Leica M2

This is a Leica M2. I got it from my dad, who bought it around 1962 or '63.

Let's take a quick look at it.

First of all, it's a hefty camera. It's metal and glass. It's heavy. It seems strong enough to hammer nails with. I get that same feeling as when I hold my old Lumix DMC-FZ30. It just feels like a good camera. Oddly, the Leica almost seems heavier since it's in such a small package.

On the top right is the film advance lever, which is really satisfying to cock, and when you push the shutter release, there's a gentle little click.
There's a shutter speed setting, and a film counter.
On the left, we can see the rewind knob, which sits flush with the top when not in use, and can be pulled up and twisted to rewind the film.
In the middle is a cold shoe.

On the front there is a self-timer (the long lever on the left) which runs just about 11 seconds. Above that is a small lever that needs to be pushed when you rewind the film.
Just to the left of the opening is the lens release button. 
On the right-hand side of the front face is a third level that lets you switch between 30mm, 50mm, and 90mm guidelines in the viewfinder. This locks onto position when the appropriate lens is attached, and the lever simply lets you see other formats as long as you hold it.

There are three, odd little windows on the front as well. On the far right is the viewfinder window, through which you see your scene. Next to that is a prism-like window to illuminate the guideline overlays in the viewfinder. Finally, to the left is the window for the small range finder overlay image which helps you line up your focus.

On the back, there's the viewfinder window on the left. Just under the hot shoe are two connections.
The left is for an electronic flash which uses a shutter speed between 1 second and 1/50 (designated by a small lightning arrow on the shutter speed dial.) The right connector is for flash bulbs. To be honest, these are both still a little mysterious to me.
Most of the back panel can also be raised when changing film, in order to help align the sprockets.

The bottom of the camera simply has the lock for the bottom plate, which is removed when loading film.


The aperture adjustment and focus ring are, of course, on the lens. It's sometimes funny to realize that aperture didn't used to be chosen with a small wheel on the camera body.

That's about it. Following are some photos from the first role I took with this. All these photos were shot on Fujifilm Industrial Film at ISO 100.

ƒ/5.61/12550mm

ƒ/161/12550mm

ƒ/5.61/12550mm

ƒ/2.81/850mm
You'll notice that there's a black bar on this bottom of this one. I found out that the shutter sticks a little when I shoot at 1/8 or slower.