[Leica] Pocket cameras

[lrzeitlin at optonline.net (Lawrence Zeitlin)]

On Mar 5, 2009, at 2:40 AM, Henning wrote:

> I've recently started using the Canon G10 after trying various other
> cameras, and have found it to be the best so far. It's fairly
> responsive if set up right, has good battery life and shoots RAW
> fairly quickly. Image quality is quite decent,


At last some common sense about pocket cameras. I've had it with the  
new ultra tiny digitals too small to sport optical viewfinders. You  
younger guys can't imagine how difficult it is to use a TFT screen if  
you wear bifocals. First you have to look at the scene to be  
photographed through the distance portion of your eyeglasses, then  
bob your head to view the screen on the camera, then look at the  
scene again to make sure nothing has changed, then the viewing screen  
- - -   After bobbing you head up and down like a pigeon you  
eventually get to take the picture. My wife, on the other hand is far  
sighted. She finds that her arms are too short to see the viewing  
screen comfortably. Watching her take pictures is amusing. She stalks  
around with the camera, arms straight out as far as she can reach and  
head tipped back to get enough viewing distance.

Photography in bright sunlight with one of the tiny viewing screen  
cameras is another joke. The screen washes out entirely with only  
vague hints of an image. The best strategy seems to be to point the  
camera in the general direction of the subject, with the lens set to  
its broadest field of view, and trust that you will be able to crop  
the resulting picture to get the image you wanted.

As far as I have been able to determine, only Canon and Sony still  
feature real optical viewfinders on some of their P&S digital  
cameras. And those are disappearing rapidly. Tiny cameras should be  
made to hold up to the eye, as God intended. Now if Leica would only  
produce a digital CL at a reasonable price, my fondest wish would be  
fulfilled.

Larry Z