Leica M4

[belgiumreporter]

I've loaded the M4 with some T-max 400 and took it along when i drove in to town. It soon became clear why i've sold my M3 and M4 way back in early 2000. The M4 is a beautifull camera but it's allmost useless for my kind of shooting. The rangefinder isn't precise enough to do correct framing, it is impossible to preview what the image will look like at a set aperture (dof), and the lenses at my disposal 35-50-90mm really aren't suited to do architecture photography of both larger buidings or in confined spaces. Furthermore working with a handheld lightmeter really slows things down and is a bit awkward in fast changing lighting conditions, i might considder a clip on meter. My experience of shooting the R8 the last month was a lot more enjoyable so once more it shows i'm not a rangefinder type of shooter (though i did become some sort of a range finder collector ).

The Leica M's will get their place in the collection but i guess they won't be taken out much to do any kind of shooting.
Here's the set i am walking around with, will be tough to get those 36 images exposed.

[paulhofseth]

Despite its precision and compactness I gave up on both the M3 and the M6. A 1:1 viewfinder is excellent since it allows you to keep both eyes open and see what is about to come into the picture (unlike with the SLR). But the R-8 gives a better impression of the finished snap and its viewfinder is quite brilliant. Still I normally use my Z7 with its ability to enlarge the crucial focus point.Of course, the Olympus magnifying angle finder also allows for magnification but the digital finders compensate well for lower light scenes and the z can take absolutely all kinds of lenses, -even my old leitz ones with M mount.

p.

[belgiumreporter]

Clip on meter problem solved with this Keks EM-01 wich i found in (of all places) Finland ! I choose this over the original leicameters because these are expensive and from the amount of broken ones i saw, are a risk investing in. The Keks gives rather accurate readings, tested it on a grey card and compared it with the readings from my D3, they are quite similar. Another advantage over the leicameters, the keks can be used on just about any camera with a hot or cold shoe.