Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/07/19
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Jim, Eric, Arturo, mark, you're all making valid points on this topic. = Many used Leicas are really quite inexpensive and in the long run may be considered real bargains. OTOH, in choosing a camera for my kids to use I had to consider not only the kids' interest level, technical ability, and care of the equipment bu= t also their willingness to carry the thing. In making this choice the limitations of my wallet also had to be considered and something in the $300 price range was simply out of the question. One daughter has no interest in any equipment requiring manual= settings of any kind. She has ended up with her grandmother's P&S. The younger daughter is a budding engineer and has to know how everything wor= ks (keep screwdrivers away when she's near the camera) and is very comfortab= le making any manual settings required. I bought her a used N**** FG with f/1.8 Series E lens. She knows the Lei= ca gear is the good stuff and she's got her heart set on my 60mm Macro-Elmarit-R but I'm not ready to give her unrestricted access to even= the R4s w/50mm Summicron-R. It's not just fingerprints, a runny nose or = a child's (normal) careless handling of the equipment that concerns me. = Sometimes kids put things down and forget where they left 'em. I can (almost) live with her losing the FG but losing the R4s would require muc= h more understanding on my part than I may be capable of. Doug Herr