Quiet, rigid Body and exellent optical quality of lenses

Film loading, flaring of viewfinder

Eventhough it is inconvinient to use, M6 delivers far better image quality than other high-tech, advanced AF SLR 35mm camera.

Customer Service

Reasonable

Similar Products Used:

Nikon F1~4, Leica M4, Leica R7

Small (especially the lenses), quiet

Hate the film loading, even after more than 20 rolls of practice. Camera attracts too much unwanted attention. After paying for the camera, I could barely afford one used lens.

Nice camera, WAY over-rated, WAY over-priced. I've heard all the rationalizations about how this camera is worth what it costs. Baloney! It's a great specialty camera, not a general prupose camera.

Leica is resting on 50 year old laurels- "Tradition, legendary blah blah blah". Read the brochure on the M Campaign and get nauseous.

When the Nikon F was introduced in 1959, the Leica M was dropped like a hot tomale. Great optics, but not necessary for hand-held work, which is what this camera is designed for....

Save the money- get an FM2n or even cheaper, a Canonet QL17. Spend the difference on film (do you want to collect cameras or photographs???).

Customer Service

As over-priced as the camera

Similar Products Used:

Nikon FM2n (my current camera), Contax G2, Leica CL, Leica M4-P

This is THE camera for available light. Fast lenses and bright viewfinder. Use an SLR for sports but I prefer holding and using this camera for most everything else.

Since you can buy used body and lenses the lack of depreciation makes this a less expensive camera than some think. I have had to check the shutter speed twice in the 12 years I've shot with M6's.

Shoot about 20 rolls to get used to loading film.
The new TTL flash makes sense but I prefer available light. If you want flash use a Cannon E-3 or Nikon F-5. When will Leica bring back a 16mm lens? My rating reflects lack of depreciation and the fact that If I could just one camera instead of the 15 I do have, I'd have this one.

Customer Service

Excellent, thankfully

Similar Products Used:

Contax G1-2 very nice but viewfinder is not as good.
nothing else similar
SLR system is EOS

The build of the camera ,the very good lenses, relative compactness ,intiuative operating and of course the Leica feel

Overrated ,overpriced ,metering system ,film loading etc.

Yes it's a Leica and yes the lenses are very good and yes it's a status symbol ,but it isn't any better then a pro Nikon ,Canon ,Contax ,that offer the same and a lot more for the same or cheaper pricing. I think that M6 users are compensating the extraordinary price they've paid by overexagerating the camera and the lenses ,prime Nikkors or Canons or Zeiss easily equal and even better Leica lenses in contrast ,colour reproduction ,sharpness and distortion. Besides that my F3 isn't that much bigger and gives 100% view and the same quality feel to it and perhaps even 100+ usuable very high quality lenses and dof and many other features. Just look at an Olympus MJU-II a very good AF 35/2.8 Spot metering ,motordriven ,fill in flash ,1/4 size of the M6 $100,- compact camera and you can't help but wonder that altough these two cameras can not be compared ,a great and famous company like Leica should be able to build a system Rangefinder that's more of this century ,with all of it's pro's and none of it's contra's with the same undoubtfull quality their camera's do have ,for a more realistic price.
But I guess that the purist who buy Leica's M don't want to hear about changes (Needed after 50 years!) that would improve the camera into a more versatile workhorse camera like it was originally intended to be.

Customer Service

No Experience

Similar Products Used:

F1-F5 ,m2,r3,Eos5,3

Built like a tank, outstanding optics and coatings (can't be matched for warmth by the Japanese or Ziess), compact outfit, rangefinder viewing, mechanical camera, feels right in my hands.

Holy deneros!!!!!!!!!!!!!! PRICE PRICE PRICE. To own one either your rich and married or like me, normal and single (THIS IS NOT A JOKE!!!!!), battery for meter very short lived.

