Leicamateur Posted April 29, 2007 Share #1 Posted April 29, 2007 Advertisement (gone after registration) Finally I got my M7 and Elmar 50mm and I'd like to share my first days with my new equipment, hopefully any potential Leica newcomer will be convinced to buy one of the greatest photographic equipment there is to buy after reading this. Prologue: It took me a sweet while to check out all possible sources, be it online or physical stores and eventually decided to buy from my local Leica reseller. I guess in any case this is always the best choice, also if you might pay a little bit more. In case of any problem or warranty case you won't have any hassle to ship back your products to an online store etc. and buying online you neither get any shopping advise nor can you test the equipment before your final decision if you buy it or not. But it was even harder to decide what camera I'd buy. Choices were second hand M6 TTL or M7 and I also couldn't decide on colour finish. As most people know already second hand Leica equipment can still be very expensive. And most shops (at least here) won't give you a very long (if there is any at all) warranty on used equipment. So I said to myself, wtf... this camera will be with me to the end of my days, it's a purchase of a lifetime, so I went for a new M7, the latest rangefinder filmmodel so far. My first lens should be a standard 50mm, the most useful focal length for starters. So wouldn't point this to buying the M7 starter kit with 50mm Summicron? Well, I also thought so but guess what. Locating a M7 starter kit here (Hong Kong) was impossible. I could have ordered it from a Leica reseller but the waiting time was vaguely estimated at "several weeks". This was all too much for me and the fact that the starter kit only is available with black M7 finish convinced me to buy both separately. So now I got a silver finish M7 with Elmar 50mm... well I wanted the cron.. but... can't have it all (at least for now). The clerk from the camera shop really took his time to show me stuff, lenses etc. and I had a good time shopping there, so here I go again... Leica newcomers, go to the Leica dealer of your choice, take your time and buy your Leica with some thought. Don't make a hasty online purchase, that takes a lot of the magic buying Leica stuff, be it new or second hand. Foreplay: So on the way back home I really got hungry (damn long shopping trip browsing through numerous camera shops) and bought a chicken kebab on the go... NICE... (but too spicy and too much as I painfully had to experience later at night). Finally at home, unpack the magical new equipment (which purchase made my wallet cry and my wife too if she knew the price, LOL). I gotta tell you all... unpacking a Leica camera and lens is... (attention cliche).. like sex... first of all Leica products boxes are designed and coloured very nicely, it's like Apple stuff, they also have really nice designer product boxes.. unpacking the first layer is like foreplay then you'll find (the very nice) manual etc. and inside the box there is one more box... this camera is really packed very well. Unpacking the second box there she is.. M7 magic... the lens is just packed in one box, but you get a very nice leather case for your lens along, you really get the feeling that you buy something special, quality in every aspect, not only the products but also packing, documentation and everything here is state of the art. On the other hand I wouldn't accept less at this price level, but lets forget about price, these products will accompany until the end of days, so it's value is as good as it gets. It's on: Talked enough. Let's get into some action. Lens mounted, film inserted, power on. Shooting with a Leica camera is so totally different... it is very hard to describe. You really have to go to a shop and try it yourself to fully understand what I mean. The rangefinder concept is very different from SLR cameras for example. You don't "look through the lens" but through a viewfinder window. This means you actually don't see immediately if your subject is in focus or not like with any other camera. You have a dedicated small focusing rectangle in the middle of the viewfinder. You have to turn the focusingring on the lens and try to overlap the "double" images (superimposed) in this rectangle. If the two images become one you know its in focus. It's akward in the first minutes but become natural to me within no time. Focusing (as far as I can say until now) is very accurate with this method. The much bigger difference between a Leica camera and any SLR camera is the shutter noise... the thing is... Leica has no "shutter noise". When I made my first shot (I did some in the camera shop, but it was so loud from streetnoise etc. that I couldn't evaluate it there) at home I thought... damn... no way dude... the mirror is hanging... why don't I hear the mirror coming back... then I realized the mirror came back already... if you press the shutter button you almost hear and feel nothing. If you press the shutter button of any normal SLR you can hear and feel the mirror going up and coming back again... so this first experience was shocking... but on a positive level. The next shots become something like an addiction.. pressing that shutter button and hearing that ultrasmooth and silent "shutter" is like a dream. It's like (cliche) having sex... : ) To my bad luck until now the weather was not nice to me and I was only able to shoot one film. So I cannot talk about image quality now, but I guess it'll be pretty stunning. As soon as I get back the processed film I will post the second part of my M7 and me report. stay tuned... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted April 29, 2007 Posted April 29, 2007 Hi Leicamateur, Take a look here M7 and me. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
earleygallery Posted April 29, 2007 Share #2 Posted April 29, 2007 Mirror, wot mirror? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leicamateur Posted April 29, 2007 Author Share #3 Posted April 29, 2007 right.. pardon me. I'm too much into SLRs hence talking of mirrors. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob_x2004 Posted April 29, 2007 Share #4 Posted April 29, 2007 Is that Kate Moss in your pocket or is it your wallet:D? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob_x2004 Posted April 29, 2007 Share #5 Posted April 29, 2007 Ohh yea...and welcome to the forum and all that ... sensitive ... Look forward to seeing your stuff:). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
