Re: Leica R recomendation

[pgs@thillana.lcs.mit.edu (Patrick Sobalvarro)]

            1. What R body is best known for its reliability and
    ruggedness? I am not so interested in features (especially
    electronic ones) but in a camera that can take some abuse in the
    course of a research trip to Kenya. 

I recently looked into the question of a backup Leica reflex camera,
and got plenty of advice from people on this list and also in a few
books.

The Leicaflex SL-2, a fully manual camera, has the best reputation
for ruggedness among Leica reflex cameras -- these have been around
for a long time and are highly regarded.  Examples are expensive,
though, because collectors want them -- they cost about $1200 in good
condition.  Also there are some compatibility problems with certain
new lenses which do not have the 1st cam that these bodies depended
on.

Among the more modern R-series cameras, the R6 and R6.2 are the only
fully manual examples.  According to Brian Bower's book, these cameras
were designed in response to the requests of photojournalists who
wanted cameras as rugged as a Leica M6 for use in areas where repairs
to electronics or the acquisition of batteries might be difficult.
Like all Leica reflex cameras except the original Leicaflex
"Standard", the R6 and R6.2 have spot meters; they also have an
averaging meter mode and TTL flash metering.  However, they have a
mechanical shutter that does not require batteries to work; all
shutter speeds (B + 1 sec through 1/1000 for the R6, 1/2000 for the
R6.2) work without batteries.

I've had an R6.2 for a bit more than a year now, and I've given it a
fair bit of use, and it's worked perfectly.  I really like it much
better than any other camera I have ever used, which is saying a lot.
It has a bunch of neat features, like mirror prefire, built-in diopter
correctability, and an LED that can be switched on to illuminate the
dials at night.  But I can't say that I know how rugged these cameras
are -- I haven't banged it around or dropped it, and I also haven't
heard anything from anyone else about how reliable R6's are.  I
suspect they haven't been out long enough for anyone to know.

R6's in prime condition seem to go for about $1200 to $1500.  R6.2's
seem to go for about $1600 to $1900.

On the more electronic (and less expensive) side, I just got an R4s
for a backup camera, for $450.  It's inconvenient in some ways (can't
see the set shutter speed in manual mode, can't read the metered
shutter speed against a black background, no mirror lock-up), but it
works like a champ.