Further to an earlier post on tripods and heads for the M6. I got lucky and found an excellent Cambo CBH3 centre ball head for A$33 (US$16.50)! The mounting plate diameter 2.25" (57mm) is considerably larger than that of the Leica ball head and therefore even more secure.

Question: Is the M6's offset mounting position really strong enough?

I know adaptors can be made or grips purchased but is this really necessary? I'd rather keep things minimal. I realise the camera looks vulnerable when mounted at one end but lets assume reasonable care is taken.

What say you good people?

-- Tim Gee (twg@optushome.com.au), February 11, 2002

Answers

Tim;

There are reasons for the M cameras having swinging backs and different film loading techniques: this is one of them. One purpose of the swinging back is to allow a continuous round- cornered rectangle of a body which is very strong. When you put the bottom plate on it, the resultant camera body is even stronger.

As long as you do not hang stuff off the camera strap away from the mount, there should be no problem; at least I have had none with 3 M3s and 2 M6s. Less is OK if not more.

Cheers

-- RICHARD ILOMAKI (richard.ilomaki@hotmail.com), February 11, 2002.

Do you plan on putting the camera on the tripod for use as a step-ladder? Just curious.

-- Tom Nutter (tmnphotos@erols.com), February 11, 2002.

Tim. All Leica M cameras (and all Leica SM cameras before that) have left sided tripod mounting. Since the longest M focal length is 135mm and the heaviest M lens is some 600 gm or so, there should be no problem. In the days when Leica made bigger M lenses (eg., the old 90/2 Summicron, which was 685 gm), they provided tripod bushings on these lenses. Leica also made bigger, longer lenses for Visoflex (the mirror reflex housing that converted an M or SM camera into a reflex camera).

For that purpose, there was a separate tripod bushing on the visoflex itself and on many of the longer lenses, to provide more strength and better balance. But you don't have to worry about that with any of the current M lenses.

As far as I'm aware, the only problem you will find using an M Leica on a tripod is that there is usually a circular ring left around the tripod mounting socket.

-- Eliot (erosen@lij.edu), February 11, 2002.

I have had tripods blow over in the wind, with the camera (M6) hitting the concrete. It wasn't the basplate that needed repairing! But since getting older, and more careful, I have avoided the circular marks on the baseplate from a simple ball head mount, by going over to a quick release tripod head. They don't require the mounting plate to rotate against the camera base, at least on the Manfrotto type.

-- Steve Barnett (barnet@globalnet.co.uk), February 11, 2002.

It has always seemed more than strong enough to me, I cannot see what difference it make if a camera mounts in the middle or side of the plate.

On the M baseplate that is the only position the mount can go - there is no depth available in the centre of the plate so the mounting hole must utilise the 'film basket' fitting in the film take up spool cavity.

It is another example of very clever Leica design, and being so close to the end of the bodyshell provides a stiff, secure mounting.

-- Giles Poilu (giles@monpoilu.icom43.net), February 11, 2002.

Strong enough - yes.

The only real disadvantage to the extremely off-center mount is that the camera or the tripod arms may jam into part of the tripod when rotated for vertical shots (even with Leica's 'own' tripods and ball heads) - and that composition changes more when the center of rotation is far away from the centerline of the lens.

It's also a pain to change film when using a tripod - but that has to do with bottom-loading and not the socket location per se.

-- Andy Piper (apidens@denver.infi.net), February 11, 2002.

Interesting how an obvious design compromise becomes a virtue. This is the way we argue in the software business ;-)
The Leica M was clearly not designed to be used w. a tripod: You have to un-mount the camera to change film. The ideal mount point -balance wise- would be in line with the lens, which is not possible due to the way the camera is constructed. Furthermore in a recent thread someone did report of some flexing of the bottom plate, making the use of a tripod questionable.
My M has a firm mounting base plate, and I wouldn't hesitate to use a tripod if the situation called for it, but the M series is definitely not designed a "tripod camera" -a bit ironic since the true excellence of Leica lenses needs a tripod to be fully explored.

-- Niels H. S. Nielsen (nhsn@ruc.dk), February 11, 2002.

I'm glad the M6 tripod mounting point got such a strong endorsment. Its location gave me cause to doubt - "O 'me' of little faith"! Thanks to all. Cheers

-- Tim Gee (twg@optushome.com.au), February 11, 2002.