John Howard Loc: SW Florida and Blue Ridge Mountains of NC.

I am new to this group and have been traveling with a way too heavy DSLR for the past few years. I am beginning to consider investing in a Leica M camera and lens collection. It is difficult to evaluate as where I live there are no stores that carry high end gear. So please excuse this question.

I understand the M has a live view mode and a 3 inch screen. I do not understand why for different lens you need different viewfinders. I guess viewing only thru the integral viewer, you cannot see the limits of the lens width and this prevents accurate cropping before the shot. But can't you do this in live view by looking at the screen. Does the view screen accurately represent the image you are shooting?

Any info would be appreciated,
John Howard

TedPaul Loc: Madison, MS

Sold all my equip. Waiting for my M(240). I have 3 M lense, 35, 50, and 90. AlsonR lense 50, 135, 28-70 and a 500. As soon as I get the M I'll try to respond.i liked my M8 and sure I'll like the full frame M.

AuntieM Loc: Eastern NC

Welcome. Am not familiar with Leica, but I am sure someone on the site will be able to give you some advice. Looking forward to seeing some of your photos.

BrianS

The M240 Liveview provides accurate framing, but is an optional mode on the M 240. You can always use the optical viewfinder and focus using the rangefinder mechanism for RF coupled lenses, M-Mount and Leica Thread Mount lenses going back 80 years.

The optical viewfinder has "framelines" for 6 focal lengths, 28/35/50/75/90/135. These framelines are parallax corrected, but are not 100% of the field of view. They are closer to 90%, and provide margin. for pictures that require exact framing, the Liveview mode is an advantage.