sfblues

This I trust this will put to rest once and for all the question as to

how Leica applies titanium to it's various metal surfaces. The

bulk of the comments above are questionable, i.e. it can be

rubbed off with an eraser is highly suspect, unless the eraser

has powdered diamond filings as it's main material, which

would sure play havoc when used to erase some writing on a

piece of paper, which it was designed to do. Anyone who takes

an eraser to a 2500. Camera body to begin with should probably

seek a twelve step program to over come the urge to destroy

expensive items...

The titanium coating process indeed starts with brass

components, it is then nickel-plated and bombarded with

titanium ions using "sputtering," a high tech vacuum process.

This results in an extremely hard, even and dull-bright

champagne colored titanium surfaces, which should prove to be

a far more durable finish then the black chrome or black lacquer

surfaces which predominate the market place.

For those of you who for whatever reason seek pleasure in

dispensing erroneous information to make others feel they were

cheated at the cash register for purchasing the titanium version

of the M6, it's time to move on to claim that the new MP is being

made from old M3 parts that Leica had laying around from the

fifties, which should keep you busy till the next Leica appears�

In the mean time, consider taking your plastic Japanese

camera's and loading some film in them and actually make

some images, just as serious Leica users have been doing for

the last 75+ years, with a camera that has it's roots in the first

quarter of the last century, and has been used by serious

practitioners of the art because of it's solid construction which

inspires confidence and a sense of pride of ownership, whether

in your hand or under glass, Leica's prove that form follows

function and is at home in the field or as an objet d'art.

Why do I use M Leica's, that's simple, it's unobtrusive, fast

handling and when you push the shutter release it records the

image in about 9MS, not 60 to 250MS as most SLR's do. Then

thrown in for good measure are some of the best lenses in the

world which attach to it. Granted it's not cheap, but if you really

want one on a budget, eBay or Photo.net offer used Leica's at

half the new prices. Granted there of little use for photog's

shooting sports or other fast action, but for those of us who have

need of it's unique capabilities, nothing else will do... Then that's

just my humble opinion...