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Not sure why you feel the need to stalk John, Jeff. It's getting a little tiring and is the kind of behaviour that is dragging the forum into the gutter.

 

Very nice of you Ian. I have to confess to being blissfully unaware.

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Not sure why you feel the need to stalk John, Jeff. It's getting a little tiring and is the kind of behaviour that is dragging the forum into the gutter.

 

And referring to fellow members as stalkers is sure to raise standards. I'll leave it to the mods to police the forum, thank you.

 

Jeff

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I just checked back in, thanks to everyone for their information. I happen to prefer a 0.85 VF, and also want a frame set with just a 50mm frame which are available ala carte. If I understand, I can't order a M-A ala carte, I can only buy it stock and send it back and this would be way to expensive if true. I probably will get an MP. (Chrome, no engraving, with a M7 crank, blue leather, and the 0.85 VF with the 35/135,50, and 90 frames). Well maybe. :>)

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.....What I do know is that the M-A isn't simply an M-P without batteries any more than the MP Classic (which I once owned and stupidly sold when smitten by the Monochrom) is just an MP without batteries. Given a straight choice (and I have that choice) I prefer the unmetered camera every time and I doubt it has anything to do with any new camera syndrome. :)

 

The Classic is indeed a lovely camera, and perhaps it is not very important at all, but I ended up not purchasing it because Leica took the short route in its production: in terms of the (main) body they literally did take the battery holder out of an MP and placed a brass plate over the remaining hole where the battery used to be, and covered it over.....For the extra money paid for a classic, I would have at very least expected a new body shell instead of disemboweling an MP....

Edited by tadeyev
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they literally did take the battery holder out of an MP and placed a brass plate over the remaining hole where the battery used to be, and covered it over.....For the extra money paid for a classic, I would have at very least expected a new body shell instead of disemboweling an MP....

 

Maybe they did the same with the M-A? Anyone wish to strip the leatherette off to have a look? :)

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If marketing thought up a forty five minute video of the T body being made, maybe a five minute clip of a M-A being assembled wouldn't be asking too much.

Edited by madNbad
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M-A view finders is brighter. When I bought the MA I have my M4 and M6 with me in the store and it was very evident (neither had any haze, just brighter). This was, in fact, one of the main reasons why I bought the MA and sold the M4 and M6 to help finance the trade. 

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Comparison between my M cameras - M3, Monochrom, M Edition 60 & M-A

But that doesn't help us confirm (or debunk) the claim that the M-A has a different finder than the MP (with the exception of uninterrupted frame lines for 28 and 35).

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But that doesn't help us confirm (or debunk) the claim that the M-A has a different finder than the MP (with the exception of uninterrupted frame lines for 28 and 35).

No it doesn't. I'm just sharing my perception. I sold my MP some years ago, so I can't really say more.

 

As I recall, there's nothing wrong with the MP viewfinder. I'm sure the meter is also just fine, for a centre weighted meter. For some, it's very important that the M-A is "just a disabled MP" and M-A owners should just take the battery out of an MP. I'm not sure why this is so important. The MP is $250 more than the M-A, which makes the MP look cheap, or the M-A expensive, but removing the meter and the related electronics, does make the M-A a different camera (to me), and I prefer the viewfinder without the electronic display at the bottom (as there is no electronic info to display).

 

Horses for courses. There's something elemental about a film camera that is completely manual (like the Hasselblad). It may be irrational, but it's like the M Edition 60, with no JPegs, and the Leica T with its stripped back user interface.

 

Perhaps the best thing is to try the camera and see if it makes a difference to you. The user experience is certainly not the same to my eye. The viewfinder does appear brighter, and that may be purely because the electronic display has been removed.

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I just checked back in, thanks to everyone for their information. I happen to prefer a 0.85 VF, and also want a frame set with just a 50mm frame which are available ala carte. If I understand, I can't order a M-A ala carte, I can only buy it stock and send it back and this would be way to expensive if true. I probably will get an MP. (Chrome, no engraving, with a M7 crank, blue leather, and the 0.85 VF with the 35/135,50, and 90 frames). Well maybe. :>)

Just contact Leica CS in Wetzlar directly and kindly ask.

If it is possible for the good people at Leica to arrange it (think logistics within a production batch), I found them always wanting to accommodate and bend themselves backwards to make little wishes happen.

 

The Classic is indeed a lovely camera, and perhaps it is not very important at all, but I ended up not purchasing it because Leica took the short route in its production: in terms of the (main) body they literally did take the battery holder out of an MP and placed a brass plate over the remaining hole where the battery used to be, and covered it over.....For the extra money paid for a classic, I would have at very least expected a new body shell instead of disemboweling an MP....

To make a new body shell would either have meant an expensive change of the die casting molds for the shell or (should the battery compartment be realized exclusively by machining) by not being able to take standard MP shells off the warehouse and modify them of the small batch of special edition cameras.

A brass blind plate is actually a quite properly neat way of realizing the change.

Other manufacturers might have taken to hot glue or precut plastic sheet and tape ;-)

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M-A view finders is brighter. When I bought the MA I have my M4 and M6 with me in the store and it was very evident (neither had any haze, just brighter). This was, in fact, one of the main reasons why I bought the MA and sold the M4 and M6 to help finance the trade. 

 

Well, the M-A uses the exact same viewfinder as the MP, which has had a much brighter viewfinder than the M4 and M6 since  it's introduction back in 2002/2003. So if that was a big thing for you, you could have saved a lot of time by looking at an MP in the last 13 years and seen the same improvement compared to your M4 and M6.

 

I just find it weird that people talk about the M-A as it is some revolutionary new film camera, when the same camera, but with a meter, has been available for 13 years already.

Edited by indergaard
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I just find it weird that people talk about the M-A as it is some revolutionary new film camera, when the same camera, but with a meter, has been available for 13 years already.

 

Who is saying it's revolutionary?  It's an updated M3. 

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