Would owners of THE LEICA M6 CAMERA who mainly do Black& White photography please give me some feed back regarding their likes& dislikes of this classic camera and their main reason for buying this camera.

-- colin walke (colwalke@shoal.net.au), December 03, 1999

Answers

The M6 is the best Leica ever made, and your negatives will be exquisite. The viewfinder frameline only shows about 81% of the actual image at normal working distances. The new rubberized covering is actually some kind of slick plastic, unlike the wonderful old sticky 'Vulcanite' used since 1925. The rangefinder now requires very careful centering of the eyeball to focus. These are all downgrades from the M2/3/&4. It's great to fondle, but I prefer an M3 or M4 for actual picture taking. Adding a detachable handle helps, and I like to use an Imarect finder for 100% framing. If you use filters, you won't be able to directly see their effect until you get the negatives back. However, if you believe that using a Leica will improve your pictures, then it will. If you have any doubts, save your money.

-- Bill Mitchell (bmitch@home.com), December 03, 1999.

I used an M6 for several years. I returned to using my FM2n several years ago. IN MY OPINION (which is in no way an attack on others' opinions) the Leica is a great SPECIALTY camera. It's designed for quiet, unobtrusive work. If you're hired by the White House, buy a Leica. If you're hired as a court photographer, buy a Leica. Otherwise I find it too limiting.

The FM2n is the closest production SLR version of the M6. The main "disadvantages" of the FM2n (and many SLRs in general) are easily remedied. Continuous viewing is of mainly psychological benefit since you still have to anticipate the moment. You can still view continuously with mid-range lenses on the FM2- after composing the shot just keep both eyes open.

As far as the shutter decibels, I've already addressed that point above. The FM2n viewfinder is very bright, particularly with fast lenses +/- a Beattie intense-screen and focusing is quick with only a very little bit of practice. Plus the FM2n allows assessment of depth of field and polarizing filtration. There's no need to worry about parallax comepnsation at close distances with the FM2n. The film is much easier to load into the FM2n. You should definitely try loading a roll of film into the M6 before spending over $2K on the M system.

The FM2n is very compact, although not as small as the M6 and the FM2n body weighs a bit less than the M6. Leitz lenses are among the best, but are you planning on keeping this small RF M6 permanently attached to a tripod? Most hand-held shots negate the benefit of supreme micro-optics, at least when comparing Leitz to Nikkor.

My advice would be to save the extra money for film and processing expenses, unless you have a very specific job for which you require virtual silence from your camera.

-- Asher Schachter (schachter@a1.tch.harvard.edu), December 05, 1999.

Visit George Lauterstein's web site...he and his wife cheryl use Leica M cameras exclusively in b/w...though not M6's...e-mail him. He is very kind and most willing to communicate.

http://www.flash.net/~leicam2/index.htm

-- Todd Frederick (fredrick@hotcity.com), December 05, 1999.

> The rangefinder now requires very careful centering of the eyeball to focus.

Where do I go to get my eyeball centered?

(sorry, couldn't resist.)

Seriously, what exactly do you mean? Having only spent a few seconds of my life peering through an M6 viewfinder I'm not sure I understand.

-- Mark Wilkins (mark_wilkins@yahoo.com), December 11, 1999.

When using an early M series Leica, one could casually look through the viewfinder window and easily focus the rangefinder. In the M4-P and M6 it is necessary for the pupil of the eye to be quite exactly centered behind the viewfinder window for the secondary rangefinder image to be seen. This may seem like nit picking, but it's a little bit irritating; in reality it may significantly decrease the speed/ease/pleasure of rangefinder focus, which is one of the reasons for using a Leica in the first place.

-- Bill Mitchell (bmitch@home.com), December 11, 1999.

Asher Schachter said "...but are you planning on keeping this small RF M6 permanently attached to a tripod? Most hand-held shots negate the benefit of supreme micro-optics, at least when comparing Leitz to Nikkor."

My impression is that very few Leica M photographers use tripods. Although, while using a tripod goes a long way toward "sharper" photography, this in no way means that hand-held shots negate the benefits of "supremem mcro-optics." If sharpness was the only factor, then this would probably be so. Sharpness is only one factor out of many, including tonal and color rendition.

Comparing Leitz/Leica to Nikkor (or Canon, Zeiss, Minolta, Pentax) is not really comparing lens "sharpness" so much as lens "character." They are different, and the lack of a tripod will not necessarily hide this difference.

-- Tony Rowlett (rowlett@alaska.net), December 13, 1999.

Tony- I agree that most M6 users don't use a tripod, myself included. I was simply trying to make the point that all these silly lens tests that rate lenses on "MTF" differences are performed with the camera secure (i.e. not hand-held) and have absolutely nothing to do with what really matters when it comes to choosing a lens- like character, bokeh etc. The important lens characteristics can't be quantified numerically. Yet, many Leica photographers like to boast about the superior quality of their lenses when in fact it's really something subjective to which they're referring.

-- Asher Schachter (schachter@a1.tch.harvard.edu), December 14, 1999.

If you have no objection to electronic cameras, take a look at the Contax G2. I use two bodies when working: 28mm and 45mm focal length lenses. There are whole list of pros and no cons (in my opinion).

In seven months of use and many thousands of miles of travel I never had a failure. I can replace the battery in less than 30 seconds. Shutter and winder noise is only noticed by the photographer in the quietest settings. Focusing is extremely fast; One reason for buying the cameras was for photographing fast moving children. Lenses are as sharp and have better contrast than any Leica lens (subjective observation). G2s are half the price of Leicas.

Check it out.

-- Mark Carpenter (mcarpenter@dodi.com), January 21, 2000.

I bought my M6 out of curiosity. I had to gain first hand knowledge of what this big deal is. Two years later after an array of M lenses I finally settled on an R8 system because of the versatility of the SLR. The M6 with a 35mm or 50mm lens to me is an important supplement and not a replacement to an SLR system. For black & white I prefer the look of older Leitz screw mount lenses such as the Elmars. And they are cheap!

-- ray tai (razerx@netvigator.com), January 23, 2000.

The Leica rangefinder is a superb camera for people photography. As far as B&W is concerned the lenses create beautiful out of focus highlights at their widest openings and are generally razor sharp wide open too which is more than can be said for most Nikon, Canon etc. lenses. Stopped down to f5.6 onwards you would be hard pressed to tell the difference between most marques.

I rarely use my Leica M6 for anything other than B&W work. I love it's precision and solid compact feel. After using a Nikon F2-AS for twenty years I find that I far more enjoy using the Leica. I regret selling my F2-AS only because of the prices they are now fetching on ebay.

If you like sports, widlife telephoto shots and macro work forget about the Leica M. However if you want to take beautiful candids and other people shots especially in B&W then the Leica M system is a step in the right direction.

-- george kilmer (gkilmer@dreamscape.com), January 02, 2001.