[Leica] Re: Minilux questions

[Sean Murphy <murfman@pacifier.com>]

Hi Richard,

Thanks for the kind words!

Let me say that going from a IIIC, to the Minilux was great. I haven't
had a single regret, its a real Leica, workmanship, performance,
features... The flash is smart and powerful, when the spec says 25 feet,
its' true! The Minilux is so quiet that people ask me if it is a digital
camera. If you hold the shutter down it will motor drive at 2 fps, full
auto or aperture preferred shooting ...I've shot with all kinds of other
gear, but this gets out of the way and lets me have fun! I think of it
as the "fast Leica" as opposed to the IIIc as the "slow Leica"; one is
for every day use and one for contemplative use.
 On the down side the "red eye" flash (little flash-big flash) is a
little slow, people think the first is the actual shot. And it is
battery powered - I've used the IIIc on mountain tops in zero temps. And
with the baby I kind of wish I had bought the date back too...

I think you can tell I like it - oh yeah the pictures are great! People
ask all the time when looking at them "what kind of camera did you use?"

Let me answer your questions below directly
Richard W. Hemingway wrote:

> Sean,
>
> Enjoyed your post and welcome to the LUG!!! Have a few questions about
>
> the Minilux.
>
> I have been thinking about getting one also.  I presently have both
> the M
> and R systems to some extent, but the R is too heavy for my wife and
> she
> can't use the M! I have a Leica Mini which she likes, but I have also
> been thinkiing about the Minilux.
>
> 1- does the MLux turn off after 5 min or so and revert back to the
> first
> mode when you turn it on???

No but when you turn it off your self it will go back to default mode
which is auto- but the modes are mostly flash control- on off, auto, red
eye; and two special shutter speeds, B and a slower shutter to fill in
backgrounds when the flash light the foreground. I pretty much leave it
in auto most of the time, the flash will fill if it is needed  or will
blast if it has to.

> 2- how do you set the MLux manually at infinity??  Is there a knob
> with
> this setting - or is it like the mini and have to keep pushing buttons
>
> until you get there??
>  

Nope its a knurled knob on top, just dial it in on the click stops.

> 3- how good is the eye relief for persons wearing glasses???

Ah here's a potential down side, the finder is small makes me feel right
at home like the IIIc but not as small... I wear contacts so I just
tried holding it away a bit hmm not too bad

> 4- have you shot slides with it - and how well are they exposed??

Funny, for a guy who has shot thousand or two chromes over the years, I
haven't shot much with the Minilux! I guess cause it's hard to show
slides of baby pics to people... but from what I've seen the meter is
darn good; but like all but the highest end metering, if you have strong
light in the background it can be fooled, but I have shot from 100 color
to 3200 speed b&w with it (it DX encodes to 5200!) and got good
results. 

> 5- how good is the lens???

I love it! it has a lot of the same personality of my old Summarit with
modern performance - I have some shots on 100 speed print, taken in
outdoor summer light, luminous three dimensional... ahhhh 

>  
>
> Thanks in advance.  Hope to see you often on the LUG

You're welcome, its fun to extoll the virtues of a camera that many I
think might dismiss as "just a point and shoot" - not that many years
ago, any 35mm with its capabilities would be considered a serious piece
of gear! 

Sean
 
 

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