[Leica] "It has a big red dot on it...."

[passaro.vince at gmail.com (Vince Passaro)]

Anecdote: I took out to lunch a potential new student and her father today;
she's likely coming to our program. Then she came back to my office to
handle some class registration stuff. Saw my IIIf (which needs repairs) up
on the shelf. "I have a camera that looks something like this," she said.
"It was a gift from my grandmother."  I showed her the rear of mine and
said, does it have two holes to look through or one?  "One," she said.

"Does it say Leica," I now ask, feeling a bit like the wolf in Little Red
Ridinghood.  "I don't know," she says, "I basically just put it away as some
kind of antique."

I figured it was an M2 or M3 as they are closest "one-hole" relatives to the
IIIf visually; unless it was a Canon or some other 1950s rangefinder. I sat
down and started up the computer to take care of her registration issues.

"It has this BIG red dot on it," she says suddenly. I stop typing.  "Bring
that with you in the fall," I tell her. "I'll show you how to use it."  My
fangs are dripping now. "Does it have a lens?" I say, backtracking.  "Oh
yes," she says. "I think there are two."

You'll find me in my office baying at the moon, I almost say.

Was it the M4 or the M6 that was the first to have the red dot?