I guess Erwin's essay is too long for this site.

[steve_hoffman]

Sorry. Maybe someone else can figure out how to post it here! It's VERY interesting!

[scott evans]

http://www.imx.nl/index.html

 

<p>

 

This should get people there. Copy and paste. :0) scott

[mikep1]

I don't see anything there re the M7. Did I miss something?

[christopher.]

I can't find it either.

[lucien1]

It will not be there before one or two days.

[budc]

I just received the Puts Leica M7 Newsletter where Erwin tells it

all. Some interesting things:

 

<p>

 

1) Brass top plate

2) Magnets replace gears, etc. to control the time between shutter

curtains.

3) Manufactured in Portugal.

4) Shutter speeds faster than 1/1000 would have increased noise.

5) Shutter more accurate than M6.

6) Time parallax from shutter release to firing is 12ms. M6 is 12 to

18ms. Hexar RF is 100ms and SLR's are 125ms plus.

7) Shutter release travel is same as M6.

8) DX coding.

9) .58, .72 and .85 viewfinders.

10) Finder windows have anti-reflection coating to reduce flare.

11) Total weight 10gr. more than M6.

12) 1,300 parts. 350 new and improved parts. M3 had about 860 parts.

 

<p>

 

To get newletter send e-mail to majordomo@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us and

specify subscribe APEMC in the body of the message.

[scott evans]

Thanks for the info Bud. I thought you just need Erwin's site

Steve, sorry for the confusion. Should of had my coffee first

before look for info on the M7. :0) Scott

[giles_poilu]

Thanks for the info Bud - a rather mixed bag of specifications. Some

good, some bad - and an awful lot of parts to go wrong!

 

<p>

 

Made in Portugal? Hmmmmm....will it be marked as such I wonder?

[lucien1]

Was it marked on the M6 and M6TTL ?

 

<p>

 

The M7, like them, is partially 'Made in Portugal' and then finished in

Solms.

[rolo]

I couldn't follow Erwin's discussion of the TTL flash/High Speed

sync circuitry. He implies (I suspect incorrectly) that the M7 will

only do TTL flash with the SF-20 at 1/50 sec. It's also unclear

whether High Speed is TTL controlled or manual. The new

flash circuitry is the ONLY thing of interest TO ME on this new

camera, so I'm really curious about it's function and usefulness.

[mikep1]

Interesting report. Thanks Steve!

 

<p>

 

I found his comments about how AE allows you to concentrate on

composition somewhat amusing. It's exactly the same point they make

about auto-SLRs, like my F100, that all of us badmouth! It's also

completely contrary to his earlier Leica-pronouncements about how the

totally manual M-whatever gives you complete control of your

photography. Jeez, make up your mind! Sure, you can turn off the

auto - I have no problem with the concept, just with the rhetoric on

what a huge advance this is. I would have called the camera an M6A

or maybe an M5/2. :)

 

<p>

 

Frankly, all of Puts' stuff sounds more Leica (sorry!) marketing add-

writing than anything else. When an autofocus M comes out, I'm sure

he'll comment on how it revolutionizes photography by allowing the

user to concentrate EVEN MORE on composition.

 

<p>

 

I'll probably buy one anyway...

[paul_chefurka1]

Mike, the same point about Erwin's objectivity has ben raised on the

LUG. He got an M7 for revaluation a full year before it was

announced, back when Leica was saying such a camera would never be

made. Ho also got extensive factory tours during M7 production.

while Erwin's reviews are very valuable, and I generally don't have

too many bones to pick over their substance. However the breathless

boosterism of his recent efforts coupled with his unparalleled access

to the inner sanctum makes me very inclined to get out the salt

shaker when reading stuff like this.

 

<p>

 

I'll wait for the user reviews of the early adopters before I make up

my mind.

 

<p>

 

PS - has anyone heard any word about new M lenses, or is the M7 the

sum total of Leica's M-series efforts for this year?

[eliot]

My reading of Erwin's review is that the high speed sync (HSS)

capability applies to shutter speeds from 1/250 - 1/1000 and requires

the Metz 54 MZ flash unit (HSS will not work with the SF20 unit). He

says HSS is not available for 1/125 and 1/60 sec because these are

mechanical speeds. He also says that HSS is available only in manual

(not AUTO) modes and will not work with the TTL circuitry. Thus, you

can do fill flash @ hi sync speeds from 1/250-1/1000 sec but you need

the Metz unit and there is no TTL measurement. On the other hand,

the TTL feature works the same way it does in the M6TTL.

 

<p>

 

But Erwin's measurements do indicate that the M7 shutter is

measurably more accurate than the M6, and you get essentially

"stepless" (not quite but nearly so) shutter speeds in the AUTO

mode. He also mentions half step shutter speeds now available and

accurate. Overall, there appear to be significant improvements in

addition to AE.

