Seems that I dont have to answer after all! The M2 elicits this type of respone. If you are a rangefinder user. more often than not - the 35 becomes the preferred focal length. I started off with a M3 and a 50f2 in 1957 and though I liked the camera, I always felt that there was a bit of tunnel vision with the 50m. Soon after I got my hands on a M2 with a 35/2 (i think it was either 58 or 59) and I have really never overcome that feeling of finding something that fits my way of working.
Once, working for a newspaper we were sitting around in the "dungeon" - a.k.a. the photographers den. As per usual the discussion ranged from which pub was giving out free beer to the press and comments on various receptionists at the paper to equipment and film. Charlie, a grizzled veteran of press photography (it was rumoured that he actually chewed on the used flash bulbs from his Speed Graphic flash!) pontificated " All right, if you want to be comfortable, carry a M2 with a 35 and possibly a 90. If you want to be really comfortable, carry two M2's with a 35 on one, the 90 on the other and possibly a 50 in your pocket" (He wasen't much of a wide angle man - having started with Speed Graphics). He then added " if you need more stuff - go and work for some other paper".
Somehow I still think that formula works (although I would add a 21 to the kit). Everything else is really marketing by manufacturers and imposed "need". Some Tri X, the two M2's and the 21/35/50/90 should be able to do it all. I might even forego the 90 and take a step or two closer!
Of course with todays dazzling displays of screens, buttons, batteries , pixels and gigabytes, the M2 is a relic from the past. BUT they are all getting on in age, 40 at the minimum and they still keep clicking away. The manual (I have actually seen one) is about 12 pages, most of which is Leitz trying to flog straps/cases and meters. Once you got the hang of it, you can reload in 15-20 seconds. The batteries never die and fluctuating temperatures rarely affect the performance. So the 1/1000 is probably only 1/750 and if you drop that spool when reloading (and watch it roll into a street drain) you are up the creek without a paddle. Unless you carry "the spare spool", known as gaffers tape!
In short, when you take a picture with a M2 (M3/M4 etc for that matter) - you took the picture (warts and all). You did not command a computer to perform a multi task operation. resulting in an image consisting of 0's and 1's in a chip and on a sensor!
IF the picture is great, you can take full credit (some should go to the M2 and the film manufacturer, but it was mostly your doing). If you screwed up, you can actually figure out why. With digital or complex modern film camera, who knows what went wrong!
The simplicity of the M2 and a 35 forces you to actually think about things like light, angles of view, focus variables etc, and I am convinced that this will make me a better photographer.
