[Leica] The 0.85: strange new need

[Alan Ball <AlanBall@compuserve.com>]

Hi all,
I am puzzled and a little frustrated: after hesitating over 15 years, I
purchased my first M system in the first days of January, 48 hrs before t=
he
first posts appeared on the Net announcing the 0.85. I must have
accumulated dozens of  hours through these years talking with users,
reading literature and, for the last 3 years, following threads in Cserve=

forums, on Usenet and on various mailing lists (only discovered LUG end o=
f
last December). My MAIN question had always been: are the medium teles of=

the M system really reliably focused with the rangefinder system of the M=
6
? The unanimous answer from M enthusiasts had invariably been: "no proble=
m,
the RF is absolutely precise up to 135mm, better than SLR". Then all of a=

sudden, since the first week of January, the common opinion of the M user=

community seems to have become : "the 0.85 is what we all have been waiti=
ng
for, at last we will be able to use fast teles or the Noctilux at heir
widest". As a new user, I have field tested the 90mm f2.8 wide open in
portrait situations as much as I could in the last 3 weeks, and have not
encountered any more focus failures as I usually have with SLR systems. I=

should therefore feel quite happy. But I also planned to purchase the 75m=
m
f1.4 in the medium term. So the question is, and please answer real hones=
t
(money is an issue for me): will I have problems using that lens at its
widest in portrait situations ? Or does this usage suppose using the 0.85=

(or M3) ? Thanks beforehand  for being real factual about this...