What's new
DPR Forum

Welcome to the Friendly Aisles!
DPRF is a spin-off of dpreview. We are a photography forum with people from all over the world freely sharing their knowledge and love of photography. Everybody is welcome, from beginners to the experienced professional. From smartphone to Medium Format.

DPRF is a community for everybody, every brand and every sensor format. Digital and film.
Enjoy this modern, easy to use software. Look also at our Reviews & Gallery!

User comments btil June 2003

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
  • Start date Start date
Hi Jerry

The original M4 (1967-1971)looks like an M6 these early mainly German made versions only had VF squares for 35 50 90 and 135
They also had a mechanical self timer which was omitted on the M6.

No none of the M4s had light meters built in. You could get a Leica Meter that fitted into the "hot shoe" of the M4s. I have one on my M3 and they are suprisingly good units. The M5 is basically an M4 with a TTL light meter but it doesn't look like the traditional M series cameras (if that makes any sense) The M5 was unpopular and Leica stopped producing M cameras for a while. (1972)Leitz Canada later reintroduced a CRF the M4.2 (1977) Basically the same type of camera as the original M4. The M4.2 was replaced with the M4P (1980) which had view finder space for a 28mm lens and I think the new 75mm lens. Off the top of my head I think the new VF was put into later M4.2 models. Others can correct me if I'm mistaken. The orig. Germ. M4 s had exceptional build quality and are a real pleasure to use. The Canadian made M4 s have a distictive feel that I personally don't like. The M6 s were and are very nice cameras but don't have the same feel quality of the older M s. I hope Leica's propaganda on build quality for the new MP is correct.

Hope this is helpful and not too long

regards craig
 
> [ The M-4 does not have a meter, and it only has 4 bright line frames in the viewfinder , as against 6 in the M-6, hope this helps. Danny, Liverpool UK]
 
> Craig, FYI the M4-P has the 75mm framelines in it. My M4-P has worked fine without a hitch since I bought it in 81. The reason for the feel difference is the start of the M4-P changed from brass gears to stainless steel gears. Minimal wear, however they are harsher sounding.

Gerry
 
Thanks for all the response. The reason I came into this question is a perfect-looking M4 appeared on eBay the other day. When I was almost about to bid, I suddenly thought about the missing metering system in seller's description.

As a result of M4's "mechanical perfection", I will go for the lastest MP for sure.
 
Thanks Gerry

Interesting. I didn't know that they changed the metal used for the gears in the MPs. You learn something new every day. I used an M4 and an early M4.2 simultaniously some years back and the differences in feel is quite strong between the two. Us M3 afectionardos are an odd bunch and tend to think all Ms should sound like our old workhorses. The MPs were too much of a culture shock for me. Tested one and gladly went back to 35 mm lenses with goggles and awkward 28mm VFs attached on the top.

Craig
 
Anyone know where to get a new top cap for an MP-4... love this camera, would never part with it.
 
Greetings Leica folks...

I tried to resist it by carrying my D100 and zooms every day all the time, but the lure of film and finely tuned metal gears instead of electrons
and plastic electronics parts was too overpowering...I'm shooting a Leica again! I've recently purchased an M4-P to add to my now rarely
used IIIc for my personal shooting fun.

I was trying to get any information I could on my new camera and ran the serial number past Leica's Model Inquiry page here:
http://www.leica-camera.com/cgi-bin/overview.pl/en/sn2p

Their page (as did Mr. Gandy's page) identified my clearly marked M4-P thusly:

>Your inquiry resulted in the following information:
>Serial number 1532***
>Product Leica M4-2

Anyone have an explanation for that? Did I luck out and unknowingly get some super rare collectable M4-P prototype for small money from
the original owner or has my hotshoe (thereby SN) just been replaced with one from an older M4-2? (Is that even possible?) My front plate is
marked as a "LEICA M4-P" with the nice "Leitz" engraved in the top and "MADE BY LEITZ CANADA" in the back. It has the more cluttered
M6 frames and has probably been worked on sometime in the past by Sherry, judging from what looks like a K st&ed into the adjustment
screw seal at the bayonet mount. It looks like it maybe has new covering given the nice condition the 'leather' is in compared to the rest of
the finish. The normal M4-P Leitz red-dot was replaced with a Leica red-dot and it has the prerequisite dings in the top plate and typical
chroming in all the normal places. In short, it shoots very well and I love it for its value as a nice usable camera even though I have to use my
digiSix with it. All I've added is an old screw mount style strap and of course a black Tom A Softie release.

I'm just curious to know more about it. Anyone have any ideas?

Carpe Luminem,
Michael Eric Bérubé
www.goodphotos.com
www.cascobayweekly.com
 
My guess is the camera is an M4-2 with the framelines and top-plate replaced= =20 with M4-P hardware. The other possibility is that Sherry had the M4-2 with=20 that serial# as a basket-case parts camera and your M4-P needed a new=20 hot-shoe. Either way, there isn't any significant difference between the 2=20 models besides the framelines, and in its condition it isn't likely you'll b= e=20 called upon to authenticate it to a collector.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top