[none]

[Alastair Firkin <firkin@netconnect.com.au>]

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From my personal experience I do not understand the negative attitudes
about the R8 I read on this list. I have had no problems with my R8. I
like the camera very much. I feel it is by far the best SLR Leica has
produced since the SL-2 and it is much nicer to use than that model was.
It has a great meter, a wonderful viewfinder, good flash capabilities
and a very solid feel. And, it enables one to use Leica lenses with an
SLR. I like my M6 but the R8 can do things that the rangefinder model
cannot do such as use a 280APO with 2x extender.
snip
A Leica AF SLR would be nice, but for the moment I am glad
they are making progress and that survival looks like a good
possibility. Again, have patience.
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Bob,
I agree with what you have said. Do you have a winder? I would have been
waxing lyrical about the R8 if I had not bought the winder. It is the best
"manual" SLR camera I've handled since my old SRT 101, where I used to line
up the circle and line and "shoot". Now, Leica are not the only ones with
design problems on new cameras, but after 4 years, we find even Ted getting
grumpy about the motor, and it was his raving that got me into the R8 with
the 15 super elmar in the first place ;-) Hasselblad/Fuji had the M6 and
CLE to put together the new panoramic X-Pan and in my opinion, its "A"
function is almost useless when the camera is hand held. Perhaps Hasselblad
have been stuck on tripods too long to be able to manufacture a "critical"
light camera with good hand held ergonomics. You can read more of my
comments on the X-Pan on my home page at the moment should it interest you
cheers

Alastair Firkin

http://users.netconnect.com.au/~firkin/AGFhmpg.html