[Leica] Fuji F11

[lrzeitlin at optonline.net (lrzeitlin@optonline.net)]

The thing that bothers me about the Fuji F11, and, in fact most of the 
current crop of P&S cameras is that there is no optical viewfinder. This is 
a major bother to those of us of a certain age that are forced to wear 
bifocals or reading glasses. If you have presbyopia you cannot hold the 
camera close enough to use the LCD finder with any degree of ease and 
eventually will find that your arms are not long enough to use it at all, If 
you are nearsighted and older than 40 you will have to take off your glasses 
to adjust the tiny controls and view the LCD then put them on to observe the 
scene you are photographing. And if you wear bifocals yu have to bob your 
head up and down like a walking pigeon. Also as important, you are forced to 
seeing the photographic world though a 2" window instead of through a proper 
viewfinder like one on the Leica M3. This degree of abstractness removes you 
from participation in the event you are photographing.

And since I am a bit of a hypocrite, 
I just put in an order for an Olympus E-500 dual lens kit at B&H. I know 
that the sensor is noisier in low light than the E-330. Since much of my 
image making is centered around marine and landscape scenes in the Hudson 
Valley in pursuit of my second career as a writer/photographer for boating 
magazines, the noise shoudn't bother me too much. The price, after the 
rebate, is $699 for the camera and the two Oly lenses. B&H also throws in a 
carrying case and a few other goodies. I don't have any Leica R lenses but I 
have a drawer full of Olympus SLR optics so I expect that I will eventually 
buy an adaptor. I don't expect that it will take the place of my Leicas but 
it is a cheap entry into semipro digital.

Larry Z