Leica M7 a la carte arrived yesterday!

[sandholm]

If the "free health care" one receives in many socialist countries is so wonderful, why is it that so many people come to the United States for life-saving surgeries by top specialists? Why not just have the surgeries or treatments in their home countries? Why are lines so long, and quality relatively poor? Rationing?

That made me laugth, so you mean that the health care in Sweden, Switzerland, France is bad (all these countries are in US eyes socialists). I am a former biomechanist, working close to orthopedics and people travel all over the world to get specilist helath care because the only exist only a couple of people in the world doing that procedure. The clinical I was active in had 20% US customers because we were the only once carring out that specific knee surgery. Please, US health care is good, but nothing special.

just some quotes from wiki:

" An estimated 750,000 Americans went abroad for health care in 2007, and the report estimated that a million and a half would seek health care outside the US in 2008. The growth in medical tourism has the potential to cost US health care providers billions of dollars in lost revenue."

"Some US employers have begun exploring medical travel programs as a way to cut employee health care costs."

"Because of Costa Rica's close proximity to the USA, the country is able to attract over 20,000 US patients a year.[57] It is also the prices of medical services that are quite attractive to consumers seeking quality care at an affordable price"

"The cost of the surgical care in New Zealand is significantly cheaper. On average it is considered that New Zealand’s surgical costs are around 15 to 20% the cost of the same surgical procedure in the USA."

"Germany is a destination for patients seeking advanced medical technology, high standards, safety, and quick treatment.[116] All German citizens have health coverage,[117] resulting in a high hospital density, with twice as many hospitals per capita as the United States.[118] The high hospital density results in shorter waitlists for treatment. Costs for medical treatment compete well with other developed European countries and are commonly 50% of those in the USA"

"US citizens sometimes travel to Germany to seek treatments such as artificial cervical disc replacement that are not US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved"

hmm... sounds like people and companies think in the opposite direction then you do...

Why do millions of people comitt the CRIME of sneaking through our "porous" border, to come to this country? Comparatively speaking, how many people WANT to sneak into China, North Korea, Luxembourg.

Luxembourg ??? that is hilaris and just show that you can be serius. One of the most riches countries in the world, the home for several banks and hedge founds, its even more wealthy then Switzerland.... thats just comic.

I mean who sneaks INTO Mexico? How many people have YOU heard of crammed into a fishing boat in Miami and risked their lives to float to CUBA? To "sneak" into CUBA?????? Let me see.......ummmmmmm, like....NONE! Maybe, there's a reason????
Have a good day.

Are you serious, comparing socilism with communist/dictatorship countris, that just show that debating with you is just pointless.

for the record, I am pro-capitalism and also voting right, but I am not neo-white-right-anarchist-tea-party-style

have a nice day

[sandholm]

I have an M3 that I'm very satisfied with. I take it or my IIIc with me everytime I leave my house. I'm sure that an MP or M7 would be equally satisfying. It would be a really difficult decision for me to choose between the two of them.

Same here, I have now a M3, M6, M7 and I love them, actually I have started to shoot more and more with the M3 body, dont really know why. The M7 is perfect to be use with flash. Another overlooked Leica camera is the R8 and R9, got both but my wife is using the R9 so that just leaves the R8 for me, but its an excellent camera and the lenses are just excellent.

(dont dare to say, but I also just got the Leica M9-P, had a M9 but sold it and got the P version, this camera is just sweet, love it, expensive, but you can feel you shoot a Leica even if its a digital. I havent done any digital negatives with the images yet but when holidays comes I will do some platinum print from them).

[Diapositivo]

I've never used a rangefinder, bc I always thought it'd be difficult to focus. Is that true or just a myth? I assume the benefits of using a Leica M would be the lenses; however, are there benefits to the rangefinder focusing, itself? Is it faster to focus than SLR? I realize it's manual focusing. Thanks.

With a RF you normally have to use an "autofocus" strategy: put the subject you want in focus in the centre of the viewfinder, focus, recompose, take picture.
With a SLR you can keep the subject you want in focus on the edge while focusing.
Some RF have an "all patch" viewfinder though, you can focus without recomposing, but the image in the viewfinder can be very confusing, you have to get used to it.

I find it slower, but I am an SLR guy mainly and I don't practice street photography. The slight loss in focusing speed is to be considered together with the quietness and small size of the camera. A RF with leaf shutter can be extremely silent. My Voigtländer Vito CLR has a Prontor 500 LK which is basically inaudible. Leica cameras have a focal plane shutter and are not as silent, but much quieter anyway than any SLR. RF cameras are generally speaking much smaller than SLR.

