Leica M5 thoughts

The M5 is a winner. I bought one about a year ago and it's hard to put down -- probably the best designed camera I have ever used. In many ways I prefer it to my M6TTL but the TTL (0.58) is useful for 28mm. My only regret about the M5 is that I didn't buy one back in the '70s. I can also recommend the pre-ASPH 35mm Lux to go with it!
 
M5 is a very well designed camera

M5 is a very well designed camera

I suggest the OP go to Cameraquest .com and read about the M5. There are just so many very well developed design features in the M5. It's a really modern camera. I have one and I will keep it forever!

I use Waldgreen (a drugstore in NY area ) brand Premium Zinc Air Hearing Aid batteries size 675 that are 1.4v instead of 1.35v. My exposures are correct.
I pay $4.99 for a set of 6 batteries, each one will last from 4-7 months after you peel of the protective tape covering the air holes in the zink air battery and thereby activating it.
 
Oh yes you do!

Oh yes you do!

Santafecino said:
...but the M5 is built like a tank. I can't think of any reason I truly need another M5 body, but I still have the urge . . .
Click to expand...

You need another M5. Why? Because it's there. 🙂
 
Leica M5 ??

Leica M5 ??

Some cameras are really part of the history when photography was an Art and Camera compared to jewellery.
Let say which camera are really typical from this golden era:
- Contax II
- Varex IIa
- Rollei SLR
- Contax AX
- Rollei SLX
- Rolleiflex 2.8 Xenotar
- Ikoflex III
- ... Leica M5
If you like to have in your hands something that oozes quality these 8 cameras are
perfect. Take the Varex IIa Exakta, wow... you have the feeling that you buy it for a life time and more ...
It doe not mean perfection. Take the M5 , it is too big, takes too much place in a bag compared to the Leica M3/M2 .. but, when You have it you feel respect for this creation ....🙂 🙂 🙂
 
OK, to keep the "warbird" analogy going for a bit, I think of the M5 as something like a Corsair, while the other Ms would be Mustangs (or Spitfires, if that's your preference). I don't think of cameras as bombers, I guess.

I turn 50 next year -- I think I'll ask for an M5 then, unless I can wangle one beforehand!
 
I was making a list last night of the ways in which the M5 finder is better than the M6. I should add that I sold my M5 to buy a .85x M6 to go with an existing .72x M6 (both "classic"), so you can see that I don't think these advantages for the M5 end debate about which camera any given person would choose, but the list is pretty impressive:

M5 shows shutter speeds - M6 doesn't.

M5 shows metering area - M6 doesn't.

M5 has original reduced flare optics - M6 needs a retrofit to add that.

M5 has old-style 90mm framelines - M6 has later no-corners framelines.

M5 has extra-large viewfinder area - M6 has standard M2/M4/M6 field of view.

Finder-related differences that are more subject to personal preference:

M5 has match-needle meter (may be less distracting and/or faster, but cannot be used vertically) - M6 has LEDs (work fine vertically; possible confusion between "on" and "half stop off").

M5 does not have 28mm or 75mm framelines unless retrofitted - M6 has 28mm and 90mm framelines (with consequent changes in sizes of certain framelines).

As I said, I still voted with my feet and sold my M5 to buy another M6, but the M5 was and remains in many ways the pinnacle of Leitz engineering and design, even after 35 years.

I don't regard the PX625 battery issue to be an issue because there are too many easy ways to deal with that, and I also don't regard the restrictions on certain lenses to be an issue at this point, but YMMV.
 
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Stepless shutter and the best placement of the shutter speed dial of any camera. Shared by the Canon EF. I wonder which came first? Both cameras were introduced at about the same time. After 25+ years with the EF, picking up the M5 for the first time and finding the shutter speed dial in the same place sold me. Set the aperture and let your finger spin the shutter speeds to the right place is a revelation in ease of use.
 
It is not correct compare cameras as Contax II, III, IIa or IIIa to the Leica M5. The Leica M5 have a true TTL meter, simple to use, FULL COUPLED TO THE APERTURE AND SHUTTER DIALS, the same bayonet mount of the M6 or MP, simple and quick to use, and the same rapid shutter advance lever. All the Contax cameras series have a very slow and inconvenient bayonet mount and the button to advance the film. The Contax III and IIIa have an external selenium cell, absolutely not coupled to aperture and shutter dials.
The difference between M5 and M6 or MP are only the needle in the viewfinder (M6 and MP have the LEDs) and the CDS cell (the M6 and MP have the silicon cell). But the M5 show the shutter time in the viewfinder, M6 and MP show only the LEDs. Too little differences to replace the M5 in the preistoric history.
Ciao.
Vincenzo
 
The M5 shutter has the least vibration of any M shutter especially at 1/30 and faster. Those that own an M5 and a regular M body should try it and see for youself. Similar noise level to other Ms.
 
It's sometimes hard to tell if the shutter fired. Of course it did. But there is little feedback of the event when it happens. Only the sound. If you can hear it. I had Bubba out this morning wth the Nikkor-P 8.5 cm. Nice combination.

The horror! When I was putting Bubba away today I noticed that the black & white insert on the self timer lever had fallen out. Gone. Oh well. Now Bubba is in fact the User!
 
digitalintrigue said:
Everyone seems to love the M5 now, I wonder why they didn't back in the early 70s.
Click to expand...
Oh, I think the BUFF comparison already says quite a lot... But apparently in this thread only those speak out who love it. 🙂

Philipp
 
Leica was in the middle of "dump everything for SLR" histeria. Not unlike the recent and maybe now dead "dump everything for digital" hysteria. No rangefinders were selling well. Canon & Nikon had already bailed out of the market. That benefited Leica to some degree. But they kept prices so high as to limit their market.

Leica worked long and hard on the M5 to get it totally perfect. Except possibly for the strap lug placement. 4 lugs would be perfect. Interestingly enough, everybody made P&S cameras in the late 70s to early 90s with the strap on the end of the body. Nobody said a word. Leica Die Hards are a tough bunch to please.

So what do they do? Launch the M5. Continue to build M4s. And then trot out the CL. At the time there wasn't enough interest in one rangefinder body. Forget trying to sell 3 models. I reckon the CL sold better than the other two on price alone. The size & the meter were a plus.

Right camera. Wrong marketing. Wrong time.
 
In the early '70s the Leica M fans was stupidly dazzled about the different M5 styling and bigger dimensions, in respect of the classic line of the M3 or M4, and about the feared and unreal M5 meter fragility. The Leica M5 was (and is) really an excellent camera and the time did justice to Leica M5 (and Leica CL): now are very requested from users. The metering system of the Leica M5 and CL work faultless, then as now.
Ciao.
Vincenzo
 
The other problem for the M5 was the prevelant style of photography -- big grain, high contrast and loads of distortion. Who needed an M5 when you could buy a cheap SLR and a 20mm lens for so much less! Almost all the famous photojournalists had switched to Nikon, so the subtleties of Leica photography were simply out of step with fashion.
 
I'm not sure that there were really cheap 20mm lenses and SLR bodies in 1971... anyway, the price of the M5 at that time was a so high that only a professional photograph can afford it, and why buy it when you can get a first class SLR Nikon with less money, with first class lenses, tele and even zoom lenses available?

Now M5 has more success because people simply can afford it as a big toy, a beautifully ugly toy, and they dont' mind if the viewfinder is limited to 35-135mm only...

Regards
 
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