Re: [Leica] R8 in CDI

[Bernard <5521.g23@g23.relcom.ru>]

thibault.collin@sc.u-picardie.fr wrote:

> Hello lugnuts,
>
> In the last issue of CDI, the R8 is presented as a true lemmon...
> To big, ugly looking, to expensive, poorly motorized...
> They made a paper in which they list 50 items that are not worth to
> buy.
> They include the R8, the minilux zoom, the mini 3, the Olympus OM3Ti
> (to
> expensive, outdated) and some other stuff.
> They also state that R lenses users are now looking for second hand RE
> or R6
> instead of getting the R8.
> Is this true? I personnally have 3 'flex and one R6 (heavily used)
> that I
> was thinking of replacing possibly by a R8. What do you think about
> it?
> Thib.

I can't say much about the R8 being expensive or not. I don't know what
"too expensive" means. Some things cost a lot. Some cost more. As Leica
users, we are not really in the "most bang for the buck"-loving layer of
society anyway.

The R8 is beyond the slightest of (my) doubt, the best "manual" camera
ever produced. There is no camera with controls better positioned. It is
not too big; it is just right. Yes it's larger than the former
generation of cameras, but it just so happens to be that cameras are on
the grow.... I also have an R6 and an R7. Those are great cameras, but
no match for the R8. Not in ergonomics, functions, quietness. As to
"ugly", this is really a matter of taste, isn't it. When I first saw it
on Frankfurt airport, I was rather shocked; I didn't like it at all. But
a while later I bought it and I'm now totally charmed with its looks.

As a backup camera, I didn't buy another R8, however. I bought a then
new R7 (it came to me only marginally cheaper than the R8), because the
R8 is indeed not something to put in your backpocket; for that cause any
of the other R cameras are better suited.

Bernard.