I have owned the Leica M6 TTL and Tri-Elmar combination for several months now and I enjoy the "back to the basics" approach of the rangefinder camera. I was never one for the auto everything SLRs since I plan to one day take this camera outfit to Antarctica where temperatures can vary by 40 degrees celsius during the day. Kinda regret buying the Tri-Elmar over the 35/2 but it was a rational decision as you get 3 focal lengths in one and the Leica "Boke" rendering effect for out of focus subjects (although F2 lens would give me more creative control of isolating the subject). The Tri-Elmar compares favorably with the previous generation Summicron lenses but falls a little short of the awesome sharpness of the new 32/2 Asph and 50/2 Summicron. My next lens will be the legendary 75/1.4... like the balance and the fact that it is a fast lens of medium focal length (75 frame in 0.72x finder is the limit of what I would work with... 90 frame just too small for effective framing and focusing).

I also own the SF 20 flash and let me tell you this... the M6 is NOT a flash camera. Stick to available light and you won't be disappointed. I find myself using the SF 20 in manual more than TTL mode and who can blame me? What kind of creative portraiture has the subject dead center? The TTL mode is only good for snap shots. With a flash synch speed of 1/50 you are also limited in your abilities to do daylight fill flash so stick to ambient.

Overall, I like the camera and can see myself keeping it for a long time with the odd lens addition (hope to own the 21/2.8, 35/2, 75/1.4 someday as a core outfit). Something to do in 35mm while the majority of my stuff is with 6x6 Hasselblad.

Customer Service

Great. Got a new body when my meter went kaputz.

Similar Products Used:

Nikon F2, Contax RTS3, Nikon FM2, Pentax K-100

Lenses
Strenght
Lenses
Quiet
Lenses

Loading
Price

The best at what it's meant for. Low light, unobtrusive shooting. I have shot rolls of film within small confines without the subject knowing I was photographing them. With a motor driven SLR (noisey and big) I would have gotten off maybe a couple of shots.
And to the people that say it's old and outdated......they'd probably rather drive an Acura then a classic Alfa Romeo. Their loss!!!

Customer Service

Excellent

Similar Products Used:

Contax G (1&2)
Original Hexar
Leica IIIg

lens quality, physical strength, battery-free operation, obsolescence-free design, silence, reliability, plus all the advantages common to all viewfinder designs.

Price, operation speed, weight, price, and price.

For the record, I've been a Leica-watcher for almost 30 years. I finally figured out what the rangefinder fuss was all about and am hooked. I bought the other guy (Contax G2) for my own needs, but I love and respect the "L" camera. I just wanted to share an objective outside opinion for those considering the M6.

First the strong points: This camera really is strong. The body is ONE PIECE of metal (except for the swing-open back hatch), not a front-and-back clamshell like most 35s. The M6 is essentially a 1954 Leica M3 with a meter and rewind crank added and a different finder. It is very old-fashioned, but also very resistant to obsolesence - you can get parts now for an M3, and 40 years from now you will probably be able to get parts for today's M6. (Who knows if my G2's ROM chips will still be available even 15 years from now?) The M6 also does not require a battery to take pictures, just to meter. Its shutter is one of the most reliable made, good for a half-million exposures or so. It is also the quietest shutter in an interchangeable-lens 35mm camera (some leaf shutters may beat it.)

I tested some recent but pre-ASPHeric Leica lenses against my Contax G lenses (21,35,90) The Zeiss glass won, especially in the corners. HOWEVER, it was very close, and the new ASPH and APO Leica lenses are supposedly big improvements and almost certainly now equal (or beat) my Zeisses. This means that there are NO lenses sharper than Leica's in the range 21mm-90mm. Period. No quibbles, no hedges. If you can't see the difference, you aren't making prints bigger than 4x6.

There are a few Leica myths to be addressed. The Leica M6 is not particularly lightweight. Yes, compared to an F5 or other full-pro SLR, but not compared to a G2, G1, Nikon FM2, Contax Aria, OM-3, etc. etc. A Nikon FM2 with 20, 28, 35 and 85 metal manual-focus lenses weighs less than an M6 with the equivalent length/speed lenses, by close to 500g. The M6 isn't all THAT heavy, it's just not mythologically light. Yes, I know, Leica fans. The weight is a result of that bullet-proof shell and battery-free clockwork - and worth it - but it has to be acknowledged.

