tom_bryant

I'm left handed, and have never had a problem. In fact, Dr Knapp is quite right. Focusing is the most delicate part of Leica use, and that makes the Leica, at least for me, left handed. Come to think of it, many of my Leica buddies are lefties as well. But if you really *must* have a left handed camera, there's only one: the Exakta! It's not all that easy to use, as everything must be done left handed.

www.freetranslation.com, for those to whom French is not intuitive.

I just bought an M7 from them. They do sell Leica, and do a very nice job of it, at least for the initial sale. I hope that I don't have to find out about warranty service! Give them a call, their web site might be messing up.

What a lovely, useless question. I have several responses.

 

The Alpa 10d and 50mm f/1.9 Kern Macro Switar. The best 50 ever for an SLR. There's a reason Tom A. went to the trouble of fitting one of these lenses to his Leica M. The rewind knob of the Alpa is the best on any camera I've ever used. The camera itself is as precisely built as my M3, and it's reasonably quiet.

 

I also cast a vote for the Canon F1. Sturdy, wonderful build quality, marred by a terribly loud, clacky, shutter.

 

The Olympus O-M1. Quiet, compact, elegant design, incredibly large viewfinder with great eye relief. Not as sturdy as I'd have liked.

 

Other rangefinders? There aren't any. Nothing but nothing beats the M, at least for me.

Meters. I can think in either, but prefer metric.

My problem with the 12 is similar to my problem with the 15. The unavoidable distortion of items in the edge of the frame is fairly wierd. Sort of like a Mercator map, where Greenland is larger than Australia. I only use my 15 for very special subjects (usually interiors), and I have to be very careful to keep it level. The 12 would be miserable excess. 21 is the widest you want to go before encountering these problems, IMHO.<div></div>

Patrick,

 

I did just what you're doing, around 15 years ago. For the same reasons! I lived to regret it, repented my error, and again invested in Leica gear. I expect that a decade or so from now, you'll come to the same conclusion.

When I know I'm going to be doing some serious hand holding, I use a chest pod, in the form of an old Leitz table top tripod with the large ball head. Horizontal or vertical, it really increases your steadiness. I've successfully held a full second in a dark area of the National Cathedral. Being able to see the subject as the exposure was made really helped.

I agree, the "eyes" easily get out of adjustment. If you follow John's instructions, they are fairly easy to re-adjust. The lens itself is not Leica's sharpest, but the extra speed makes up for any problems there. 1/125 @ f/2.8 is sharper than 1/75th at f/3.4, if hand held. The eyes make for an effective rangefinderbaseline of about 96mm, making them, when alligned properly, Leica's most accurate focuser.

 

The lens itself is not that portable, the eyes have a way of catching on everything attached to you (thus the bangs that mis-allign them). You don't see very much around the edges of the frame when using it, making it more like an SLR than the generous borders of the rangefinder's bright image lines.

 

The extra weight tends to steady (read sharpen) the lens more than a lighter lens would, much as it's easier to shake a pencil than a crowbar.

 

At f/5.6 or a bit below, bolted to a tripod, it's as sharp as you could ask of a 135.

 

Bang for the buck, it's the best Leica 135, IMHO.

Opinions, opinions! I've tried a Nikon softie, and hated it. Each to his own. I much prefer the "stock" Leica shutter release.

 

My favorite accessory (aside from my Luna Pro) is my table top tripod. Mostly I use it as a chest pod, and it really stabliizes my longer exposures. I've hand held shots of 1 second and gotten away with it (blown up to 4x5, mind).

Summilux. That extra stop is very nice, and the results are fairly close to the summicron, hand held. The Noctilux is just too big.

<P>1) <B>Reliability.</B></P>

<P>2) <B>Quiet</B>, low vibration shutter.</P>

<P>3) <B>Shortest</B> shutter release to exposure time</P>

<P>4) You see outside the framelines: A big help in framing a picture.</P>

<P>5) <B>Small</B>. A Leica M system will fit in the pockets of a suit. An SLR cannot do this.</P>

<P>6) The <B>Best</B> lenses for 35mm photography.</P>

<P>7) Total control of aperture, focus, and shutter speed.</P>

 

<P> Since I've switched to the M system, my photos have improved. They continue to improve. I've only begun to plumb the capabilities of this system.</P>

The short answer is Leica Ms are best for shots of people, which is 90% of the shots I take. They are the best cameras for hand holding.

 

IMHO, of course!

