week with the M7)
Reply from leica at screengang.com (Didier Ludwig) ([Leica] Shhoting weekly (was: My one week with the M7))
Reply from henningw at archiphoto.com (Henning Wulff) ([Leica] My one week with the M7)
Reply from lists at gilplant.com (J. Gilbert Plantinga) ([Leica] My one week with the M7)
Reply from michiel.fokkema at wanadoo.nl (Michiel Fokkema) ([Leica] My one week with the M7)
Reply from ricc at mindspring.com (Ric Carter) ([Leica] My one week with the M7)
In reply to: Message from DColucci at aol.com (DColucci@aol.com) ([Leica] My one week with the M7)