[Leica] Rangefinders

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

Well boys girls and others [as my Mother used to say],

It is my turn to pontificate on the new rangefinder to the world's stable.
Firstly let me say, that it suggests to me that we have been a bit harsh on
Leica over the last few years in our many and endless critisisms of their
old/obsolete technology, but more of that at the end.

When I first reviewed the Fuji/Hasselblad X-pan [see the section on my home
page for the details] I was astonished with how closely the imposter had
copied the original. Now we see Konica by the comments of CdI doing the
same, only both have 1/125 sync, vertical shutters, motors and battery
dependence and AE auto exposure with exposure "lock". You will see from my
review that the X-Pan is not suited to using the AE when the camera is hand
held especially in lower light situations, as there is no shutter speed
information in the viewfinder. You have to pull the camera away from the
eye and look at the LED panel on the cameras back. This is a VERY tiresome
procedure, so I use the Camera like the M6 in Manual mode. I set the
shutter speed [and thus know it] and rotate the aperture to light up the
LED's. Unlike the M6 these are a bit hard to read in bright light, which is
a surprise when the camera is not really suited to low light situations
[slow lenses whose vignetting requires 2 stops to f8 to cure]. The Hexar
would appear to have the shutter speed information in the viewfinder, but
of course this will clutter and annoy those who would use it in manual mode
;-) or does the camera turn that off when its in Manual mode --- no they
couldn't be that "understanding" of the desires of the manual rangefinder
user at this early stage of their corporate exploration could they?

Like the Konica the X-Pan has an viewfinder with considerable
demagnification, though I cannot tell you exactly how much. This is of
course necessary for the panoramic mode, and is not likely to have been a
sweetener for glasses wearers. The rangefinder is bright and the camera is
easy to focus, though I missed my focus tab. Konica's lens does not have
the focus tab either. On the shutter of the X-Pan is a white area that the
camera uses to measure exposure, and cannot really be any better than the
Leica or Konica systems. There is no TTL flash control on X-Pan, though I
presume there is on the Konica. The X-Pan is very well made, and the Konica
"looks" the same. The X-Pan motor is very quiet, and it winds the film
through to the end before the first exposure. We hear [sic] that the Konica
is noisy, and that it does not. I would make a plea for the former. I
prefer the camera to wind back into the cassette. Noise is less of a
problem when I load a camera than when it "unpredicably" finishes the roll.
Both X-Pan and Konica would seem to owe a lot of their design features and
style to the Leica. Perhaps these cameras do come from the same stable.

So hats off to Leica, its exposure system is old, but has not been advanced
by the newcomers, who in the case of X-Pan do not even have TTL flash. It
suffers limitations from its "old" [but reliable] shutter, and the new kids
pick up a few features by replacing it. Its viewfinder remains unsurpassed,
and its rangefinder/framing options have been copied. Its rangefinder is
copied, but the new kids have lost the "accuracy" needed to use fast
lenses. Its loading is "unique", but the camera body is uncompromising. It
requires manual winding, but hell, we have Tom's rapidwinder, and we don't
need noise. Overall, the M series Leica remains the peak of rangefinder
development, and like the Contax G series and the CLE before it, the new
Konica Hexar may just prove to be a platform to tempt new users into the
market.

I add to this, that I am one of the group that believes that Leica do need
an M7, but I hope it will be "better" than this hybrid Hexar, which is
little more than the Minolta CLE model. Not that this is bad, but I suspect
that to make a better rangefinder with more automatic features that REALLY
work for the photographer, Leica will have to break the mould.

cheers

Alastair Firkin

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