Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/12/27

[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]

Subject: Re: [Leica] re: minilux or hexar
From: Joe Berenbaum <joe-b@dircon.co.uk>
Date: Sun, 27 Dec 1998 21:20:32 +0000

At 12:22 PM 12/27/98 -0800, you wrote:
>My mother has a Minilux. I've used it quite a bit. I have never used a
>Hexar, or even seen one. However, my mother's Minilux has one problem that
>is in my opinion so awful that it, by itself is enough reason not to buy
>the Minilux: it does not have a lens cap and cannot be fitted with one.
>This means that, in order to protect the lens, you have to go to
>extraordinary lengths when putting the camera away. I built her a custom
>camera case out of a container that was designed to hold boxed fruit juice
>for school lunches, but I glued a piece of semirigid nylon sheeting over
>the part that would cover the lens, and I put 16 little plastic bump-feet
>all around the edge of it, so that when the camera is slid into this case,
>it will reliably cover the lens without touching it.
>
>When I bought a point-and-shoot I bought an Olympus Stylus. Olympus lenses
>are not shabby, and it has a very good clamshell design that protects the
>lens. The new-from-the-factory image quality is not as good as the Minilux,
>but nobody ever puts point-and-shoot cameras on a tripod (there goes half
>your lens quality right there) and the lack of a lens cap means that most
>people who buy one will grind the front coating off of it within a few
months.

My Minilux has a sliding lens cap that comes from inside the body and
swings over the front of the lens when the lens is retracted. I think they
are all supposed to be like this. Maybe this one is jammed?

Joe Berenbaum