Thanks for your experiences with the Zeiss alternative to the M, Mike.
I do need glasses for reading, and had wondered how I'd get on with diopter correction lenses on the camera - I assume it takes these! I still have an F3 Nikon that's hardly been used and I use a diopter lens with that, but I bought the things some years ago and have no idea where my eyesight lives right now - since nobody here seems to carry any stock of anything beyond the occasional body, it would be a shot in the dark trying to opt for such a correction lens.
My digi Nikons are a D200 and a D700 and I have manual lenses except for a 180mm which is af; I would be expecting an rf camera to be focussed a lot via the depth of field band at whatever aperture; at least Zeiss still uses proper markings on the lens barrels and so that should help somewhat with focus, at least for the sort of stuff I have in mind.
The principle reason I'm looking towards film rangefinder is weight and bulk. Both of my digis are too heavy for me to cart around for a morning or whatever and the F3 ain't that much better; I have umpteen camera bags and they all fail me: they become part of the problem rather than of the solution. My dream is an M6 with a 2/35 Summicron or, alternatively, a 28mm lens of some sort, but I still await the right sequence of numbers every week. Of course, the really, real dream is an M9, but I don't want the Fates to think me greedy so I keep that one close to my chest. But, something else that seems to be a bonus with Leica is the silence of the shutter on the film cameras, at least up to the M6, I think. The electrical ones are vertical, I believe, and faster, which probably causes the noise problem...
Any idea if the Voigtlander variations are any use as cameras? Did you consider them in your pre-purchase moments?
Rob C