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x100 - why I'm selling mine

Re: I hate to sound like a broken record.. or skipping CD..

I personally appreciate the civil manner in respecting those who prefer the rangefinder experience, and in return it is easy to respect your desires. I do think your wishes will come true ... but I do not think current focus peaking technology is the answer IF you like faster glass and like to shoot in lower light ... conditions where I found it ineffective and not very accurate.

What I do think may be possible is a simple manual focus confirmation linked to the AF sensors in the new wave of smaller cameras (which are already AF). EVF should make this a snap to do. Heck, they may already have such a thing for I know ... LOL!

Then it just has to be implemented in a FF camera of a more demure size. If it happens, I'd bet it'll be Sony ... they make sensors, and have deep pockets.

-Marc
Marc, I never wish to detract from the expeirence of using a rangefinder. My first real camera was an Argus C3 RF and I enjoyed it. I enjoyed my M8 as well but had way too much money tied up in a camera that could not be considered my "main" camera.. and so I sold it.

I hope something along the lines of what I desire appears before I am too old to use it. I will be very surpised if Leica is the company to produce it.

The phrase "A Leica for the rest of us" has been used on numerous forums and I think that most will agree that the X1 and rebadged Panasonics are not what people mean when they use that phrase.
 

raist3d

Well-known member
Simplification of equipment is always a good thing for your photography (using "your" in general). And like you said, it doesn't mean the X100 is bad. I wish more people in different internet forums understood this concept.

I like my Q, will be selling my LX5, doesn't mean I think the LX5 is horrible.

- Ricardo
 

David Teo

New member
Hi

I read this thread with great interest as I discovered it after I just bought a spanking new X100.

I started using Leica Ms in 2002 with a new M6TTL and a 35cron ASPH, and in a temporary fit of madness, sold them (together with a lovely 28mm cron, which I really miss) when I got married a few years back.

The rangefinder experience is real and very tangible and a bit part of the draw of the Leica Ms for me. Sadly, prices today are so stratospherically high that I am no longer willing to buy any Leica equipment new today. (My M6 and 35cron ASPH, both bought NEW in 2002 have a combined price which could hardly afford a new 35cron ASPH in today's crazy market.....)

Looking for a digital solution, I waited out the M8 launch with great anticipation and was duly disappointed with all the accompanying issues that came with it. Nevertheless sometime in 2010, I decided to give the M8 a second chance, what with all the firmware updates since then.... but I could never really connect with the same simple experience I got with the M6TTL - the requirement to use UV cut filters, corner fix, lack of viable solutions for Voigtlander lenses etc made it etc etc...

What bugs me the most were the general unreliability issues with card reading / writing, the need to "reboot" the camera by pulling out batteries and a host of other quirks. Placed aside the solid reliable workhouse D700 which I have been using for the past 3 years, it just doesn't make a lot of sense.

For those reasons, I avoided the X100 after reading all the reviews about its quirks, inconsistencies and problems with slow AF etc etc. I have also not seen a lot of X100 samples in those reviews with people in them, and people are my main subjects, not flowers and mountains and stuff....

However, I was eager to get back to the simple window finder experience akin to the M6, and so, 3 weeks ago, I bought the X100, with a view to selling it if it doesn't meet my expectations.

Well 3 weeks on and my D700 has barely made it out of the dry cabinet. The X100 is a good example of not trusting everything you read online. To say I love it is probably understating it. It has, for me at least, more than replaced the M6 + 35cron experience.

True, there is no rangefinder, so I don't get the rangefinder experience of the overlapping boxes, nor the tactile feel of turning the focus ring to line up said boxes. But the window finder is a God-send after years of working with SLRs, and here the X100 delivers a finder comparable to that of my M6, surpassing it in many instances. I have no corrupted files (actually I never had Japanese cameras corrupt files on flash cards, and I use a lot of them), the read/write is slow but bearable.

More importantly, the reading / writing to cards does not prevent me shooting whenever I wanted. Not sure what all the online reviewers are talking about (I think they were shooting in continuous mode, maybe) but the camera always allows me to take a photo whenever I wanted, just like my M6.

The X100 is not for everyone, but for me, it fits like a glove :) I guess you can call it the "Leica for the rest of us" cos I probably would not buy it as well if I have a M9 + 35cron :)
 

GrahamWelland

Subscriber & Workshop Member
The X100 is not for everyone, but for me, it fits like a glove :) I guess you can call it the "Leica for the rest of us" cos I probably would not buy it as well if I have a M9 + 35cron :)
Ditto - I couldn't have put it better myself. :thumbup: It's no Leica but I bonded with it immediately and I carry mine with me everywhere. I'm now officially an X100 fan boy I suppose.
 

Shashin

Well-known member
People are funny. I seriously doubt Contax released the G series camera to "kill" Leica, just has Konica, Minolta, Zeiss Ikon, Voightlander, and Nikon did not release their rangefinders to eliminate the German "giant." Oddly enough, the G series were rangefinders, just not manual rangefinders.

Rangefinders are great cameras. Just because the technology is old, does not make them obsolete. View cameras are still being used and they are an older type of camera. And all the new stuff companies are doing is great too. I really like the choices we have today to find equipment that can match the way we work or to open new ideas to us.

I saw the X100 in Tokyo. A really nice design. Not quite my thing for reason beyond whether it works well. I am really happy companies like Fuji are trying new stuff. I think the mirrorless introduction was a really good step for photographers. What I would really like to see is manufacturers experiment with format beyond 3/2 and 4/3.

BTW, my fun camera is the E-P1, 20mm panasonic, and Olympus VF-1 OVF.
 
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