Review 3 of 39
Price Paid:
$1000.00
from City Photographic, S Summary:When I decided to get serious about my photography I bought a Nikon F80 and spent a year taking at least 1 picture a day. I took a lot of photos but there weren't a lot of keepers. It was however immense fun. Then I got a medium format camera, I got a lot more keepers after that, the camera slows you down, and I'm sure I learned a lot in that year with the F80. The MF was too big though, too slow, and too conspicuous. Not as much fun. I needed something between the size and ease of use of the F80 and the pace and quality of the Medium format (Bronica ETRSI).
Enter the Leica M6. Honestly, it was an impulse buy, I only knew of the name Leica, but not much else other than they were up there with Contax. I bought it from a local shop rather than online, I chatted with the previous owner about the camera (the shops owner), Leica lovers are usually nice people I've found. It's like joining a club. If and when you buy a Leica you'll know why..
This quiet, little, solid, beautifully engineered camera changed my photography literally overnight. Taking a picture becomes a personal experience with an M rangefinder. There's not so little action on your part that shooting a frame seems trivial and not so much that you over think the situation. The manual focus slows you down but only to the point that it makes you really identify what you want focus on.. that said it can be faster than any auto focus too when using hyperfocal distances. I really worried about the manual exposure but I beleive that too made me pay more attention to what I needed to do, which needs an answer to another question first.. what do you actually want, what are you seeing, why have you raised the camera. It takes it beyond the impulse to the refinement of the desire which for me has ment better photographs.
So why not a manual SLR? They're not much bigger, they are a lot cheaper! For me it's the rangefinder part, the fact that when you raise the camera to your eye you don't cut out what's going on just outside frame. You can see if there's an object that could be part of the shot, some action about to enter frame, but most of all it makes you feel less behind a camera. We all see pictures before we raise the camera, I find a rangefinder is less of a transition from that initial vision to framing. It's almost like framing with your finders. I've seen whatever picture it is unaided, minus the camera, the lens, when I look through a rangefinder it's no different. To me at least looking through an SLR suddenly changes everything, NOW I am taking a picture. I'm becoming a picture editor before I take the picture! With a rangefinder, there's still that feeling of the natural freedom of seeing something with your own two eyes.
Perhaps these are subtleties some people won't understand, but that doesn't mean they're not valid.
So why not a Voigtlander or a Zeiss Ikon or an M7 or an M3 etc etc.. Well some of those are more expensive (M7), some don't have a light meter (M3 way too manual).. and the others? I can't speak for the Ikon, but I sure wouldn't mind one. My girlfriend on the other hand has a Voigtlander. It's a really nice camera, but weather it's just because I appreciated finely engineered machines.. high quality.. or that I'm a snob!!? I don't know. Go see an M6, pick it up, it's as close to perfect as you can get.. it's beautifully solid, small and very pretty. It's the difference between a Volvo and a Mercedes, Epiphone and Gibson, some of them are differences that are subjective, like shutter noise and handling. Some differences are more pronounced like size, weight, reliability, auto frame switching. Leica is a brand where you get what you pay extra for, some people who can't tell that extra, don't like it, or sometimes who just can't afford it, will love to tell Leica fans they're wasting their money. Sure you don't need one to do rangefinder photography, that's different, but it doesn't mean the systems engineering quality doesn't make the camera feel like it's a limb you've been missing for years. Strengths:Another issue for me was not feeling conspicuous. I don't care if I am actually conspicuous with whatever camera, it's weather I feel conspicuous that makes the difference. The M6 is cures this problem for me.
Size
Weight
Build quality
Handling
Rangefinder
Brand
Simple controls Weaknesses:There are some types of photography I find this camera is not really suitable for, but don't take that as reason not to try them or discount the system:
Macro - Though there is a special adapter
Telephoto - There are some options but no like with SLRS
Sports
The manual focus can be an issue. If there is little light or you have a medium length lens then hyperfocal distance focusing can be difficult if not, just not practical. Similar Products Used:Just before I was introduced to the Leica M6 I found the Contax G2, which was nearly THE camera for me. But the focus was noisy and the viewfinder too small.
Voigtlander Bessa
Contax G2
Leica M3
Leica M8 Customer Service:Never needed it, but I know you can pay extra to have your camera fixed etc within 2 days.. regardless of the extra cost, that's great service and shows how confident these people are about their cameras.
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