[rolo]

"He also says that HSS is available only in manual (not AUTO)

modes and will not work with the TTL circuitry. Thus, you can do

fill flash @ hi sync speeds from 1/250-1/1000 sec but you need

the Metz unit and there is no TTL measurement."

 

<p>

 

This is what I suspect to be accurate. If so, then the HSS is

significantly LESS useful and attractive than a boost of the

on-camera sync speed would have been. This becomes a fiddly

stop-gap feature that will not be particularly convenient to use on

the fly. Just as the 54MZ3 is not particularly convenient to use on

the M6TTL. Wonderful flash that works great, but it is large, heavy

and cumbersome on the camera and it can torque the top plate

enough to cause the rangefinder vertical alignment to shift.

 

<p>

 

BTW, Erwin's assertion that rangefinder flare has been

diminished with new optical coatings sounds like pure public

relations bushwa. The viewfinder/rangefinder optics of the

M6/M6TTL are already coated (compare 'em to an earlier

camera, even an M4-2 if you don't believe it). If Leica has

remedied the flare, then they are acknowledging that problem

did in fact exist on earlier cameras (something, to my

knowledge, that both Leica and it's most devout followers have

NEVER acknowledged). To my mind this would make the RF

flare of the M6/M6TTL an uncorrected manufacturing defect.

When can I send in my cameras for the free retrofit?

[rolo]

My point being, BTW, that I would bet that the M7 rangefinder

patch flares like an SOB, same as the M6/M6TTL. They didn't

change/fix anything.

[john_chan2]

<i>My point being, BTW, that I would bet that the M7 rangefinder patch

flares like an SOB, same as the M6/M6TTL</i>

 

<p>

 

Probably. I think the boys at Solms should dust off the blueprints

for the M3 rangefinder mechanism and market this as a <b>useful

anachronism</b>. I think it would be recieved very well by the user

and collector markets.

[andy_piper2]

RE finder flare and the M7. (FWIW)

 

<p>

 

"Everything can always be improved. The finder windows have an anti-

reflection coating that diminishes clearly the flare of the rangefinder

patch that occurs in some situations when strong lightsources are

shining obliquely into the finder."

 

<p>

 

Erwin Putz @ http://www.imx.nl/photosite/leica/leicahome.html

[rolo]

"Everything can always be improved. The finder windows have

an anti- reflection coating that diminishes clearly the flare of the

rangefinder patch that occurs in some situations when strong

lightsources are shining obliquely into the finder."

 

<p>

 

Erwin Putz @ http://www.imx.nl/photosite/leica/leicahome.html

 

<p>

 

Right, got it. That's what I was referring to when I said: "BTW,

Erwin's assertion that rangefinder flare has been diminished

with new optical coatings sounds like pure public relations

bushwa. The viewfinder/rangefinder optics of the M6/M6TTL are

already coated (compare 'em to an earlier camera, even an M4-2

if you don't believe it)."

 

<p>

 

I won't know till I handle one, but my solid wager is that the M7

still flares as badly as the M6 because there has been no

change. Erwin just forgot to mention over the last 18 years that

the viewfinder/rangefinder windows of the M6 were coated.

 

<p>

 

If this problem truly has been corrected, then my M6's need to get

fixed. . . .

 

<p>

 

How likely is that?

[lucien1]

Look at the end of the <a

href="http://www.leica-camera.com/produkte/msystem/vergleich/index_e.ht

ml">"LEICA M7 and LEICA M6 TTL in comparison"</a> page on Leica

website.

 

<p>

 

It wasn't on the M6TTL.

[rolo]

Then these must be NEW coatings as the windows on my M6

and M6TTL's are all coated (lights don't typically reflect in shades

of purple and green otherwise). I'll have to get my hands on an

M7 to check it out, but I would bet you a rear lens cap right now

that the M7 rangefinder flares and probably to almost the same

degree as the M6/M6TTL. The problem is internal, which is why

it can be abated somewhat by taping over the illuminator panel.

The flare isn't coming through the viewfinder window.

[rolo]

I guess I'm cross posting, but this topic is playing out in at least

two locations. Erwin informed me that there in fact is no coating

on the M6/M6TTL finder windows. The coatings that visible are

on the *internal* finder elements.

 

<p>

 

I have no confirmation that the new coatings actually

alleviate/eliminate the rangefinder flare that is painfully common

on the M6/M6TTL. I get rid of the flare on my cameras by

slapping a piece of surgical tape over the illuminator panel, so I

suspect that light passing through the illuminator is a major

source of the flare. If the new coatings actually do reduce or

eliminate the flare, my next question will be, how much to

replace the window panes on M6's?