It's been a rough couple of weeks but I got back behind a camera today. Has anyone any experience with the way a battery fails in an MP? The meter was a bit strange today—flashing back and forth between one thing and another. The film, XP2, was exposed at my usual ISO200, and developed in my usual regime of 1:100 Rodinal. But there were whited out negs and black ones, along with a very few decent ones. I've changed the battery in case that was the problem and I'll try again tomorrow, weather permitting.
For those who might be curious, the Leica MP is a film rangefinder with a purely mechanical shutter (the M7 has an electronic, battery dependent shutter), a meter which requires a working battery as noted above, but the metering is all manual; no aperture priority as in the M7. Rumour has it they receive a little extra love in the factory and all the brass gears inside are polished a bit brighter so they work even more smoothly than the M7s. I don't think it is true.
Chris