Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1996/09/28

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To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
Subject: Re: Leica-Users List Digest V1 #161
From: Eric Welch <ewelch@cdsnet.net>
Date: Sat, 28 Sep 1996 20:16:56 -0700

At 05:22 PM 9/28/96 -0400, you wrote:
>"traditional" SLR but at a fraction of the price of the Leica.  I just get
>the feeling that Leica is having problems marketing the R series of cameras,
>and is constantly tweeking the camera, hoping for a winner.  

You could only be getting that feeling from people who have an interest in
promoting that position. The R system sells very well, is a good part of
the Leica system. They wouldn't be producing such awesome lenses for it if
it werent' selling. In fact, Leica is one of the few camearas that hasn't
had a reduction in units sold over past years.

The R7 was a significant improvement over the R5. It's digital (electronics
as well as the display). The film advance, according to Don Goldberg of DAG
fame, is the first Leica SLR since the SL2 to be built to professional
standards. It also has better features in the flash area. The mirror
mechanism is smoother and results in visibly sharper pictures at slow
shutter speeds. I'm not knocking the R5, it's just the R7 is that much better.

A man on Compuserve did a report on the R8. In fact, Bob Shell did too. The
imipression by both of them is that the R8 is fantastic. It's much bigger,
but it fits the hand very nicely. It has auto rewind, auto load, flash
metering with studio flash units (i.e. flash meter built in). The motor is
integrated into the body like the EOS1n's Power Booster. Lots of other
goodies. You can get a brochure from Leica on it. I'm going to look more
seriously into this.

===========
Eric Welch
Grants Pass, OR