Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/10/01
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]The Olympus OM-series is an excellent complement to an M system, although I doubt Olympus is interested in developing or even making SLR cameras...... Years ago, the better pentaxes (spotmatic, MX, LX, etc.) were nice "M" accessories...hehehe... But how 'bout the closest thing to an M camera (quality of build, lens quality, etc)?......a Nikon F or F2, with standard eye-level finder (no motor, for us purists)....equipped with late 60s-mid 70s lenses?....the closest thing to the mechanical quality of an M camera and its lenses....however, one must choose lenses carefully....some were outstanding by even todays standards (24 2.8, 35 f2, 50, 105 2.5) where others were just acceptable (28 3.5, early 28 2.8, early 85, etc.) Of the two, the F probably has the edge in build quality, but "minty" ones are hard to find...($400 or so in todays market, IF you shop around) The F2 has better 'feel', and 'looks', but is slightly more complicated and has a coupla weak points that the F doesn't share. (meter switch spring-even without a meter, shutter release stack can break off easily, curtain brakes on VERY early ones gave a bit of trouble, etc..) Like Leica, the consensus is that the "peak" in quality came in the mid-late 60s and early seventies.....although the consistency of performance seems to be a shade better than Leitz..... Nikkor lenses didn't have the "clouding" and "cement" problems that plague earlier Leica lenses....most of them are crystal clear after 30-40 years... I realize that some of you will say that an older "Leicaflex" body is the same, and I'll concede that their lenses are even better mechanically, but the Nikons are hard to beat....and compared to today's "blob" slrs (F4, R8, Canon EOS) the Nikon with standard finder is downright "small and handy"....... CU LATER< Walt On Sun, 1 Oct 2000, Simon Stevens wrote: > >Wouldn't it be nice if Leica would come out with a small, compact and > >lightweight yet tough reflex camera, similar in style to the M series? > >Nothing fancy, just a minimum of controls, a TTL lightmeter at most. > Like > >the R6.2, but even more basic and smaller. > > You mean an Olympus OM-1? > > :) > > Simon Stevens. > >