Free Research.

[FortunkoC@aol.com]

Wolf,

I do not agree with you. Leica is a niche market for those of us who want to
learn the technical as well as aesthetic aspects of photography. Most
"famous" and not-so-famous manufacturers today are interested in the mass
market, which is best addressed by selling plastic and lots of film and
one-hour prints. Also, most people would rather buy a new car than a new
Leica, lenses, and accesories. Therefore, I do not believe that the Japanese,
or any other, camera companies are interested in us as a market.

What worries me more is the fact that Leica may not be interested in
innovation any more. They seem to be more interested in buying companies.
Recently, they bought Magnavox in California. The also bought Cambridge
Instruments. Sounds familiar?

This is OK with me since I cannot afford new lenses anyway. Fortunately,
there is plenty of good stuff on the used market and many of the older lenses
and goodies appear to be superior to the new products in terms of
workmanship. The optical performance of the used stuff is probably also very
acceptable.

I cannot conceive of an autofocus Leica. Such a camera would need a battery
of new, bulky lenses and would use plenty of electrical power. Probably, this
market is already served by cameras such as Nikon F4 and its brothers and
sisters from Canon, Minolta, and most others.  I would not want to own one of
those cameras anyway. 

The M-series camera is pretty big and clumsy compared to the screw-mount
cameras. May be Leica should consider a slimmer M, without the flap in the
back but with a better viewfinder and a laser range finder or, may be,
passive infrared one, with a focus-indicator in the viewfinder. Granted, this
camera will need battery power, but it would be small and could use the older
lenses. The current range finder is a marvel of engineering, but lasers did
not exist when the M3 came out.  

The M-5 has a shutter-speed selection feature that I rather like. It uses a
selection wheel that protrudes in front of the body and allows me to run the
camera in a "poor-man's" aperture-priority mode.This feature is great, in my
humble opinion, and I use it a lot.

Recently, I heard a rumor that an M6.2 is on the way. Does anyone know how
much real difference is there between an R6.2 and R6? I hope that Leica does
not follow this route with respect to the M6. We need something revolutionary
every forty years, or so.

Pax et Lux,

Chris Fortunko