RE: [Leica] Suggestion for Second body

[chucko@siteconnect.com (Chuck Albertson)]

John,

The problem I've experienced with the (classic) M6 meter is that when you
shove it into a vertical compartment in a camera bag (which is generally how
I carry it) with the meter on, you inevitably wind up with a dead
battery---the shutter release ends up leaning against the side of the
compartment, and the constant pressure on it prevents the metering circuit
from shutting down. The only safeguard against this is to set the shutter
speed to B, or store it with the shutter uncocked. Neither is very
convenient, as the camera is not ready to go when you pull it out of the
bag. Setting the "off" switch beyond B in the TTL doesn't strike me as much
of an improvement---as you say, sticking it next to the highest shutter
speed would make more sense. Why they couldn't hook it up to the film
advance lever is beyond me, they managed to pull it off with the CL.

Chuck Albertson
Seattle, Wash.

>
> But, also IMO, there is one drawback with the TTL.  It is slower to get
> into action when grabbing from the bag due to the position of the "off"
> setting.  The classic had no such setting; the meter circuitry simply
> stopped drawing battery current when the shutter release wasn't pressed
> for a while.  With the TTL, you have to rapidly spin the dial using
> method one (above) to place it near the shsooting setting.  And, why oh
> why did they put the off position next to Bulb rather than 1/1000?  When
> bringing the camera into use aren't we all more likely to need a high
> shutter speed than a sub-1/60 second setting?  This results in a lot of
> rapid dial spinning and wear on those parts.
>
> A bigger issue ... why does the camera need an "off" setting in the
> first place when the meter shuts down of its own free will and accord a
> few seconds after you release the shutter button?  There was a
> supplemtary instruction page included in my box with strong admonitions
> to use the "off" setting to keep the battery from running down.  Is this
> really necessary?  Other messages here implied that there was a circuit
> board anomoly that drained the battery on early TTL models that has
> since been fixed.  I'm sure I'll forget one of these days when putting
> the camera back in the bag and find out for myself.  It would certainly
> make the camera faster to bring into action if you could leave your
> shutter at 1/500 or so and ignore the "off" setting all together.
>