Dear Chairman Schopf, Thank you for your kind e-mail greetings of December 17, "...to wish you a very happy and relaxing Christmas" and " ... [to] wish you all the best for the new year and continuing pleasure with your Leica products." You will be happy to learn that I am enjoying my Leica M9 and have used it extensively both at home and travelling. I used an M4 for many years and so the M9 brings back wonderful memories and it gracefully fulfills many of my digital camera needs. On a less happy note, I am in the process of cleaning my Leica R9 camera and DMR, three Vario-Elmar lenses and two other lenses, getting them ready for disposal in the new year and replacing them with Nikon equipment, because I have no longer any reason to believe that Leica will offer me an upgrade path for the R System. I have waited for several years, hoping for some tangible development, with no results, and I need to move on. I'm sure you are familiar with this issue and that you will understand. This step pains me greatly because of the immense pleasure and wonderful results I enjoyed with the R System through several model changes since 1986 when I began with an R4S. I send my thanks for the M9 and my hopes for Leica's success with the S System and for a prosperous new year for the firm. Sincerely, Bill Abbott Saratoga, California USA------ Unsubscribe or change to/from Digest Mode at: http://www.lrflex.furnfeather.net/ Archives are at: //www.freelists.org/archives/leicareflex/