Purchase difficulty / M6 vs Ikon

As many have already pointed out, the question is "to AE or not to AE."

I have two ZI's so I have biased opinion. I will shoot them for as long as 35mm film is available (Isn't Freestyle great?).

One thing to keep in mind -- the ZI needs a battery; no battery, no ZI. Batteries are cheap and easy to find , and they last a LONG TIME in a ZI, so it should be a non-issue, but if you change bags quite a bit, just make sure to toss a couple of extra batteries in each bag you own.
 
I had the same problem, and my "solution" was to buy both, and I still have both and love to use both, but when I had to decide what to take for my trip to Italy this year, I took the ZI and a Leica CLE as a backup.
The ZI is faster to use with the AE but is as easy to use in manual mode as the M6, weights less but is heavy enough to be stable, has the perfect finder, faster shutter speed (I'm using Fujichrome 200, and there's an incredible amount of light over here; I'm at f11 at 250 or faster all the time; I really should use a slower film), nearly as quiet as the M6 (the character of the sound is different, a little bit more "metallic", not really louder, but the M6 does sound more dampened), ...

Well, I'm here in Italy now, and I did not miss the M6 yet (although it would look better on the terras table 😉), but I think that if I had taken the M6 and not the ZI, I might (not sure) have missed the AE for quick shooting.





Stefan.
 
Both great choices, what a wonderful "problem" to have.😀
I'm very happy with my ZI but I can't compare as I haven't tried the M6. I don't live in a place where I could find a good condition M6 for a reasonable price and I wouldn't spend that much over an internet store or auction site. I wear glasses, use the 35 mm FL a lot, and use the AE almost all of the time. I like the +/-2 stop exposure comp in 1/3 stops on the ZI. I'm not a big fan of how it displays the film speeds down the left side but manual mode is there if you need it.
 
gliderbee said:
I had the same problem, and my "solution" was to buy both, and I still have both and love to use both, but when I had to decide what to take for my trip to Italy this year, I took the ZI and a Leica CLE as a backup.
The ZI is faster to use with the AE but is as easy to use in manual mode as the M6, weights less but is heavy enough to be stable, has the perfect finder, faster shutter speed (I'm using Fujichrome 200, and there's an incredible amount of light over here; I'm at f11 at 250 or faster all the time; I really should use a slower film), nearly as quiet as the M6 (the character of the sound is different, a little bit more "metallic", not really louder, but the M6 does sound more dampened), ...

Well, I'm here in Italy now, and I did not miss the M6 yet (although it would look better on the terras table 😉), but I think that if I had taken the M6 and not the ZI, I might (not sure) have missed the AE for quick shooting.





Stefan.
Click to expand...

OT but buy a cheap ND filter
 
Ahh.. one last point. The M6TTL LEDs are bright, located in an easy to see position, change in the direction of the aperture ring motion. The Ikon has dim LEDs way off to the side where, when wearing glasses, I have a real difficulty seeing the shutter speed and in bright light...good luck.

Funny, I'm sitting here for so long, reading this thread, because I'm boxing up both Ikons to send in to Richard for rangefinder adjustments.. Hey, rangefinders go out and it is still under warranty. My M6TTL repairs were on my own dime.
 
bwcolor said:
I haven't had a contrast problem with the Ikon, but it absolutely requires that your eye remain centered to get a good view of the split image. The M6/M3/M4 .. don't have any others.. keep the patch split image when the eye is decentered.
Click to expand...

This is the key point IMO. My experience has been that with one's eye centered, the Zeiss Ikon focus patch has just as much contrast as any Leica I've owned/tried.

The Zeiss Ikon eyepiece is much larger, so your eye can easily drift off centre. The Leica eyepiece is smaller so "forces" you to keep your eye centred. With a little practice, centering your eye on the ZI becomes second nature.

On the ZI, the AE is nice, and the 1/2000 top shutter speed and metal shutter curtains (no need to worry about burning a hole in them 😉) are the icing on the cake.

But, if you've got Leica lust, nothing else will do 😀

zm-m7-viewfinder.jpg
 
since you've already seen the zeiss ikon at freestyle, go to samy's and look at an m6.

you have to center your eye in the viewfinder whether or not it's a leica. i don't buy the argument that the leica rf patch is "less sensitive" to eye position, either. it vignettes and the secondary image shifts like everything else. this only happens when i purposefully move my eye off-axis. in practice, muscle memory takes care of everything. it's just one of those small (yet significant) differences that only matter in online discussions!
 
Thank you everyone so much!! The amount of info has been amazing to say the least. The side by side comparison of viewfinder size was very cool. Definitely puts that aspect into perspective. I do have Leica lust from time to time, but I'm more of a practical equipment kind of guy. Ikon body with Leica glass, or Zeiss glass, Voigt glass...what ever will get the picture to look good and get me my favorite compliment ever "Eddie, vacation pictures aren't supposed to look like that!"
I think I will visit Samy's to check out the M6, but I think the Ikon might find itself riding next to a few new friends across the northern Midwest.
 
Through. Quite some cameras have this problem (a.o. the Bessas). What I do in this situation is covering the viewfinder part where the diodes are with my left index finger (either horizontal or vertical, depending on the camera). Works perfectly to have that part darkened and with enough contract to seen the shutterspeed.

Stefan.

bwcolor said:
Ahh.. one last point. The M6TTL LEDs are bright, located in an easy to see position, change in the direction of the aperture ring motion. The Ikon has dim LEDs way off to the side where, when wearing glasses, I have a real difficulty seeing the shutter speed and in bright light...good luck.
Click to expand...
 
I think the Ikon is a marvelous camera. If it'll be your primary/only 35mm RF, and you plan to shoot it casually, the Ikon is the way to go. If you get a Leica, the one i'd reccomend is a M2. M6 is a manual camera, so operation will be barely faster than a meterless M2.... the M2 is a "real" Leica, with the awesome build quality and great feel of a 50+ year old camera.
 
Hello World!
I wanted to thank everyone for their input and help with this very tough choice. After weeks (maybe months?) of researching and investigating I went ahead and ordered an Ikon. Almost went with the M6ttl, but in the end the Ikon just seemed to win out over the Leica. As far as glass I got the 50mm Sonnar 1.5 and an Elmarit 90mm 2.8. Should be coming in sometime this week so it will be test roll madness this weekend in LA and surrounding areas. I'm excited. I think once I get back from vacation I will be sending it to camera leather to personalize it 🙂
 
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