Re: [Leica] Which M / weddings

[John Brownlow <deadman@jukebox.demon.co.uk>]

on 28/1/00 7:49 pm, Jeffcoat Photography at jeffcoatphoto@sumter.net wrote:

> Your thoughts on this are welcome. For the ability to be discreet, quiet
> and quick I want to add some "M" cameras to my bag. They will be used
> for Photo journalistic images at weddings. I want to shoot with the
> 35/50 and 75's all in 1.4. The question is which of the M's would give
> me the best all around camera, minimal repair needs (Still using Hassies
> I bought 20 yr ago, so I do take care of the equip.) Meter would be nice
> , but not needed as this will be used for b/w and that can be hand
> metered for the hall or church. The correct frame lines are important
> and that I know I can look up, but which the 2, 3, 4, 4-2, 4-P, 5, 6,
> 6-.85TTL. I'm confused.

I am an advocate of the M4-P, which has framelines for 28/35/50/75/90/135.
It depends whether the wide finder is too wide for you. If not, then they
are extremely reasonably priced and feel relatively modern to my fingers.
The M2 is the next in my book, with a 35 finder and a great feel, but to me
the slower loading and the fact that you need to manually reset the film
counter are against it (though it will be my next Leica, as a 2nd body -
currently a Canon 7 LTM).

In particular, I find that being able to put anything from a 28 to a 90 (I'm
not interested in a 135) on the same body without a separate v/f is great.

I like shooting weddings, so long as someone else is doing the boring stuff.
Incidentally, there is a wedding shot documentary stylee on the M4-P on my
site if you want to check it out. I was using a Canon 28/2.8 LTM lens, which
turned out to be a nice choice, and it was great not to have to focus in one
window and frame in another. Now I would use the 35/1.4 but I didn't have
one then. The URL is

    http://www.pinkheadedbug.com/hitched

- -- 
John Brownlow

       photos:    www.pinkheadedbug.com
        music:    www.jukebox.demon.co.uk