[Leica] M6 Baseplate v. Nikon F Back

[COLBYG@ULV.EDU]

Greetings,

	My trusty old Nikon F used to regularly toss off its back into the 
deepest crevices between the skin-rasp boulders of Joshua Tree National Park.
It would always lodge somewhere just beyond reach and I'd have to hunt for a
stick...
	Anyway, the M6 baseplate has it all over the Nikon F back in its
capacity for deep descent. Stick? Forget it. Send your 6-year-old underneath;
see if he can reach it from there. Sheesh.
	I don't suppose a hinged back is something Leica ever considered, eh?
Maybe the engineers should add some little hooks...or a  beeper that responds
to the blue air from a hastily but heartfelt curse.
	Anyway, we retrieved the durned thing undamaged: *plastic* baseplate 
protector probably added years to the resale value.

	Also, if any LUG members are familiar with Joshua Tree, the caretakers
at the Desert Queen Ranch are moving on. Big party for them at HQ on the 16th.
Art Kidwell, the recently-retired interpretive division chief will be there.

	And, the wildflowers are just getting started. Big time color in a
couple of weeks, if the temperature remains moderate. The flat places between
the creosote bush and the cholla cactus was a wonderful soft low green...then
there were these little belly flowers, in profusion, yellow and magenta.

- -Gary