>>3849717Sure. They can also achieve higher max speeds (also for flash).
But the M Leicas didn't care about that, even the M7 has an 1/1000 max shutter speed and 1/50 sync speed, while cloth shutters can do 1/2000 easily (Olympus OM-4) and 1/60 sync.
I'm guessing the primary reason was smoothness and quietness, a cloth shutter wins there, it is more "thumpy" than "clicky" if it makes sense.
The only metal shutter that is almost as smooth and almost as quiet is the overcomplicated Contax (rf) shutter (also found in Kievs), but it comes with its own host of issues.
I believe that even the choice for the M7 "undeperforming" shutter for a metal one, was a conscious choice, choosing low tensioning and slow traveling curtains, just for the sound of it. And I suspect they would've used a cloth one, but at that point nobody was producing electronically controlled cloth shutters, and they wanted it to be able to do aperture priority. So if I were to hazard a guess, they were "forced" to use a metal one and did their best to match the "quietness" and "smoothness" of a cloth one.
Also a secondary reason might be that metal shutters are easier to damage through *human error*. They're more fragile and bend easily if you accidentally poke them with a finger. This is much more of an issue with a film camera where you load film often, and even more so with an RF with no mirror to protect the shutter when changing lenses.