<p>Ralph: <b>Great Shot!</b></P>

 

<P>I rarely use the frame preview lever on either my M3 or M4. Occasionally, I play with it, but when I'm doing a serious shoot, I never use it.</P>

<P>Wow! Opinions all over the place. I'll disagree with many here, and vote for the <b>Old</b> Gossen Luna Pro, CdS.</P>

 

<P>It's very sensitive, perhaps the most sensitive meter you can buy.</P>

 

<P>It's very accurate, albeit a bit slow to register.</P>

 

<P>It sees light in a 1 - 22 scale, each number representing light as half or double that of the numbers preceeding or succeeding it. After about a year of serious use, you just start seeing light in terms of that scale. I've dumped my later "improved" Luna Pros, Sekonics, Minolta spots, etc. This is the one, for me. Just an opinion, mind, but I've been decades coming to it.</P>

<P> I tend to use it in incident mode, the spot attachment was never used.</P>

I tried an Olympus Epic Stylus. Nice 35mm f/2.8 lens, and auto everything. I hated the latter, and stopped using the camera. Now I put a body cap on an M3 body, drop it into a pocket, cap both ends of my Summilux 50, drop it into another pocket, and away I go. 30 years of Gossen Luna Pro use have trained my eye well enough that I can extimate light to +/- 1/2 a stop, (usually!)

Great Thread!

 

<p>

 

Yep, I'm a gearhead, and yep, I've got plenty of tools. With

considerable effort, I could probably take my car apart with an

adjustable wrench, a pair of vice grips and a length of pipe. But it

would not be easy or fun.

 

<p>

 

When I've traveling light, I take only my M3 and a collapsible 50

(f/1.9 Canon Serenar). No Meter. That's it. Fist in my pocket. I get

good pictures. But I get better shots in dark places with my

Noctilux, or my Summilux. There are some situations where my 90mm

Summicron shines. or my 21, 35, or 135.

 

<p>

 

What counts is being able to anticipate what will be best for a given

subject before you're out there shooting it, and having that equipment

around when you're shooting. If you take equipment that you don't

use, it just gets in the way.

 

<p>

 

The idea is to get good shots, not prove that you can do it with just

an M4 and a 35 Summilux, or whatever your preferance. This takes

practice.

 

<p>

 

I'm still practicing. Is this zen? I dunno.

Count me in too!

 

<p>

 

Hats off to Tony, and our many other knowlegable posters.

I've posted an MTF review of lenses, that I got from one of our French

posters, on my web site. It has all of the

Leica/Voigtlander(Cosina)/Konica 50s.

 

<p>

 

<A

HREF="http://208.218.135.74/photography/lensTests/displayGraphs.html">Click

here for the review</A>

 

<p>

 

FWIW, you can't beat the Summilux with removable

hood IMHO. If I could only keep one lens, this would be it.

Pay $800 for it now, used, and if you don't like it, sell if for $800.

 

<p>

 

Buy the new Nokton, for about $350, new, and, if you don't like it,

sell it for $200, used.

I went with another Leica fan to a sale and display of Civil war

memorabelia. Our eyes popped. $18,000 for a confederate Officer's

top coat, patched at the elbows. Confederate script going at face

value! or more!!! A Henry rifle for $25,000. Now, a truly trashed

muzzle loading Springfield was fetching a meer $2500. My friend and I

agreed that we should take our wives the next time we go to one of

these so that they may appreciate how cheap and useful our Leicas are.

When I pocket a Leica, it's an M3 with a 50mm f/1.9 Canon Serenar

collapsible on it. Decent lens. If I'm feeling that I need more

speed or quality, its the M3 with a body cap, my Summilux 50 in

another pocket, and if I'm indoors, a Gossen Luna Pro in a third. All

of these combinations are pocketable, with increasing difficulty of

use and pocketability and quality.

 

<p>

 

"If your camera isn't as fast as a point & shoot, you need more

practice"

OK, perhaps you need the HTTP// prefix. Perseverance furthers! One

last time:

 

<p>

 

<A HREF="http://208.218.135.74/photography/photo35.html">Click here

for my photography page.</A>

Ok, lets try that again. Somehow the URL I typed in managed to add

the greenspun.com site to it, so all you get is a big 404. Here's the

text of the URL:

 

<p>

 

208.218.135.74/photography/photo35.html

 

<p>

 

And here, I again try to make it <A

HREF="208.218.135.74/photography/photo35.html">clickable</A>

By all means get the original Leitz vented hood. Very little finder

obstruction, excellent lens protection, and, when reversed, you can't

focus the lens, and therefore it's very difficult to photograph the

inside of your lenscap. This is one of the nicest Leica accessories,

and it's too bad they discontinued it.

<A HREF=208.218.135.74/photography/photo35.html>35mm Photography</A>