The Allure of Mechanical Precision

One of the great losses we’ve encountered with the advent of digital imaging is the loss of the mechanicalness of cameras. Sure, there’s still a fluidity you see in the better cameras that is wholly absent in lesser models, but I don’t feel the came physical connection with any of my current cameras that I did with some of my older, mechanical cameras.

In a recent post on Tokyo Camera Style (which is, I’ll be totally honest, film camera porn), John Sypal writes about someone else’s Leica M6 that has been tuned by a repairman:

The film advance experience on his M6 is like cutting through a warm slab of butter with a lightsaber powered by the dreams of children around the world.

I have had both an M6 and an M4-P and they were beautiful creations, intuitive and a natural extension of my hands and eye. But I never had one like that … and now I want to.