Re: R6 and R7

[Bill Grimwood <bgrim@garply.com>]

At 05:46 PM 3/28/96 -0500, you wrote:
>   Date: Thu, 28 Mar 1996 14:25:58 CST
>   From: Sweendog <sweenma@WKUVX1.WKU.EDU>
>
>   I currently use an old M3 and an F4E and an FM2n. Is the switch to
>   Leica R worth the hassle and are the lenses the same as M glass? Folks
>   I've talked to said they didn't like the R glass for some reason,
>   which was a while ago.
>
>According to the books I have, a few of the lens formulations are the
>same (like the 135mm/2.8 Elmarit-R), but many of them are different.
>Marc Small has made the point that starting a few years ago, a lens
>designer at Leica had decided to remove from new R lens formulas the
>residual spherical aberration that gives M lenses their characteristic
>look (I think Marc calls it the "Leica glow"), so if you shell out a
>jillion skillion dollars for that hot new APO lens that tests so well,
>you might find that it doesn't have the look you liked so much from
>your M lenses.  But there are plenty of older lenses around, and I
>think you will find that almost all of them are really very good.
>
>You can also use Visoflex lenses on your R Leica, although I
>personally never have.
>
>   I have one other question, how are the older R bodies, such as the
>   R4s and R5? Does anybody still use these older bodies or have they all
>   switched to the R7?
>
>I have an R4s that I bought from Bill Grimwood last summer (I think
>he's a subscriber to this list now).  I'm quite happy with it as a
>second body, and always put it in my backpack along with my R6.2 when
>I'm going out to do some shooting.  However, the design of the R4S is
>not everything one might like -- you can't see in the finder what
>shutter speed you've set and there's no mirror prefire.  Now that the
>R7 is out used R5's are more of a bargain, so that'd perhaps be a more
>flexible choice (although it still doesn't have mirror prefire).
>
>-Patrick
>

Patrick it is nice to know that you are enjoying your R4s.  Nothing beats a
satisfied customer.

Bill Grimwood