Which M Leica?

[kipkeston]

The M rewards and encourages you to go without a meter and use your brain in fast paced situations. It's always been a mystery to my why AE is at all useful.

According to DAG, M6 classics with serials over 2mil have very nice film advances, combined with the MP finder upgrade it's dangerously close to an MP

 

[sepiareverb]

I'd say it will depend on what you're shooting, where, and how good you think you can guess at exposure. I shoot MP's and M7's with an M5 thrown in the mix every now and again. I like a meter, as I've been shown to guess close, but not always close enough to make the printing go easily, and I'd rather have fun printing than have to spend a lot of time on every print making up for mistakes in exposure.

AE is a useful feature at times, but not one you always have to use with the M7, it works perfectly well in manual mode, and is quite a bit quieter than the other M's. The M7 can certainly be the fastest working of the M's when precise exposure matters. I like all three models I use, each brings something different to the shooting. From your description of desires, I'd suggest the M7. It will make the G's sound like chainsaws!

 

[mas]

I recommend the M4. It's the smoothest and has the cleanest viewfinder. It also has modern film loading, unlike the M2 or M3.

Michael

 

[shadowfox]

If you want to use the camera to take pictures, I recommend an M4-P, all the conveniences of M4 but way more affordable.

AE (M7, not M6) is useful in some situations, but you'd get more satisfaction if you produce a killer image without one.

 

[marke]

When I first started looking, I was considering an M7 because I had become so dependable on having AE on my DSLR and thought I would really need it. But when I realized that an M7 would be close to twice the price of an M6 TTL, it was the latter than won over the former. After all, I also wanted a Summicron 35/f2 ASPH, and still had to budget for that.

So I've been shooting the M6 TTL since last spring and have found I never needed the AE. I shoot street, I also lked the pre-M7 models because I still wanted to retain all my shutter speeds in case I ever found myself with a spent battery. And that has happened!

My M6TTL has a 0.58x viewfinder, which works great for me since I wear eyeglasses and often shoot at 35mm. But after purchasing a 1.25x magnifier for the viewfinder, in order to experiement with while shooting a 50mm lens, I realized that a 0.72x maginifier would work even better at that focal length for me. And I had no problems seeing outside the brightlines even with my glasses. So the search began for another M.

I considered the M7 again, since I now had a small investment in glass and could apply more towards the new body than I did with the first M. But again, I had now realized I didn't need the AE, as I had intially thought I would. So, I began to consider an MP. I liked the clean lines, but I esecially liked the simple, mechnical design. I have een discovered that the old style of film rewind knob has been about as fast for me as the newer style folding crank rewind.

So, I've been using the MP for about two weeks now and I've decided that if I ever get around to it, I'll sell my M6 TTL and replace it with another MP. I like it that much. Even though I have an FL-20 flash, I rarely use it and don't see a need for the TTL flash feature of the M6 TTL or M7.

It's hard not to fall in love with an MP. 😀

 

[PATB]

Get an MP and be done with it. Anything else would make you wonder if you got the wrong rangefinder -- costing you more money in the long run. The MP kills Leica/Rangefinder GAS 😀 Well, not exactly, as I am thinking of getting another one as soon as I can get enough cash.