Minilux

["Michael R. Friedberg" <mrflaw@ibm.net>]

fconley asked about experiences with the Minilux, While I haven't tried the
new black model, I did treat myself to the regular Titanium one for Xmas and
thought I would share my experiences with the group.

Before purchase, I really did research what to do. There's only a few
competitive point and shoots --Contax T2, Hexar, Nikon TI35, and the new
Minolta. But the Leica is on sale (through 1/31 only, I think) which makes
the T2(by about $175)and Minolta (by about $$350, I guess) more expensive. I
don't like the 28mm lens of the Minolta --great for landscapes but too
limiting otherwise. The Hexar is much bigger, and so the choice for me was
really the Nikon or Leica.

The salesman talked me into the Nikon, despite my better instincts and Leica
owenership tradition. I tried the Nikon and really didn't like it. While it
did have more viewfinder information (important to me) and more information
generally (all those cute retro gauges on top, including distance), I had
three problems with the Nikon --for a point and shoot there are different
buttons throughout the camera body (it's not intuitive), the metering seemed
off, and the optics were just okay. I know the magazines highly rate them,
but the lens didn't seem to have the contrast I like. No "pop".

Luckily, the Nikon was returnable and I did get the Minilux. A much better
camera in my view. The lens is not the equal of my Summicron 35/2, but its
surprising close. Leica advertises that the lens has the same "color
balance" as its regular lenses --I paid little attention to this before
purchase, but it does make a difference. I can't tell if its the color or
the contrast, but the lens does produce some hard-to-define "Leica-look"
(someone months ago said it was an optical trick about optimizing resolution
for in-focus areas only, but I'm not sure that's what it is here). To me,
the results look better than the Nikon.

The camera is easy to operate -really one basic control to almost always use
and one additional mode button to sometimes use. Autofocus is on the mark.
Fill flash works (despite the salesman telling me it had an engineering
defect which he learned while visiting Solms). The body is small enough to
fit in a pocket. It looks good, feels good and shoots good. 

I would make the following criticisms about the Minilux:

1. It would be nice to be able to attach a filter (if not a small lens
shade) to the lens. The Contax small zoom lux P&S does have a filter thread
and its hard if not impossible to shoot B&W without a filter.

2. Buy the small optional case. Leica really shouldn't have cut corners here
and included a case, like the Nikon does.

3. Autofocus can be typically slow. Since I really view this as a grab shot
camera, it can be annoying, but I obviously haven't tested this AF against
others (my Nikon SLR seemed faster).

4. The red-eye reduction preflash/then regular flash seems awkward and s-l-o-w.

5. It'd be nice to have _some_ better information in the finder --at least
one of speed/aperature/distance. The red/green light approach is a little
annoying, since green doesn't simply mean "go" and red "don't go". But most
controls really are intuitive --I disagree with the reviews that say the
user has to go through many steps.

6. Because of the lens' quiet leaf shutter plus a little hard-to-press (no
"click") shutter button  you can't always tell when you take the exposure.
You have the wait for the winder to "whir" to the next shot --and I've moved
the camera prematurely a few times.

At $700 to $750 until the end of this month, the Minilux is a great buy. The
lens makes it worth it, although this is subjective. To me, the only
comparisons should be to a Rollei 35s or a CL. But unlike those this is a
new camera, with autofocus and autoexposure. It's a portable point and
shoot, albeit one with a Panasonic body and lenses rumored by Hoya. 

For taking the kids to Disneyworld, it think it beats the M-series.