M9 Body Questions

<p>Does anyone *know* if any changes were made to the body of the M9 with respect to materials or actual design?<br>

I am curious mainly for the sake of stories reported of the base plate breaking on the M8 when mounted on a tripod. I have tried to figure this out on my own, based on the materials presented by Leica, but it is hard to know for sure.<br>

Also, any indications of the body having better weather seals than the M8?</p>

<p>Thanks in advance...</p>

<h4>"Materials and build quality</h4>

<p>Just like the M8 the main body is made from a two-piece magnesium alloy cast (shown below). The top plate which contains the viewfinder chamber and controls is milled from a single block of brass, likewise the removable base (which covers the battery and SD compartment) is also made of brass. To say that the M9 is well built and robust is perhaps an understatement, the M series of cameras have a reputation for their longevity."<br>

http://www.dpreview.com/previews/leicam9/page3.asp</p>

<p>You can see that the shape of the top plate is a bit different.</p>

<p>An easy solution for the tripod problem on most M cameras is a Leica (or 3rd-party) handgrip, which will give you a center tripod mount.</p>

<p>The M8 and M9 have a centered tripod mount -- although not exactly aligned with the lens.<br>

All indications are that the changes from M8 to M9 are primarily electronic -- although the shutter is probably new as well.</p>

<p>With the exception of the sensor, the protect-now-iso button, the framelines, and the slight top plate change, yes, most changes appear to be electronic/firmware. Not sure about sealing though. The M8/8.2 grip fits perfectly, so there's no discernible change there (though the 8.2 grip matches the vulcanite/finish better than the M8 grip). The magnifier and diopters fit, so no change there. I couldn't easily see any difference from the 8.2 in exterior dimensions. The 9 actually felt a touch lighter, and the black paint finish looked deeper. Same .68 mag viewfinder, though the framelines have changed of course.<br /> The metering pattern on the shutter blades has changed. The horizontal white strip is still there, but now there are gray strips above and below the white strip. Hopefully will improve the metering - this was one thing that irritated me about the M8s.<br /> The menus are of course different to handle new features, but still very familiar. The battery and card status now have their own screen with better graphic information about charge and room on the card. I wasn't sure about this change before, but now that I've seen it I agree it's an improvement.<br /> You can manually indicate non-coded lenses from a list of older lenses, but the feature is not as well designed as the Nikon version. Each time you change to a new non-coded lens you have to go back into the entire list of lenses to find it again. Better than relying <em>only</em> on coded lenses though.<br /> Overall I'm impressed with this camera. The images look fantastic. ISO performance has improved by a stop. I look forward to spending more time with one.</p>

<p><em>"You can manually indicate non-coded lenses from a list of older lenses, but the feature is not as well designed as the Nikon version. Each time you change to a new non-coded lens you have to go back into the entire list of lenses to find it again. Better than relying only on coded lenses though."</em></p>

<p>Did they add a manual profile for he 40mm Summicron? Probably not but still the best lens they ever made! (wink)</p>

<p>This all begs the question possibly already asked somewhere else, can an M8 or M8.2 be upgraded to an M9? And is it worth the cost?</p>

<p>Dayton, almost certainly not - basically everything inside the body shell is new electronics: two processors instead of one, whole new "suite" of circuitry and chips, new casting for the "film chamber" to open it up to show the whole sensor, parts moved around to allow the battery and the new chamber to fit side by side. I'm sure that, for the price of an M9 + $150, Leica will transplant an M8 baseplate and hotshoe (with serial number) onto an M9 body - and that's essentially what an upgrade would involve.</p>

<p>I wonder if an M3 version of the 35 'lux will work on the M9. I also wonder about f4 and f3.4 super angulons. Presumably they won't allow ttl metering as they don't on the MP, but are they usable? And what about the DR summicron? Will the "eyes" fit?</p>

<p>First, lenses with eyes work fine - the M9 (and M8) viewfinder windows etc are identical to the M6 TTL and M7.</p>

<p>And I can answer the 35mm Summilux question: see my posts in this thread, esp. post 15: http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=49382</p>

<p>So, your lens will work but it depends whether or not you care about collecting. Not only have I machined my Summilux but I've also milled M8 coding pits - and my lens is apparently uncommon (black 1969 mount but with an infinity lock)!</p>

<p>The M9 (unlike the M8) has a lens selection menu so although 6-bit coding is still desirable (automatic lens detection), it's not essential, so you don't <em>have</em> to turn your lenses into Swiss cheese...!</p>

<p>There were 3 or 4 screens of listed lenses for manual selection. I really can't recall what was/wasn't on the list. Of course the list can be updated by new firmware releases. Next time I get ahold of the camera I'll try to check for some of these esoteric lenses. :-)</p>

<p>Thank you, Rich and Ken. Your responses are much appreciated.</p>