[Leica] Which camera would you always carry on your pocket?

[Bartphotog at aol.com (Bartphotog@aol.com)]

In a message dated 9/5/06 1:24:43 PM, philippe.orlent@pandora.be writes:

<< Just know that it only has a 4 blade diaphragm.
The Yashica T4 might be a better option. >>

It, too, is a delightfully simple and effective camera.  Zeiss 35/3.5 lens, 
which retracts behind protective "trapdoor," autofocus with manual infinity 
setting, pretty noisy autowinder, programmed AE with +1.5 backlight control, 
cancellable autoflash, and essentially as pocketable (at less than half the 
weight, I'd guess) than the Rollei 35 or Nikon 35Ti and their ilk.  Mine was 
a gift 
from a friend who doesn't keep anything he doesn't regularly use, after he 
went 100% digital.  It's my leave-in-the-car-so-I-always- have-a-camera 
camera, 
replacing my Rollei 35SE in that role, though I still use the latter.  I 
recently read that Yashica T4s, or at least the T4Super in the "champagne" 
case, are 
now fetching some pretty astonishing prices on the auction site, but I think 
that's not the case for plain black plastic ones like mine.  I also endorse 
wholeheartedly the Olympus XA (the original with the coupled rangefinder, 
not 
the later autofocus or guess-focus (?) XA2, 3, etc.).  Found mine at a 
garage 
sale for $5 last fall, in part because of a cracked VF front window.  Both 
the 
T4 and the XA take splendid pictures, and if you can't find room to carry 
one 
of those, you just don't really want to carry a camera!

Bart