What does the "M" stand for?

I think I know what the "R" means: Reflex or its German equivalent?

 

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What does "M" mean: Measure or Messen?

Messsucher.

M=Money. Lots of it required.

It correctly stands for "Messsucher" (however, I don't quite get the

3 "s" in row, at least that wouldn't work in other Germanic lingos)

 

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Mess = to measure

Sucher = to seek, to find, to search

 

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in Swedish it is "mätsökare" :-)

 

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cheers,

 

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pat

and according to the latest LFI M is suppose to stand for "Manual" as

well...

To be more precise Pat, the verb is "messen" which translates to "to measure". I don't don't understand why you can't get the triple 's'. There's nothing to get about it, that's the way the Germans write it. Just to add to your confusion, it's also possible to write it as "Meßsucher".

Correct, M stands for Messucher, which is German for Viewfinder. The

3 in M3 was chosen because of the three bright line finders for the

50, 90 and 135 mm lenses. Later the numbers of the M camera's were

more or less chosen to follow each other.

Meßsucher. It is always correctly written with the ß. There are

technically not three "s", rather the ß and one "s" because it is a

word constructed by the combining of two precise words. Until the

language lords of the German Academy tell us otherwise, that is.

How do you make the Beta-looking symbol? Do you need a German

keyboard? Or do you press control-something? I wanna be correct, if

I ever have type this!

Bob:

The ascii character set has 255 possibilities. You can access all of

them by holding down the "alt" key and keying in a number between 1

and 255. I do not recall what gets you the beta symbol. 135=ç I

don't use it much, but it is sporting naming a file with these

characters. The normal set uses between 1 and 128. The upper

numbers give you the alternate characters.

 

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MJ

On a Mac the "ß" is option (aka "alt") "s" - which makes sense. Seems

like it should be alt-s on Wintels(?)

ALT+0223 produces a 'Ringel-s' (that's what it's called) on a Wintel box.

<i>in Swedish it is "mätsökare" :-)</i>

 

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Wow, that almost sounds like "massacre".

A bit of a Mess or ja, messen, to measure (I can't do the double S). I

studied German but can't get the double S, or umlauts, on my Mac

keyboard. Wie Schade! Sucher is viewfinder (what you look through).

Messen is the rangefinder part. Hence the M series is the first Leica

combining the rangefinder with the viewfinder, quite an innovation in

1954-55 when the M3 came out. 3 of course means it has three

framelines - for 35, 50 and 90 lenses - after that they were a bit

arbitrary, though come to think of it the M6 does have six framelines.

But the M1, M2, M4, M7? However, unlike some alphanumeric product

names, Leica's does actually have some meaning. Viel Spass damit

(double S)!

Attention, German language lord materialising over the

keyboard...</p><i>Meßsucher</i> until a few years ago,

<i>Messsucher</i> by new German orthograpyhy. (They actually regulate

that over here, imagine!) The 'ß' is <alt + 2 2 5>. No capital letter,

btw--If you write a word in that, it's two s.

I apologise for the bad html. What was meant: The 'ß' is entered by

pressing the 'alt' key and simultaneously entering '225' on the

numbers keyboard; at least the university machine in front of me does

it. On German keyboards, btw, it's on the second key to the left of

the backspace button.</p>Allison, you're correct about the R. The

German word for SLR is <i>Spiegelreflexkamera</i>, which can refer to

a TLR as well--so Germans prefer the English abbreviations. They have,

however, <i>reflektieren</i>, 'reflect', in both the abstract and the

optical sense; and engineers were always happy to adopt foreign terms.

R = <i>Reflex</i> or <i>Reflexsystem</i> (cf. 'Leicaflex'). Alles

klar?</p>M3 - 3 framelines; M2 - 2 sets of framelines; M1 - 1

frameline; MD - <i>da is' nix zum Messen drin</i> (coll., "there's no

metering system inside") :-) ; M4 - 4 framelines; M5 - the odd one

out; M4-2 2nd version of M4; M4-P - M4 Professional; M6 - 6 framelines

(as in the M4-P!).</p>Where the heck did they hide the activator for

the seventh frameline on the M7? :-)

I'm waitin' fer M ate

"measuring device"