earleygallery Posted April 29, 2007 Share #6 Posted April 29, 2007 & the Elmar is an excellent lens, you won't be disappointed. I'd chose it for its size. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
R.Morrison Posted April 29, 2007 Share #7 Posted April 29, 2007 Advertisement (gone after registration) James: The mirror on the wall. Yours, Robert Morrison, M4-P, etc. (you know, the other MP) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leicamateur Posted April 29, 2007 Author Share #8 Posted April 29, 2007 Is that Kate Moss in your pocket or is it your wallet:D? it must be Kate Moss because my wallet is totally empty now Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gylee Posted April 30, 2007 Share #9 Posted April 30, 2007 Marc - hate to do this to you, but there is an M7 starter kit sitting in the Lane Crawford at Pacific Place and it has been there so long, that it still has the pre-price rise price on it - and you'll get 10% off if you have a Lane Crawford card. Carries the full Schmidt warranty too... I nearly bought it myself but went for an MP and a 50 'cron from Kinefoto instead and with the "official" discount that ended up being pretty good value. The irony is that Kinefoto had to break up an M7 starter kit to give me the 'cron because they did not have one in stock. Still sounds like you really wanted chrome, so perhaps the starter kit was not for you anyway. Enjoy your M7 - I'll keep an eye out for you wandering HK with a chrome M7 and a 50 Elmar. G. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leicamateur Posted April 30, 2007 Author Share #10 Posted April 30, 2007 hey Gordon, no worries. That was a calculated risk. I knew there were other official Leica resellers (Pacific place and some on HK Island side)... but I guess they are more expensive than Tin Cheung or others on Kowloon side. And yes, I wanted the chrome M7 more than the black one so no harm done. I'm totally pleased with my purchase. And hey.. if you want to get together sometime for a photo safari drop me a message. Now for my second part of my first Leica experience... M7 handling is flawless so far. Hadn't any problems, I guess even a total beginner to photography will get it in no time, so full marks here. On the hardware side I only have to complain about one or two things of the Elmar 50mm. The lenshood can fall down very easily, it doesn't have a good grip on the lens, so you have to take care when you're outside in the wild and taking out the camera of your bag might pull down the lenscap. I tested a second hand Elmar 50mm in the shop and the lenshood of that one was far more firmly on the lens, I guess I'll put a rubber band or something inside the lenshood to make it more tight. Or any suggestions here? My second complaint is the aperture ring. It's too smooth and you can accidentially change the apperture setting. But both issues here are not really that bad, you just have to take a little more care. I don't dare to post any photo I have taken so far for two reasons: First off... I used a Voigtlander 35mm F1.7 for my first shots and secondly I don't have a decent scanner... but I can say that my first attempts with the M7 were quite good, focusing is as I guessed before very accurate, almost all pictures were in focus as I intended them to be while shooting. So again, big points here for the M7, it's a perfect and beautiful instrument for a beautiful hobby. Quick complaint also about the VL 35mm F1.7... if you hold the camera vertically the aperture ring blocks.. I don't know if this is intentionally or not. Anyone got a VL 35mm 1.7 and can comment on this? Tomorrow the weather is supposed to get better here and I'll take some photos with the Elmar. Either I find a decent photoshop who does high quality scans or I use my old scanner, you'll see some results in the next days. Cheers, Marc. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leicamateur Posted May 1, 2007 Author Share #11 Posted May 1, 2007 ok... I dare post some of my photos... as said they were taken with M7 and VL Ultron 35mm F1.7 I scanned them on a HP all in one printer using 600x600dpi. I hope to get a NIkon Coolscan soon to get better results. Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here… Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! Link to post Share on other sites Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! ' data-webShareUrl='https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/22772-m7-and-me/?do=findComment&comment=242727'>More sharing options...
gylee Posted May 1, 2007 Share #12 Posted May 1, 2007 hey Gordon, Either I find a decent photoshop who does high quality scans or I use my old scanner, you'll see some results in the next days. Cheers, Marc. Marc - I use Photo Scientific in Stanley Street who'll do a full roll of 16 base scans of negative film onto CD for HK$80 (plus HK$20 for the processing). Not bad value. For slide film they charge $10 per image. G. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leicamateur Posted May 1, 2007 Author Share #13 Posted May 1, 2007 hey Gordon, do you have some of your photos on a website or could you send me one or two so I can judge the quality of the scans from Photo Scientific. Do you also have a phone number of the shop? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leicamateur Posted May 2, 2007 Author Share #14 Posted May 2, 2007 & the Elmar is an excellent lens, you won't be disappointed. I'd chose it for its size. meanwhile I got my first photos developed which I shot with the Elmar... yup... this lens is amazing, I am very pleased with the results (even not shooting on slidefilm but "lesser" negative film and using a quite standard photoprocessor with average qualtiy)! Will post some photos in the photo forum later when I have time. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest stnami Posted May 3, 2007 Share #15 Posted May 3, 2007 Just wondering Marc have you had enough time to get your hand off it?..................or is it too early to say:p Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leicamateur Posted May 3, 2007 Author Share #16 Posted May 3, 2007 well... lets say it that way. I have to do some catching up with my work since I got my M7 But the M7 is sleeping in its camera bag for now, me catching up with work so hopefully until the weekend I'm up to date and the weather is nice enough allowing me to go on a little photo safari. But I really have to say it can be a curse to have such nice instruments and so less time.. .its a lot of fun taking photos with! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.