[Leica] automated m camera, again

[Guy Bennett <guybnt@idt.net>]

peter k and the two bobs (b and m):

your semi-automated m-mount camera already exists: the konica hexar. it
boasts many of the features you all have mentioned as desirable in your
various posts. granted, it was not made by leica, but to a user, not a
collector, this should not matter. it mounts leica lenses, as peter had
required in his earlier posts, and is semi-automated, as both bobs have
called for in theirs. it doesn't (yet?) have auto focus, but as bob b. has
mentioned, he already has a g2 that does, and there's no reason to believe
that konica won't consider an af hexar in the future (isn't the 'classic'
hexar af?).

so what's the point in yammering for an automated leica m? leica may one
day produce it, or not. since it is already possible to use leica glass on
an automated body (if that is the point), isn't this a moot question? or is
it for some reason imperative that leica themselves produce an automated m
camera?

though the contrary has been said over and over in many posts, leica is not
impervious to change and the implementation of new technologies. as mark
rabiner has pointed out, the apo and asph lenses make use of new
technologies, and martin reminds us that leica does produce p & s cameras
that feature ae, af, even built in flash. they also make a digital camera,
which bears mentioning.

i personally have no interest in an automated camera, and if leica did make
an ae/af m, i would not buy it. i love too much the experience of shooting
with a fully manual camera (that's why i bought an m to begin with), and
enjoy making all of those decisions myself. i can only hope that, if leica
does develop an automated m, the manual m is not abandonned.

until that day comes - if indeed it does come - why don't you guys give the
konica a try? if i were interested in the type of camera you are calling
for, that's what i would do. why wait for a leica ae/af m that may never
exist, when you can use a konica hexar (with your leica lenses, if you
like) today? and should there one day be an automated m, you could switch
to that, if you find the hexar doesn't respond to what you want in a camera.

guy