the M9 is a clunky motorized beast compared to the silky M3…
…the M9's smaller, cluttered finder seems like it's broken by comparison, its shutter button feels like something is inside trying to fight you, and it sounds and feels like a Polaroid SX-70 gone berserk, with its noisy motor running after each shot to **** the shutter.
…The M9 feels more like an industrial product, not a smooth classic.
…The M9's shutter release is loaded with all sorts of kinks as you press it. The M9 has about three different levels of detent as you try to release the shutter.
…The M9's finder is the same dinky thing as every other Leica since 1980: low magnification to cover 28mm lenses (which you can't see anyway since the eyepiece is too small), and in its attempt to cover more lenses, the newer cameras, including the M9, show frame lines inside the frame line you're trying to use, and worse, the newer cameras rarely have compete frames and instead often just offer incomplete line segments, or just four corners.
…The M9 by comparison is a clunky beast, with its notchy shutter release, noisy motorized advance, and a finder that seems like it's broken compared to the M3's Meisterstück (masterpiece) of a rangefinding viewfinder system. You shoot the M9 because you want the images it can produce, not because it feels so good doing it. You can set the M9's shutter release to forgo the AE Lock, and remove one notch from the process, but not them all.
…Worse, there is a 75mm frame inside the 50mm frame we want! There really isn't any bottom to the M9's 50mm frame, and it doesn't look any better during actual use.
…the M9's finder is more like sitting on a bus
…the M9 bucks like a bronco after you press its clunky, several-click-deep shutter release.
...A nasty, noisy internal motor.*
...A ratchety affair with at least three different clicks as you try to force it in. It's as if your woman has furniture inside of her that you need to push out of the way with each stroke.
