Honestly, the only thing that bugged me in use about the M6 Classic was the light meter. To be clear, I didn’t have an issue with the metering accuracy itself— my inconveniences were more about the metering display in the viewfinder and the subsequent handling of exposure. I’m not sure that everyone will have the same problems with it as I did so take this with a a grain of salt, but my brain always confused the under/over exposure arrows as the opposite of what they were meant to display when combined with the rotational direction of shutter speeds on the dial. On top of that, the shutter dial really isn’t convenient to access on the top plate of the camera (like, at all), so I always defaulted to changing the aperture to adjust exposure. After spending plenty of time with the camera, these nitpicky details started annoying me and I began looking around for M6 alternatives.

I know, I know… You’ve done your research and you want to call me out for not trying out an M6 TTL since it solves the whole shutter dial thing. Well, I did. And yes, the shutter dial runs the opposite way on that version of the M6, but I just can’t justify having that much money tied up in a 35mm camera (even if it’s only slightly more than the M6 Classic) given other options on the market. Again, the Leica M6 is arguably the best camera around when you look at the quality of it. But as I used it (and loved it, to be fair) for a few years, I realized that I’d rather “downgrade” to another 35mm camera once I factored things like price and metering simplicity into things. I decided to go with a Hexar RF, but the Zeiss Ikon is an equally impressive option. Are either of those cameras objectively better than the M6? I’d probably have to say no, but I do think the Hexar RF is a better camera for me when I weigh out the pros and cons of owning one. I appreciate the Hexar’s price tag and it’s viewfinder: it not only makes reading exposure a whole easier for me, it also displays my shutter speed right there in the frame… Just like the Mamiya 6.