RF have a viewfinder which is relatively bright also in low ambient light conditions, there is no coupling between lens and body (which raises complexity, slows actuation, introduces noise and vibrations), and especially there is no mirror slap (big noise, big vibration problem).

With an SLR for maximum quality shutter times like 1/15, 1/8, 1/4, 1/2 should be used with the mirror locked up. That's something you can do when using a tripod.

If you find yourself using 1/15 free-hand with a SLR, and supposing you are holding the camera steady enough (very wide-angle lens, bean bag, whatever) you are leaving some quality on the table because of the mirror-induced vibration. It might be that a small quality decay is visible also at 1/30.

In a RF you normally see a central patch where the image has a double contour (either vertical contour or horizontal contour) if it is not in focus. Normally the rest of the image is not "patched" and you don't see anything special, I mean outside of the patch everything is always in focus. Somebody like this, somebody don't. If the lines of the subject are not what works with your RF you have to rotate your camera to be able to focus, e.g. to put it vertical, focus, then put it back horizontal (not that it happens often).

It's a bit like focusing relying only on the central stigmometre.

If you want to experiment, I suggest you buy a second-hand cheap RF such as a Canon Canonet. In the right environment they can be just the right tool for the job.

[adam h]

With a RF you normally have to use an "autofocus" strategy: put the subject you want in focus in the centre of the viewfinder, focus, recompose, take picture.
With a SLR you can keep the subject you want in focus on the edge while focusing.
Some RF have an "all patch" viewfinder though, you can focus without recomposing, but the image in the viewfinder can be very confusing, you have to get used to it.

I find it slower, but I am an SLR guy mainly and I don't practice street photography. The slight loss in focusing speed is to be considered together with the quietness and small size of the camera. A RF with leaf shutter can be extremely silent. My Voigtländer Vito CLR has a Prontor 500 LK which is basically inaudible. Leica cameras have a focal plane shutter and are not as silent, but much quieter anyway than any SLR. RF cameras are generally speaking much smaller than SLR.

RF have a viewfinder which is relatively bright also in low ambient light conditions, there is no coupling between lens and body (which raises complexity, slows actuation, introduces noise and vibrations), and especially there is no mirror slap (big noise, big vibration problem).

With an SLR for maximum quality shutter times like 1/15, 1/8, 1/4, 1/2 should be used with the mirror locked up. That's something you can do when using a tripod.

If you find yourself using 1/15 free-hand with a SLR, and supposing you are holding the camera steady enough (very wide-angle lens, bean bag, whatever) you are leaving some quality on the table because of the mirror-induced vibration. It might be that a small quality decay is visible also at 1/30.

In a RF you normally see a central patch where the image has a double contour (either vertical contour or horizontal contour) if it is not in focus. Normally the rest of the image is not "patched" and you don't see anything special, I mean outside of the patch everything is always in focus. Somebody like this, somebody don't. If the lines of the subject are not what works with your RF you have to rotate your camera to be able to focus, e.g. to put it vertical, focus, then put it back horizontal (not that it happens often).

It's a bit like focusing relying only on the central stigmometre.

If you want to experiment, I suggest you buy a second-hand cheap RF such as a Canon Canonet. In the right environment they can be just the right tool for the job.

Thanks

[jacarape]

I've never used a rangefinder, bc I always thought it'd be difficult to focus. Is that true or just a myth? I assume the benefits of using a Leica M would be the lenses; however, are there benefits to the rangefinder focusing, itself? Is it faster to focus than SLR? I realize it's manual focusing. Thanks.

As my eyes get older and more useless, RF cameras are actually easier to focus then an SLR.

That's becasue there really isn't any focusing to do. The RF VF is always in focus, it's basicly a window on he back of the camera that sees out the front.

So why is it easier for somebody like me to focus? Becasue I don't have to, I align a split image.

Dia is exactly correct, but it's much more simple then it sounds.

[drumminor2nd]

Wow... I had to turn my head and double-check this was the same thread as 2-6 pages ago... dang, what a turn-around!

Anyway, to the OP: Nice camera. I'm happy with my IIIf, but hey, your camera sure looks nice.

Not going to lie, just messing around earlier I made up a sheet for my own a la carte camera earlier. It was a chrome MP with British Green leather, .72-3 framelines and engraved on the top and back with a quote from Henry V. "The game's afoot: Follow your spirit, and upon this charge, Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!'" I called it my 600th Battle of Agincourt Anniversary model