The Heavenly Leica M5…

[Retro-Grouch]

I recently picked up an early production chrome M5 locally through my used camera pusher at Burlington Camera west of Toronto and shot a test roll of Kodak Tri-X. I'm really happy with the results with the drying negatives. I can see why my brother loves his.

In a normal family, you'd beat up your brother and take his Leica. Oh, sorry, you're Canadian... 😉

 

[chuckroast]

In a normal family, you'd beat up your brother and take his Leica. Oh, sorry, you're Canadian... 😉

That is slanderous. You beat up your brother, steal his Leica and then apologise. This is considered kosher.

 

[Slumgullion]

That is slanderous. You beat up your brother, steal his Leica and then apologise. This is considered kosher.

This feels spot-on. When I visited Winnipeg a few years back I chuckled when seeing the city buses had a sign that read: "Sorry, Out of Service" (you also have to say "soorry" in Canadian). Even the buses were wonderfully and unnecessarily polite.

 

[Slumgullion]

JHF07674-Edit by Jim Fischer, on Flickr

JHF07681-Edit by Jim Fischer, on Flickr

The M5 is such a wonderful camera. The use of frame lines to denote the metering spot is so brilliant/efficient. I don't think that point is shouted enough. As a result, you have the most accurate and usable meter of any film M. My Nikon F6 certainly has a more advanced metering system...but sometimes it still gets 'tricked.' With the M5, if the exposure is wrong, it's because I was a dummy.

 

[chuckroast]

JHF07674-Edit by Jim Fischer, on Flickr

JHF07681-Edit by Jim Fischer, on Flickr

The M5 is such a wonderful camera. The use of frame lines to denote the metering spot is so brilliant/efficient. I don't think that point is shouted enough. As a result, you have the most accurate and usable meter of any film M. My Nikon F6 certainly has a more advanced metering system...but sometimes it still gets 'tricked.' With the M5, if the exposure is wrong, it's because I was a dummy.

I've had a IIIf forever but an LTM collapsible 'Cron became available to me early last year. "So", sez me, "I always wanted to try an M body", so I bought an M2 with an adapter for that lens. This led to all manner of retail therapy involving Leica lenses and accessories for the M2. In fairness I got a really good deal on the M2, but ...

From the day it was announced, I always wanted an M5. Teenage me thought they looked really cool and and, Leica like Hasselblad, of course, would make me a better photographer. So, when a 50 Jahre "Jubilee" black M5 came up later last year, I bought it. And I love the thing, especially now that DAG has overhauled it. It is a very different experience than the other Ms but all of the M5 hate is simply not justified. It's a superb instrument. As you say, aside from modern matrix meters, it's probably the most sophisticated meter ever mounted on a film body, easily blowing away things like the Nikon Photomic FtN head or the F3 meter.

Later still last year, I fulfilled another bit of Leica lust getting a mint M4 just overhauled by Sherry Krauter. So that should be it - hahhahahahahahaa - silly of me, I know.

Each of these cameras has their own vibe but each of them, from the IIIf through the M5 works really well. Remarkable considering these 4 bodies span the early 1950s through middle 1970s. The IIIf is clumsier to use, but I took it and a couple of Color-Skopars to Europe this year for some film street shooting. It was a joy to use.

And no, I don't have a GAS problem, thanks for asking. I am NOT hoarding Ms, I am .... what's the word ... INVESTING in them. But like I said, I think I am done .... I mean, who needs an IIIg, M3, M4-2, M4-P, M6TTL, M-A, or MP? Certainly not me, no, no, no ...

 

[Coldkennels]

I've had a IIIf forever but an LTM collapsible 'Cron became available to me early last year.

And no, I don't have a GAS problem, thanks for asking. I am NOT hoarding Ms, I am .... what's the word ... INVESTING in them. But like I said, I think I am done .... I mean, who needs an IIIg, M3, M4-2, M4-P, M6TTL, M-A, or MP? Certainly not me, no, no, no ...

...if you have an LTM collapsible Summicron, you need a IIIg.

There's no conversation to be had here. You just do.

 

[chuckroast]

...if you have an LTM collapsible Summicron, you need a IIIg.

There's no conversation to be had here. You just do.

Actually, I sold that lens because I prefer the look of the newer Color-Skopars to that generation 'Cron.

 

[JSteed#2]

Has anyone ever concluded that the M5 body was somehow based on the Leicaflex as a sort of template?

 

[chuckroast]

Has anyone ever concluded that the M5 body was somehow based on the Leicaflex as a sort of template?

I can find no evidence of this. Do you know of something that suggests this?

 

[JSteed#2]

I have no evidence either. I just saw a family resemblance in shape (love the 'flex shape because i have large hands).

 

[JSteed#2]

 

[JSteed#2]

see the prototype pictured above

 

[Richard G]

I thought my 2010 Kodak MR9 battery that came with my M5 from DAG, serviced and converted to 1.5v, was flat. Nope. Just needed to clean the battery contact which had become dirty from sitting unused for a few years. I now have the firm leather ever ready case for it and I have been out with it the last couple of weeks. I have a good Varta battery in an old Gossen meter which must be over twenty years old, maybe thirty. I have some spares now for the M5, not a good brand. Might never get to use them.

I am really enjoying the very clever metering set up. Sometimes with the M6 you don't know where you are with exposure with a half lit red triangle and confusion about what the shutter dial is set on and the ISO and pfaffing around and missing the shot. Of course the M6 meter is brilliant and I love using it.

The M5 gives you the shutter speed setting in the VF, and you can change it while still looking there, thanks to the M2 frame counter style shutter speed setting dial overhanging the top plate.

Up the left end of the metering panel is the smaller aperture you've set and up the right end the more open aperture. The aperture setting bar for metering is a back-slash and the shutter speed metering dial is an inverse needle swinging left as a forward slash and right more to backslash.

Beyond all those advantages, you see where you are in terms of the current setting and the correct metering for a good exposure. You're either near enough, a bit overexposed and you have black and white or colour negative so take the shot and forget about adjustment, or you have an analogue in-viewfinder indication that you are way off and have to adjust. And there is certainty about what to adjust eg not shutter speed slower than 1/60s or you'll have movement blurring the picture you're rushing, or not opening the aperture because you want shallow depth of field and so increase the speed further. And of course, like the M6 with a meter, you can still shoot manual sunny 16 and the meter just gives you an indication.

It really has been a pleasure to return to this camera.

 

[Richard G]

Earlier there was discussion of the practicality of the two lug M5. I used mine every day for months at a time with an Arist and Artisan strap over the left shoulder, but more often with the strap around my left wrist. Usually I have the camera strap around my right wrist. I liked the complete contract of the right hand on the camera when lifting it my eye. I also liked how steadily the camera hangs when vertical over the shoulder. It doesn't swing like cameras slung horizontal. But around the neck I've never tried, and it would be a nuisance. Recently I turned my two lug into a 3 lug equivalent with the solid leather ever ready case Nr 14544 I never knew about. I see now it's in my 1978 Leica catalogue the medical photography department gave me back in 1980. Saw one on eBay which was for a different camera with a central tripod bush, but that kept me looking to find the one I have. The leather strap is in excellent condition too. The top cover doesn't unsnap, but I spent several years with a leather case of the M2 and got used to this.

 

[Richard G]

Currently I have the 35 C Biogon on this camera, and its hood, and the case closes over it fine.