Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/11/18
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]John Collier wrote:
> Leica deserves a good deal of criticism for its
> pedestrian pace of M
> body development (ie: M7's one shot AE lock!).
With all due respect, we'll have to disagree on this
one, Brother John.
Leica is uniquely worthy of praise for not
fundamentally changing its M cameras for so many
years. Unlike most other manufacturers of anything,
they got it mostly right the first time, in 1954.
Their not changing things has had the added benefit of
us having rather easy access to most parts for
long-discontinued models -- because the parts are so
unusually interchangeable between the decades since
1954.
As for the M7 single-shot AE lock, I suspect that
adding a separate switch for multi-shot lock would
have required changing the body somehow. The inside of
the M7 is packed full -- there's no room for added
bells and whistles and many already object to the
extra 2mm of height that started with the M6TTL & that
the M7 shares.
Some even object to the M6/M7 battery compartment
occupying the place of the old self-timer!
I suspect that the M7 on/off/lock switch is also where
it is because there was no room to incorporate that
feature into the advance lever (a la Nikon) or into
the shutter release (a la OM4), without adding space
by enlarging the body dimensions further.
Who wants them to make the camera bigger or change its
time-honoured shape more?
My only criticism is about the basic "a la carte"
price jack-up.
Emanuel Lowi
Montreal
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