Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1992/10/07
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]meastman@adobe.com Writes: I always keep an Olympus XA in my pocket, I mean gosh, I might kick myself if I saw the shot of a lifetime and I didn't have a camera. ... and the rangefinder is, as before, not particularly easy to see, but far easier than any screw Leica and it has a meter. ... I beg to differ. The rangefinders on Leica screwmount cameras are in my opinion unequaled in terms of ease of use. Because they are seperated from the viewfinder, they have far greater magnification than rangefinders of other cameras. You have a large round, magnified window just for the rangefinder, allowing you to clearly see the details you're focusing on. Switching to the viewfinder after focusing isn't really that painful, especially for IIIb and later models that have the two windows close togeather. I have a friend who has an XA and I found its rangfinder rather painful to use. The rangefinder spot was kind of fuzzy - no comparison to the screwmount Leica's rangefinder, which just "snaps" into focus. The XA's focusing lever is also so small it's difficult to grasp.