That's my point, Bill. As we all have different visual goals, we all have different tools (cameras) which are the best for our aims. For Clive's work, it's apparent that the M2 is the best. It shows in the work he posts. For someone who wants to do grand landscapes, it won't be.
Different visual goals - exactly. cliveh lives the Decisive Moment teachings of Henri Cartier-Bresson. I live in the darkroom and look for beauty in the print. For me, the Decisive Moment is "sometime during my lifetime". Though cliveh and I both revel in the photograph where everything comes together, for the moment of exposure I usually put the camera on a tripod and stand back to allow the shutter to fire.
cliveh, a few times you talked about SLR experience as "looking through a tunnel" - I wonder if you feel that way even with the OM-series from Olympus and the Spotmatic family from Pentax? I know that the "big bright viewfinder" was a casualty of modern technology. But the Pentax is 1:1 with a 50mm lens, and the OM-1 is larger than life-size.
Just as everything in the M2 system comes together... Once SLR systems added f/1.4 lenses (to make the finder bright enough to see) and instant-return mirrors (sorry Contaflex you missed both those features). And the "automatic" apertures (which stop down after you release the shutter). All those features made SLR "as useful" as the M2. I think it was Fred Picker who said the best camera was the Leica for 35mm and 50mm, and the Nikon for telephoto.
