Review of the CM on photo.net
http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=006i1o
by roger michel:
"i got a chance to see a CM very briefly (five minutes at a trade show) several weeks ago and posted favorable initial impressions. i thought it might be a worthy competitor for the excellent t3, especially with its faster lens and apparent better manual controls. after spending a much longer time actually shooting pics with a CM yesterday, i have now come to believe that it has very serious design defects, and cannot touch the t3 as a leica-style compact street shooter.
let me first say that i did not have a manual, but rather received detailed instructions from a company rep. i am assuming he gave me correct information. if i have misstated anything, please correct me ASAP. let me also say that IMO the standard set by the t3 is very high indeed. the lens wide open shows greater measured center sharpness than the 35 cron at 2.8. the custom controls allow you to control virtually every important parameter. the one button persistent AF/AE lock is genius. the build quality is very high, there is a great hard half-case, and the camera is virtually silent. a tough act to follow!!
as for the CM, the obvious shortcomings are these: (1) no filters OR shades. i honestly can't see how this feature could have been omitted. filters are essential to good b&w photography. the ricoh and contax offerings have this facility -- why not leica?? (2) the camera is larger than the t3 or gr1 by a fair margin which makes it less stealthy and pocketable. (3) no hard half case oor any other facility for normal 2 lug strap hanging. again, ricoh and contax offer this useful feature. (4) THE BIG ONE!! neither the focus nor the exposure can be preset for quick firing!!!! in manual focus and manual aperture setting, you must still depress the shutter halfway and wait for the camera to focus to the preset distance and calculate exposure before it will fire!! this creates a HUGE lag -- as long a lag as if you used AF/AE!!! with the contax and ricoh, when you set manual focus and lock exposure the camera immediately locks the lens at the prefocused distance and dials in the exposure. then, when you press the button, the camera fires IMMEDIATELY -- no lag. the leica CM system is a joke. why bother to have the manual settings if they create as much lag as the auto settings. (5) the AF was markedly slower than either the ricoh or t3 that i brought for comparison. (6) the plastic surround on the rear LCD is uncomfortable againt the face. (7) very limited range of custom settings as compared to the t3.
this post is already too long, so i won't go into any more detail. but, IMO, if the rep is right and there is no way to get the camera to actually prefocus and stay prefocused in the manual mode, creating a huge focus lag before every shot, i just don't see how the CM can be called a "decisive moment "camera (as leica does). this is an unbelievable omission. why they didn't just copy the wonderful "one-touch" AF/AE lock of the t3 is a baffling mystery.
hopefully somebody will tell me that the rep got it wrong and there is a custom setting somewhere to overcome this otherwise fatal defect. contax was rumored to have obtained input from more than 100 photogs shooting beta s&les befored it finalized the features on the t3. did leica do anything beyond talking to the design boys (it is a beautiful camera)??"
