> From: Thor Legvold <tlegvold@xxxxxxx> > Date: Sun, 15 Nov 2009 23:01:39 +0100 > > Funny enough people have been arguing over Leica recently. > I was in NY last week, and had Sunday off, so I wandered around > Riverside park with my Rolleiflex D. At one point an elderly gentleman > stopped to compliment me on my camera, and we ended up talking for an > hour or so. He had a Leica M6 with him, and asked me to take his > picture with it (and took mine with the Rollei). > > Never having used a Leica before (well, actually I did try a friends R > years ago, once), I was very impressed by the feel and smoothness. > Focusing was very easy, the lens helical was butter smooth and the > shutter firm but responsive. All in all it gave me a very good > impression. The display wasn't obvious (exposure meter indicator), but > I figured it out eventually. > > With that said, I can imagine the body alone costs a small fortune, > not to mention lenses for it. I was out shooting with my Contax IIa > today, and while it doesn't have as modern a feel as the Leica did, > I'm confident that the glass is at least on a par, if not better > (Zeiss Sonnar 50/1.5 and 85/2 used today). If helps that I had Henry > Scherer restore it to as new a while back.... > > Anyway, I did get a positive impression of the camera. I'm told that > film loading is a holdover from the dark ages, but I didn't go there. > Just appreciated the feel of a well made camera. > > Just thought I'd share that with everyone :-) > > Cheers, > Thor > Hi Thor, After being a long-time user of Olympus OM-1 through OM-4 cameras, I bought a Leica R5 because it had rgonomics most similar to the OM series, and the R5's functionally was only somewhat behind the OM-4's technology. The Leica lenses are what sets the camera apart from every other 35mm camera I've owned or used. They are superb. Unfortunately, Leica has not come around with a digital body for my R lenses (the DMR being less than full frame is not an option that interested me, and I'm also not interested in the compromises involved in fitting the Leica lenses to other makes of bodies). To bring the discussion closer to medium format, I have been equally disappointed in a lack of a full-frame digital back for my 6008i, which was one of the optimistic reasons that I invested in that system (not that I am in the least disappointed with its performance with film). However, Leica has challenged the whole idea of medium format digital with their new S2, and I have to say that if money were no issue, I would probably go all-in on this one. I've read many reviews of the new camera, and in some ways this one, like the others, misses some of the history of MF digital, but Farkas does a good job of talking up the strengths of the S2 and the philosophy behind the new lenses. http://dfarkas.blogspot.com/2009/11/leica-s2-review-test-shooting-in.html -- Best, Neil --- Rollei List - Post to rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx - Subscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'subscribe' in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org - Unsubscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org - Online, searchable archives are available at //www.freelists.org/archives/rollei_list