M9 conceptual sketches

[Harry Lime]

Harry, on that button-for-EV thing, I'm struggling to think of any serious camera that achieves EV compensation via buttons, except possibly the Hexar AF, and even then, the top deck display would always display the compensation until you told it to display something else. DSLRs have blind click wheels, but they also have in-viewfinder displays.

So, just because everyone else does it wrong, do we have to follow suit?


I think dials fall in to two categories:

The problem with small dials, as found on most DSLR, is that they take all of your attention to operate. You have to either pause to count the clicks, which are only a fraction on an inch apart and /or look at the readout in the display to check what you are doing. In either case you have to take your attention off the action in front of you.

On the other hand the dials on something like the M or Hexar have very heavy and distinct indents, so it is possible to adjust them and know what you are doing, without having to pay too much attention.

Buttons are nice, because if you know what your starting point is and how much of a change each press will affect, you can operate them blindly. Pressing a button requires very little CPU power from your brain and therefore is not very distracting.

I've used dials on several cameras I own or have owned, including a Canon 1-V, 5D and currently the D700 and never liked them for the above reasons. As a matter of fact I sold all of my Canon gear, because their entire interface is founded on dials. In particular I really disliked the large command dial on the rear of the EOS series. So, I switched to Nikon, because among several other reasons, I felt that they had better ergonomics.

Another alternative is a lever like on the R8/R9 and S2. Not the ideal solution for everything, but it works nicely for EV.

Take a look at the Hexar RF top deck - this is a good model for a future digital M:

• Really hard-detent main selector whose "tail" sticks out of the front of the camera so you can easily feel whether the camera is turned on. If you have to have a self-timer on the main switch, this is the way to do it;
• Coaxial ISO and EV controls (that trigger a compensation indicator in the VF);
• Shutter speed dial (also hard detents) near the rear edge where you can move it with your thumb;
• Shutter speed dial that locks in AE or AEL (you can easily switch between the two, and to get off them, you press the button in the middle), is unidirectional (unless you hold the center button), and is virtually impossible to knock out of position.

You would never have to turn on the screen to see any major exposure setting relevant to RAW shooting. This design also captures your AE/AEL function. Put in the clip indicator, and voilà.

That's a very nice layout and I think it works very well.

Inside the VF, the Hexar has a graphic shutter speed display running up the side. You can see the meter-indicated shutter speed versus the selected speed and how many stops they are apart. This would be a nice feature with the M8, which really only tells you in generalities where your exposure is versus metered.

I agree. The M9 should display a few more bits of information in the viewfinder. Shutter speed and EV comp are the first that come to mind. It would be nice if there was the option to choose what is turned on or off in the viewfinder, via the menu.

Leica could also implement a 'Info' mode on the rear LCD that shows an overview of the current settings. Both Nikon and Canon introduced this on their new cameras and it's very handy.