Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/02/26
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Olympus has some excellent lenses and some very fine bodies. I have a marine biologist friend who swears by Olympus. He spent several summers in Antarctica (and one winter, which he said was dreadfully long). His equipment performed well under some very brutal conditions. I've seen his work numerous times, and I'm always impressed by the technical and asthetic qualities. Still, I don't think Olympus has anything which compares to the likes of the 70-180/2.8 APO or the 180/2.8 APO from Leica. Nor does Olympus, or any other manufacturer, make lenses that are across the board as durable as Leica lenses. Construction quality as well as optical excellence -- and the two may go hand in hand -- are Leica's heritage. That's why I think Leica should be especially responsive to some of the mechanical problems I've heard about recently on the LUG. OTOH, I heard the same horror stories about early F4 and F5s when used Nikon. Years ago I had a shutter bounce problem with an early FM and F2, so early production model problems are not something new. Sometimes I think we expect more from Leica, because the lenses are more expensive. But an R8 is less expensive than an F5. Dave