[Leica] Quickie M7 impressions and comparison to OM-4T

["Richard F. Man" <richard@imagecraft.com>]

Background - I have used an Olympus OM-4T on and off since 1986. Taking a 
few years off to the autofoucs land when the kids were too quick to catch 
otherwise. Last year I added an OM-4 as a backup. For about a year, I 
agonized over whether to get an M6 or M7. The types of photographs I 
normally take, the mid-life crisis, and the lack of digital systems that 
are compelling (to me) added up to a new M7 purchase.

Warnings, this is only after a week of light uses, a good number of shots 
were done indoor using Studio flash since it's still pretty groomy outside. 
Opinions may and probably will change.

Rangefinder System
- - Definitely a different feel than a SLR. Have not gotten to the style of 
prefocusing and snap-shot away that some RF users are fond of. However, the 
ability to see outside the framelines definitely gives more flexibility in 
terms of quickly changing composition.
- - RF focusing is very good for wide angle. For 50mm and above though, the 
ground glass focusing of the OM-4T is better since the whole glass is used 
for focusing. Additionally, the fixed magnification of the RF viewfinder 
(.72 in my case) hampers 75mm focusing on the M7. Of course, I can get a 
1.25x magnifier if I use the 75mm (or higher) a lot. Also, at low light, 
even though my SLR lens are almost all F2 or wider, it is no match for the 
brightness of the M7 RF (equivalent of F1?).
- - It is nice not to have mirror blackout! Blinking or wandering eyes are 
caught immediately! (the minimal shutter lag helps)

General Handling
- - The size and weight is remarkably similar to the OM-4T. Actually, may not 
be so surprising since Maitani-san supposedly was inspired by the Leica M 
when designing the OM series. In fact, the OM-1 was originally called M-1 
until Leica objected.
- - I use the auto-mode 70% of the time on the OM-4T and the spot mode the 
rest of the time. I have not done much shooting in difficult lighting 
situations yet with the M7. So I can't say how well its auto-exposure 
performs. From what I understand though, its metering pattern is fairly 
well centered and should perform better than the wide center weighted 
pattern on the OM-4T.
- - No problem with the weirdo-bottom film loading. My hands are small so 
there is no problem with extracting film canister out either.
- - Generally speaking, the M7 handles and works as well as the OM-4T.
- - The quietness and the speed of the shutter (12 ms vs ~120ms) is 
definitely a big PLUS.

Lens
- - 95% of my shooting are done with Provia 100F and scanned using a Nikon 
LS-4000 4000 DPI. One of my favorite pass times is to blow up a picture and 
admire the lack of grain of the Provia film and the sharpness of certain 
lenses :-)
- - 3 lens so far for the M7 - 50/2 Summicron, 75/2.5 Voigtlander Heliar, and 
Canon 35/2 (will sell this one if possible :-) )
- - no detailed systematic tests yet. General comments though:
- - the 35 and 50 mm RF lens are teeny compared to the Zuiko lens. Even the 
75/2.5 Heliar is a bit smaller than the Zuiko 85/2. Of course it's only a 
F2.5 vs. F2. Note that Zuiko is known for its small sizes, not so much on 
its "fast and wide" F2 lens, but still compactness was a design goal.
- - the 50/2 Summicron is very sharp. The sharpest OM Zuiko lens I have is 
the 50/2 macro. It would be very interesting to do a detailed test. I think 
the Zuiko can hold its own but the Summicron is definitely world class.
- - the 75/2.5 Heliar is quite nice. Performance wise it seems to be at least 
as good, and may be better than the Zuiko 85/2.
- - the Canon 35/2, is, well, it is a 1960 era lens and it shows. Much worse 
than the Summilux 35/1.4 I rented once, and worse than the Zuiko 35/2. Then 
again, it's about 1/3 or less of the size of the Zuiko 35/2! Now to save up 
more money to buy a proper 35mm lens....
- - Anycase, more testing will surely be done at various apertures and 
lighting situations.

Last Comment
- - I was surprised to hear that a good number of Leica and Cosina 
Voigtlander users were and some still are OM users. I no longer am 
surprise. I can see the strength and weakness of both systems. It is so 
"obvious" once you use them.

// richard <http://www.imagecraft.com> 
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