MP and framing precision

[sanmich]

I came up one day saying to myself:
" The MP might be the best camera ever. I want one, I want one, I want one"

But then I heard of the frames shrinking that happened in the middle of the M4-P
production. I checked on my M6, compared to my M2 and it is there... Leica has eaten a
fairly big part of the 50mm frame.😱
On the 35mm, the problem is much less apparent, so
the M6 0.58 is a keeper...

Long story short: I have the strange habbit to print full-frame, and having "non invited items" entering the frame or much more space around my subject is a real bugger.

I do understand that RF and framing precision are not going together but I think the apparent opinion that Leica has that the most important is to be sure everything is inside" even if that means a large part of the picture won't show in the frame is ehehmmmm.... how should I say......not very smart.

I would also expect, in these times of "a la carte" fancy camera sales politics that Leica could easily offer the option of the larger and maybe also differently shaped frame set.

I would love to have your opinions on the framing accuracy for the different focals.

Does someone know if fitting say, M4 frames into an MP can be possible?

Cheers

 

[maddoc]

Tough question here. Well, right now I can only compare the M4-P with the MP (both 0.72x VF) but never had a big issue with framing. On the other hand, I use an external VF for my 21mm and for the 28mm frame lines it is more like "guessing" than framing due to my eye-glasses... I think that for exact framing a SLR is the better choice ...

 

[martin-f5]

Long story short: I have the strange habbit to print full-frame.....

in that case you should use a SLR,
with a Rangefinder sometimes you will have objects in your photo you didn't have seen.
But it's not only depending on the framelines,
it's also depending on the focus distance you have choosen on the lense.

 

[varjag]

From what I understand about M system viewfinder, it might be possible to change framelines by retrofitting a frameline mask assembly from earlier model. Check with DAG or Sherry, they should know.

 

[mfogiel]

If you go on the rogerandfrances.com, I recall they have published a chart of the frame coverage of various RF cameras realtive to each other, I am not sure though if there is also a measure of how that fares against the effective coverage.

 

[Finder]

I (and a lot of others) shoot full frame with rangefinder and viewfinder cameras. You learn to anticipate the framing limits.

 

[Mackinaw]

Long story short: I have the strange habbit to print full-frame, and having "non invited items" entering the frame or much more space around my subject is a real bugger.

I agree with Martin, if you want accuracy, buy yourself an old Nikon F which had a 100% viewfinder.

I doubt that M4 frame lines will matter much. Rangefinder and accurate frame lines don't belong in the same sentence. I like printing full-frame too and usually have no problem with my 0.72 MP. Of course, your mileage may vary.

Jim B.