Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/05/10

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Subject: Re: [Leica] RE: 6x9/6x7/6x4.5 rangefinders
From: "George Kenney" <georgekenney@earthlink.net>
Date: Thu, 10 May 2001 23:54:17 -0400

The Mamiya 7 II saga continues:

Robert White didn't respond to two emails over the course of two 
and a half days, following a fax that put in an order for the M7 + 65 
lens to be shipped via my FedEx account, overnight priority. My 
second email told RW that if I didn't hear from him by Wednesday 
noon, London time, that I HAD to cancel the order and seek the 
gear from another UK supplier. The deadline came and went, no 
word from Robert. After +1 hour, I emailed to cancel the order and 
sent a faxed order to Teamworkphoto. One more hour, and an RW 
minion calls, "Oh, your order was just shipped." And, in fact, they'd 
sent an email to me at 10:30 am London time confirming that. The 
email arrived about two hours too late. Meanwhile, Teamworkphoto 
was really on the ball and shipped out the camera + lens almost 
instantly on getting my fax (lower price than RW, too). 

The Teamworkphoto gear arrived this afternoon. The RW shipment 
is now being held by US Customs because RW didn't fill out the 
customs declaration properly. Needless to say, I'm peeved at RW, 
but don't intend to return the second set of camera gear because I 
think, to be fair, there was a series of accidents involved, and while 
RW is mainly to blame, I was too impatient and expected the 
internet to work at 100% (I should know better). But neither do I 
want to fuss with an exchange, paying three freight and two 
customs tickets, which would almost wipe out any savings from 
buying in the UK.

Anyhow, first impressions: This is a big chunk of camera. But not 
so big as my Wista, which I was hauling around downtown DC this 
afternoon. And although it's plastic, it's good plastic. The camera 
has a solidish feel about it, good balance, good ergonomics 
generally. I thought the film speed wheel was a bit cheezy, but that's 
my biggest complaint.

As to picture quality: I shot a roll of 120 Tri-X @ 200 late this 
afternoon, and just got done developing it. The negs are still drying 
but from what I could tell they came out pretty sharp and nicely 
detailed. Though others have reported M7 rangefinders out of 
focus right out of the box, that's not the case here. 

I have a feeling that people who don't mind sticking with a single 
lens would be much happier with a Rolleiflex TLR, which is lighter 
and, depending on the lens, potentially a much better picture taking 
machine. But this thing seems to fill an important niche, and fills it 
very, very well. I don't think my Leicas will mind sharing camera bag 
space...

Thanks again to all for suggestions and comments, on and off list.

G.

Replies: Reply from John Hudson <xyyc@home.com> (Re: [Leica] RE: 6x9/6x7/6x4.5 rangefinders)
Reply from Mark Rabiner <mark@rabiner.cncoffice.com> (Re: [Leica] RE: 6x9/6x7/6x4.5 rangefinders)