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Another, dunked in an unnamed lake in the north woods backcountry, despite my attempts to save us all from the tipping canoe. One of many Pentax K1000s got its prism crushed when it swung against a spruce as I stumbled, backing away from a bear and her cub. I watched my Olympus OM-1 bounce down an icy arroyo in Colorado, rapidly losing most of the 1,000 feet of elevation we’d just gained in a long line of pitches. I’ve busted up plenty of cameras on hikes and climbs, bicycling, skiing, clowning around. Although, digital M cameras have the advantage of using a wide variety of lenses – including zooms – with the Live View feature. Since you are not looking through the lens itself, rather through the rangefinder window, you can’t zoom. Leica M cameras do not use zoom lenses, and this is an important thing to know. Bright frame-lines in the rangefinder guide your composition, and change automatically when different focal length lenses are mounted. But what makes the Leica M so special? “M” stands for “Messsucher,” which in German is the word for a combined rangefinder and viewfinder.* There is no mirror or prism, so you are looking directly through the rangefinder window at the world – nothing impedes your view. So long as the shutter is accurate, it works as well – or as poorly – as any other. Ultimately, any camera body is just a box with a shutter. Enough about me this page is supposed to be about the Leica M Rangefinder camera.