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Leica M2 vs M4 vs M6 Any Real Difference in Optical Results?

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250swb said:
'Benchmark' in these terms are what film photographers imposed on digital capture in the olden days to gauge it against film and the darkroom, but now the benchmark is blurred and the argument has moved on. If you are saying a silver print is still superior then it's equally valid to say a digital camera is now 'better' than a film camera (leaving out large format and and the usual traps associated with talking colloquially). So print the superior digital file with an inferior inkjet printer and call it a tie, the silver print quality benchmark becomes meaningless. If you are a film photographer you know you can embrace all sorts of film formats each with their own qualities and not call on benchmarks to judge which is better, so is a large format image printed on an inkjet better or worse than a half frame printed in the darkroom? It's called opening a can of worms.
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I guess what I was trying to say is that if I cannot get superior results with a new approach, I don't bother.

I've yet to see an inkjet produce better monochrome output, but I'm open to that possibility. I am also well aware that I do not have exhaustive of knowledge and haven't seen everything possible. It's just that what I have seen was underwhelming even fairly recently.
 
chuckroast said:
I guess what I was trying to say is that if I cannot get superior results with a new approach, I don't bother.

I've yet to see an inkjet produce better monochrome output, but I'm open to that possibility. I am also well aware that I do not have exhaustive of knowledge and haven't seen everything possible. It's just that what I have seen was underwhelming even fairly recently.
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And still 90% of photos - even in a coffee table photo book - are consumed in sub-optimal settings.
 
RezaLoghme said:
And still 90% of photos - even in a coffee table photo book - are consumed in sub-optimal settings.
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There is no question there is mass appeal for the newer style output.

However. I make prints primarily for myself and a tiny circle of friends, family, and the odd buyer, not mass consumption. So I do things my way and very traditionally since that's what I find most satisfying.
 
chuckroast said:
However. I make prints primarily for myself and a tiny circle of friends, family, and the odd buyer, not mass consumption. So I do things my way and very traditionally since that's what I find most satisfying.
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Same here and I consider myself to be a lucky bastard to be able to do it exactly as I like, whenever I like. It's the greatest luxury in life I can imagine, second only to being married to a wonderful women.
 
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I once owned two M2's. The internal "blacking" of the early one with button rewind was definitely inferior to the later manufactured model. Never compared the two.
 
skahde said:
Let us know how you are getting through security-checks, last year in Morocco it was a breeze while in Spain I couldn't avoid my film being scanned, fortunately Malaga still had conventional scanners.
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Managed to get through several airline check points, one on a ferry and one at a museum without any X-rays! Lots of hand checks and a few times when the film and camera were just passed along outside the machine. Part of this was due to the charm of my partner Barbara, who usually manages to get her way. Just had the film processed and exposures look good, even though I had to compensate some for those funny shutter speeds.
 
I think the M6 has better xray protection than the old bodies.

I cannot prove it with sample photos, but I feel it.
 
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It’s the laws of cosmic spaghetti at work
 
As long as you stay away from airports, the gods of the silverhalide protect you when you carry your M, it seams.
 
skahde said:
As long as you stay away from airports, the gods of the silverhalide protect you when you carry your M, it seams.
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It must be that some films care more about this than others. I traveled internationally last year and this year carrying some combination of 35mm Tri-X, Double-X, and Fomapan 200, going through multiple airports along the way. I saw no hint of fog on any of these. The Tri-X did turn out grainer than I like but that wouldn't be an airport scanner artifact, I don't think.
 
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RezaLoghme said:
I think the M6 has better xray protection than the old bodies.

I cannot prove it with sample photos, but I feel it.
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What leads you to assume that? FWIW i never leave film in camera bodies when going through an airport...
 
chuckroast said:
Some of my through points were the giant airports of Paris, Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas, Rome, Athens etc. All of these have fairly modern scanning systems, presumably run at full power.
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Yeah and at smaller airports different scanners might be found.
 
Optical results are based on the Lens used, not the camera body.
 
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