No longer waiting for an M5!

[SolaresLarrave]

Back from "The Golden Touch," my Leica M5, already decked out to go (and after a few inconsequential shots (Edmund eating and the like), I "posed" it on our table for some documentary photographs.

And, of course, to brag a bit. It's a beautiful day out there, and I may go for a walk.

A bit wide, allows you to see the proprietary case (good for storage only, it's a pain to put the camera in or take it out) and part of the strap.

This tighter shot, like the one above, shows the soft-release button and the nice CV Nokton lens I got from Andrew (merciful) here at RFF.

It's a bit strange to get used to this camera... Metering is remarkably exact (Sherry adjusted the meter, it was shorted), but the notion of NOT touching the shutter release button is a bit disorienting at first. Unlike I do with my other metered bodies, with this one I take a bit longer to meter... but it's all a matter of habit. It's certainly nice to be able to see the shutterspeed I'm using... And the 28mm Elmarit fits quite well, but this camera will be a 35mm user anyway.

There you go! I'm off to take some photographs... after a couple of pain killers (elbow is complaining but not much).

 

[FrankS]

Great! How's your elbow doing, Francisco?

 

[SolaresLarrave]

A third shot... so as to add some spice to life!

I thought carrying the camera on those two side strap lugs would be strange... but it's actually nice! Even my wife noticed it and asked "what's with the side strap?"

 

[johannielscom]

One day I will have an M5 again. It's sweet piece of work, that camera of yours!

Hope the elbow's getting better day by day!?

 

[SolaresLarrave]

Elbow? What elbow? 😉

Thanks for asking. I'm feeling well and doing better... and I just got the best aspirin there is!

Of course, besides having a very tolerant wife and a son who likes being photographed.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Elbow? What elbow? 😉

Thanks for asking. I'm feeling well and doing better... and I just got the best aspirin there is!

Of course, besides having a very tolerant wife and a son who likes being photographed.[/QUOTE]

Dear Francisco,

Love it!

Whenever I think that I could have done better -- joined the Freemasons in my teens, worked harder at school, gone to Oxford/Cambridge, moved definitively to London in the 80s -- I reflect that everything I have done to date has brought me to where I am today, and things could have gone a LOT worse.

Cheers (and felicitations),

R.

 

[Richard G]

Looks great Francisco. I don't have a recollection of having to learn to restrain myself much with the shutter button. Maybe a soft release is not such a good idea with an M5. I don't know - I've never used a soft release. The side hanging is brilliant for hanging from one shoulder. It doesn't swing about, tucks nicely behind the elbow (sorry to use that word) and the lack of any suspension tackle on the right side if you are lucky / smart enough, as you are, to have only the two lugs, makes for very comfortable shooting. The only disadvantage of the long-ways hanging that I have found is that it is not the camera to take on a bicycle (another word for which I must apologize.) The main mistake I made in the early rolls is a number of shots where I was attending so much to the new metering that I left out the important step of focussing. Missed two good ones that way. Would not have happened with the M2, but I am now on top of it. Have fun.

 

[venchka]

Once you get used to your shooting finger turning the shutter speed dial (and stopping between detents even), you will feel right at home with the M5. Focus and watch the needles and then BAM! Hit the shutter. Great photo. Next?
Get well soon. Got any Kodachrome for the M5?

 

[sepiareverb]

Got any Kodachrome for the M5?

I've retired my M5 from the last few rolls of Kodachrome I've got left, been zipping through HP5+ with it, and loving it even more.

I gave the 2-lug hanging a good try, but never managed to get used to it enough that it wasn't an annoyance. My 5 has the third lug (which Sherry is currently adding to my CL also) so the change was easy. I'd heard so many people rave about the 2-lug hang, but it just didn't work for me.

Sherry does magnificent work on the M5, mine had sat a long time unused before I got it, and she turned it into a glorious machine.

 

[Steven Dooley]

Oh happy day!

 

[venchka]

...
Sherry does magnificent work on the M5, mine had sat a long time unused before I got it, and she turned it into a glorious machine.

Stop it! You will force me to shop for a second body. Again.

 

[wgerrard]

I am jealous.

 

[wgerrard]

Whenever I think that I could have done better -- joined the Freemasons in my teens, worked harder at school, gone to Oxford/Cambridge, moved definitively to London in the 80s -- I reflect that everything I have done to date has brought me to where I am today, and things could have gone a LOT worse.

R.

Wholeheartedly agreed, Roger. As Jim Morrison once sang, the future's uncertain and the end is always near. But, then, to quote Jagger/Richards, if you try sometimes, you just might just find, you get what you need.

Even if you didn't know you needed it.

 

[Nokton48]

Congrats! Now, do you know the secret handshake?
Enjoy M5.

 

[sepiareverb]

Stop it! You will force me to shop for a second body. Again.

No Wayne, you want that Ricoh remember?

 

[capitalK]

Welcome to the club. The instructions for the secret handshake is hidden, on a folded up piece of paper behind the CDS cell.

 

[gb hill]

Receiving a beautiful camera such as an M5 in the mail would make me forget my pains as well....enjoy! And whoever it was that said the M5 was the ugliest of the Leica M's needs glasses IMO.😉

 

[Richard G]

It really is a beautiful camera. Certainly that slab that incorporates the finder windows and the matching brutalist LEICA M5 engraving is a radical departure, but soon the body's slim shape viewed from above, the pandaish black counter dial and black shutter speed selector and rewind crank and baseplate key on the chrome version can be seen to add a pleasing industrial design element, with all of this contrasting with the almost too spare M2 and MP front views, and the surprisingly plump front to back dimensions of the classic M body. The M5 might look with some slight pity on an M2, feeling for M2's smaller size and lack of decorative interest. In the presence of the rest of the later Ms and his predecessor the M5 would look at the canted rewind crank with genuine pity.

 

[SolaresLarrave]

More... The M5 with an Elmarit 28mm (and yes, the entire viewfinder does the trick for the FOV of this lens).

Then, there's the way this camera looks with a pre-Aspherical Summicron 90mm

All shots were taken with my Nikon D700. The last one with a flash (it was too dark).

Bill, it's time to start considering whether you want it in black or silver... And yes, Richard, I wholeheartedly agree with your views on the M5 design.

 

[mgd711]

Congrats! Now, do you know the secret handshake?
Enjoy M5.

or do you know how to tie a bow? 🙂


The M5 looks sweet, happy shooting.