[Leica] Vision correction (also Hexar RF)

[henningw at archiphoto.com (Henning Wulff)]

At 3:13 PM -0500 11/16/06, Leonard Taupier wrote:
>Peter,
>
>That's a nice ad for monovision contacts. I'm glad it's working out 
>for you. I doubt I would ever get contacts as my progressives are 
>just fine, except for the scratched lenses with the older M bodies. 
>Also I'm too old to change my ways now.
>
>You might like to look into a .58 body. I shoot a lot of 28mm and 
>found it pretty impossible to correctly frame with the .72 
>viewfinder. I picked up a 28mm viewfinder and that was fine. When I 
>got my Tri-Elmar, going back and forth between viewfinders was kind 
>of a pain.  Then my dealer got in a beautiful black .58 M7 and I 
>picked it up. I love that camera. The 28mm frame is just right for 
>me. I'm afraid my M6 and MP are being neglected. Sometimes I'll go 
>out with just a 50 Summicron  in which case any body is fine.

I found that the lower magnification of the Hexar RF is ideal for use 
with the Tri-Elmar; it makes a wonderful outdoor travel package.

For the most part the Hexar RF's have been great cameras for me. Mine 
have stayed quite well in adjustment in spite of having been banged 
around a bit. I'm not terribly hard on equipment, but they've each 
had quite a few hundred rolls through them, possibly over a thousand. 
They are ideal for use with 35mm lenses (I wear glasses), perfect 
with the Tri-Elmar but not quite accurate enough for use with the 
90/2. I've carried one with the Tri-Elmar and an M6 or 7 with various 
faster and fixed lenses on a number of trips, and in the summer 
around here it's often just the Hexar and the Tri-E.

Battery life is good; I get about 150 to 200 rolls per set. Metering 
is fine, but the shutter speeds are hard to see at times because you 
have to line up your eye correctly. The exposure compensation is a 
lot better than that of the M7. I don't care for the flip-open back, 
preferring the Leica M way which I actually find to be at least as 
fast and more mis-load proof.

I almost lost one of the eyepieces. That would be a disaster, as the 
glass is not flat but an optical element. A little bit of loktite 
helped. I did lose the framing selector lever on one body. I now did 
the loktite to the other body.

Early on when I heard about the register thing I did some 
calculations and tests;  on that basis my 35/1.4 was the most 
unforgiving with respect to depth of focus, and it didn't have any 
issues. Thereafter I just took pictures and never noticed a problem.

-- 
    *            Henning J. Wulff
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