There is heated debate on this camera. I warn most of you that what I’m about to say will likely infuriate most film shooters, Leica fans, and even my beloved M5 community at large. The bastard son of Leica can be more if we let it.
Lots of the reasons I love this camera is because I started off shooting on a trusty Canon AE 1. Simple, no-nonsense – set the aperture to auto, click the shutter dial to and fro a few times and you’re off. Much of the reasons I inevitably purchased the M5 was because of Hamish’s original review here. A particularly important part to me was:
Once the decision about aperture is set, the camera can be raised to the eye and an appropriate shutter speed can be chosen based on the light meter readings displayed in the finder. Whilst this isn’t an automatic aperture priority, the process is much closer to aperture priority shooting than anything else.
Indeed much like Hamish’s post, I am that kind of shooter he was talking about. The sort of semi-automated way of flipping through a few shutter speeds just seemed to make sense to me. And thus, I took the plunge.
The camera really is divisive. Even walking around Leica fans will mention how strange it is. The size, sure; the way the meter works, definitely. But for me, it’s a brutal let down to know how much this design was so utterly abandoned by the company – and make me treasure it all the more.
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StephenJ on 5 Frames with a Leica M5 – by Petros Katradis
Comment posted: 01/11/2018
I foolishly sold my M5 to travel along another forgotten path, as is the way with film people. I sometimes regret doing so, because of the very user friendly way that this camera works. The one thing that would stop me, is the weight and size, which were a couple of the reasons that I let mine go.
The good news is, that there is another camera, that I have recently acquired which is, to my mind and my small hands, even better... Namely, the Leitz CL, which has the same metering and dialing-in system... the match needle system takes a lot of beating in my view, it even has a 40mm lens, which is more natural than a nifty fifty.
What is more, I have a new Leica CL (digital), and the 40 sits on here like a natural, albeit with a slightly longer equivalent 60mm viewpoint.
Comment posted: 01/11/2018
Andrea on 5 Frames with a Leica M5 – by Petros Katradis
Comment posted: 01/11/2018
Comment posted: 01/11/2018
Comment posted: 01/11/2018
Comment posted: 01/11/2018
Dominique Pierre-Nina on 5 Frames with a Leica M5 – by Petros Katradis
Comment posted: 01/11/2018
Thanks,
Dominique
Mark on 5 Frames with a Leica M5 – by Petros Katradis
Comment posted: 02/11/2018
Nick on 5 Frames with a Leica M5 – by Petros Katradis
Comment posted: 04/11/2018
I actually read it twice but I still can't see why anything you wrote would infuriate anyone?