I just received my R9 and DM-R last night; UPS overnight service left it on my porch. I opened the shipping box and found two plain brown wrapper boxes. I opened them to find two shining Leica boxes. Leica thinks enough of its packaging to protect the Leica boxes with an outer skin. The equipment is packaged with a lot of padding and protection. None of my other cameras or computer equipment was packaged with so much care or pride. So last night I charged the battery, I only have one, my second battery is on backorder, Leica says it will be two weeks before they get more. It took two hours for the new battery to charge. During that time I read part of the manuals, as I'm new to Leica camera bodies etc. My first step was to replace the focusing screen in the R9 with the one provided with the DM-R. The new focusing screen has a boarder to show the new smaller image area. With that completed, next task was to remove the battery cover and the film back on the R9. I attached the digital back then the power unit, and when the battery is fully charged I can take my first picture. The sun was setting when the battery finished charging, so I attached a 28mm lens and took pictures until I filled the 512 MB SD card. These pictures were only to see if everything is working, not to compete with Doug's images. This weekend I was supposed to go to the Skagit Valley in Washington (from the Bay Area in California) for the Tulip Festival, but due to all the rain here and there I'm heading for another valley, Death Valley. Since I only have one battery, I may be using my Canon 1D Mark II (with my Leica lenses) more than I wanted too. As I mentioned in a previous email, I didn't buy the DM-R earlier because of my concern for the short battery life. I also mentioned the Digital Camera Battery that several of my friends use with Canon cameras, flashes, and laptops etc. Now that I have the DM-R, I see it is very easy for them to make the cable for the DM-R, as there is an 8-pin socket on the side of the unit so it can be powered by using accessory # 14 452. This allows the camera to be used in a studio for many hours, the 14 452 uses 120 volts then converts the AC to DC to power the DM-R. The weather in Death Valley should be cloudy with temperatures in the 80?s F. I?ll post some pictures when I return. Alan alansiegle@xxxxxxxxxxxxx View my photographs by visiting my Homepage at- http://homepage.mac.com/alansiegle ------ Unsubscribe or change to/from Digest Mode at: http://www3.telus.net/~telyt/lrflex.htm Archives are at: //www.freelists.org/archives/leicareflex/