It also isn't especially fast in operation, used "straight". If you raise it to your eye, read the meter, align the split image, and press the shutter, it is substantially slower than my G2 with autoexposure and autofocus. HOWEVER, if you pre-set the focus and exposure, as in street photography, and then whip the camera up and shoot, it is much faster than any AF SLR in auto mode(s) and will beat my G2 by close to a second unless I do the same pre-setting, in which case the Leica still wins, but by a tiny interval. Again, the M6 is as fast as it can be and still be
motor and battery-free.

Price is an issue with Leicas, but there isn't much Leica can do about it, except hope the Euro stays down a while - they are charging what it costs to hand-machine glass and metal into an optical device, not snapping plastic modules together with robots.

I love rangefinder photography, and I love the light weight and features of my G2, but the Leica will always be in the background, whispering "Suppose you get stuck in the outback for 6 months with no batteries? Suppose you go to the artic circle and everything freezes up at 26 below? Suppose they quit making DSR238 ROM chips to fit the G2 AF module?" Two, five, ten years from now, maybe I'll have to listen to that whisper.

Customer Service

never used

Similar Products Used:

Contax G, Voightlander Bessa-L

Quality, superb lenses.

price of lenses.

Having heard about the Leica rangefinder and wanting one for many years I finally took the plunge. I wasn't too sure whether to go with the pre TTL M6 model or the latest version. After reading the various reviews and test reports on the net I decided to try and get a pre TTL M6 0.85x model. A few older M6 0.72x models for sale however I could not find a 0.85x version new or even second hand, therefore I bought the current M6 TTL 0.85x model. While it doesn't in my eyes look quite as nice as the slightly lower profile 'classic' M6 I can't tell any differnce in handling the two. Logically an increase in height of a mere 2 mm on the TTL model shouldn't make much difference anyway. The metering on the new model is more sensitive than the previous model and of course it's got the TTL flash capibility (which I don't need). However the speed dial is larger and turns in a more logical direction. My choice to go with the 0.85x viewfinder was based on the need to use the longer 90 mm lens, also the 50 mm lens gives a larger frame to work from. The focussing accuracy of the 0.85x version is excellent with the 50 mm and longer lenses. If I wore glasses I would stick to the standard 0.72x viewfinder because you would have trouble seeing the 35 mm frame and the 50 mm frame would just about fill the viewfinder on the 0.85x version. Having spent many thousands of dollars on the M6 system I've got ask myself was it worth it. The answer is yes; absolutely worth every penny. To me there is something in the handling and feel, the incomparable solid build quality, and the beautiful lightweight superb lenses of the Leica M series that nothing else comes close too as well as the quite shutter release. Bare in mind that here in New Zealand Leica equipment is twice the price of what it costs in the US because of the strong $US as opposed to our dollar. Therefore if you live in the states and have thought about getting into the M6 system, now's as good a time as any while your dollar is at almost a record high against the German mark.

Similar Products Used:

Various SLR's

Mechanical,reliable,excellent lenses

difficult to use for moving objects

I 've always wanted one,especially for the lenses because I like to blow up my best shots.Find it hard though to focus very quickly,especialy against a lightsource.I only have it a few months and I suppose I have to get more used to it,I give it a little more time.On the other hand the focussing is very accurate,and the results are pin-sharp.I think it's an excellent camera to have aside a SLR,which I prefer for most work.

Customer Service

not used yet

Similar Products Used:

Nikon F,F2,F4,F5

Descreet, fast, fits my hands, good lenses and most important, hasn´t got a lot of bells and whistles to disturb me when i´m shooting.

Pricy... but what isn´t in todays "maximum yen value" times?

Smooth and direct shoting, and it doesen´t think up all thoose little suprises modern "auto-everything" cameras do. Don´t belive the hype though, dishing up a lot of money for a Leica M6 is not a fail-safe way to get better pictures. But if you need a descreet camera, who allways does what you ask of it, you´ll be satisfied indeed!

Similar Products Used:

Contax G2