[Leica] M9 or M9.2 or M10 or even S2

[lrzeitlin at gmail.com (Lawrence Zeitlin)]

Mark writes:
"I've held one (S2) in my hands. I've looked through it. I made it go
"click"

numerous times. On two different occasions. It was like another thing which

happened to me once which I never forgot. Twelve cylinders. I sat in a

passenger seat of a Jaguar once in 1970. Never got over that."

- - - - -

Mark,

The big mistake with 1950 through 1980 Jaguars was actually owning one. I've
owned three, a beautiful sexy bright red Jag XK 140MC, a slightly used blue
E type, and a 3.4 sedan (the kind Inspector Morris drove). All were
wonderful to drive, at least for a while, but took at least one hour of
maintenance for each hour of driving. No fooling. The two sports cars spent
as much time in the shop as they did on the road - and it was a Jaguar
dealership so I guess the mechanics knew what they were doing. The XK 140
was probably the worst engineered car I ever owned. Obviously constructed
for British roads, the speedometer was in front of the passenger seat, the
slightly angled engine intruded into the diver's foot well, and the
adjustable steering wheel adjusted to all the wrong positions. The engine
had enough torque to snap the wire spokes on the knock off hub wheels. You
could hear a "ping" on every rapid acceleration. The wheel hub knock offs
tended to freeze in position and required a sledge hammer to budge. The rack
and pinion steering developed terminal looseness and the car wandered all
over the highway. One wheel brake failed and was could not be repaired by
the mechanics. For several years I had three wheel braking on the car. Thank
God for wide California roads. It would have been lethal on narrow Engish
lanes. The E type had similar problems but I kept it less than a year,
selling it to someone more insane than I at a considerable profit. The 3.4
sedan was, in my humble opinion, the best car Jaguar ever made if you could
afford the parts and maintenance. But it was hardly a sporting vehicle.


I'm saying this to point out that clicking the shutter of an S2 a few times
and not having it explode in your hands is a scant reason to buy the camera.
Any more than a ride in the passenger seat of a Jaguar. If you lust for an
S2 and have the money to spend, go out an buy one. Just let the rest of us
know the unvarnished truth of owning an untested new design with a minimal
lens battery, produced by a small company with limited engineering and
testing resources. Remember "Never be the first by whom the new is tried,
nor last to cast the old aside."

So I don't use my 4x5 Speed Graphic anymore.

Larry Z