[Leica] Observations on scanners and M6HM

["Stephen Johnson" <spjohnsn@ix.netcom.com>]

Hi all,

I've been using my M3 with 50mm Summicron and 35mm Summaron since I
purchased it new in 1962.  I was the fellow who enquired about using the
Visoflex with the M6 awhile ago since I was thinking of trading my M3.

To make a long story short, I found that my M3 was not a collector piece
since the original vulcanite is beginning to chip away from age, and I was
happy in a way, because I didn't really want to part with it anyway.

I thought I'd give scanning a try, and purchased a HP PhotoSmart for $400
before a $100 rebate.  I know there are many LUG subscribers using high
powered scanners such as the LS-2000, many of you as part of your work.
Please put my comments into perspective.  I found that the performance of
the HP for the money was remarkable, particularly using my HP 720 printer
which I already had.

How does this relate to the M6HM?  As someone that used to enjoy darkroom
work with Panatomic-X years ago, I always missed the control over prints I
had when I switched to color.  There have been several references to the
35mm frame of the M6HM being difficult to see, particularly with glasses.
The freedom to crop and resize with a scanner will make the issue much less
important in the future, I believe.  

So, I'll save for the eventual purchase of a M6HM, M6HM-TTL, or M7,
whatever, but I'm switching back to Kodachrome for now, so that I'll have
originals with the most content possible.  Looking at the trends in
computers, disk drives, and so on, I fully expect to see a scanner better
than the LS-2000 available for less than $500 in a few years.

I enjoy LUG, and I'll go back to lurking, soaking up all of the good
information available here.

Steve Johnson