wayne,
Well, the camera is very easy to get in the work flow. I put on of my Lugi straps on it and it's perfect. That helps with the grip also...
The front has a pebble like leatherette that is on an angle to the outer end of the body...very nice to hold the fingers against and very easy to move them around without feeling like your loosing the grip....
The rear has a thumb rest that is just above the notched adjustment barrel....at first, it was east to hit the barrel but just looking at the thum as it finds it's resting place a few times and the position is memorized.
It has real strap lugs......gotta love that....The release finger finds it's home with no effort at all...and the 1/2 release to get focus or exposure is very firm yet very defined...It's got the mode selector dial on the top left which I find very interesting but functional. It has a notched wheel that adjust the mode....very precise movement...and it doesn't ever get out of position like a few cameras we all know about....
There is a film plane marker for critical macro work...nice....
The screen is nice..there's alot about the screen that people criticize but I think they should make pictures and leave the screen alone. It's not the brightest nor the darkest but it has good view from almost any angle. Hip shooters will be in heaven...AND...when you view from an angle, it's very easy to see the AF box...that's real nice.....
The rear controls are thought out very well and are very, very intuitive...so much so that still, I have not read the manual....The ones you need are right there.....
I do find that sometimes, my thumb hits the WB part of the button on the right side...
more than 1 time I had to re-set the WB because it moved without me knowing it...
not a design issue, a user issue...I have to re write the thumb program in my brain....
The camera starts right up and it feels like just a second or so....it focus with AF rather fast and accurate.....Even with ISO 2000, 1/8 3.5...the AF did not hunt...that's good enough...
It writes fast but and I'll bet most users don't know this..it will AF and write a second image almost instantly after the first exposure...
What happens is this...youn release and then the camera starts to record...the screen kinda freezes...BUTT....if you just hit the release 1/2 down, your ready yto go again...I managed to get 2 frames in just 1 1/2 seconds...now this is with the camera set on single exposure....not multi.....
The camera is constructed with extreme care to design and finish. It has a beautiful finish to the metal and it liiks wonderful...just like a camera should.
I don't like zoom lenses but this one...the 14/42 is nice. The cool thing is that you adjust the zoom by rotating the collar like the old dayz.....not some stupid finger thinggy by the release....
The lens is sharp enough for a zoomie but has very good contrast..that's much more important that anything else in a lens design...Leica knows that but probably no one else does....there is a very travel thru the entire zoom range with no kinks any where....
The camera even makes a great focal plane shutter sound on release...not a digital sound but a real shutter sound....man..that just warms the heart for an old timer....
All in all it's a wonderful camera and I feel very free with it. Funny, I even like the 28mm for the 1st time in my life......That's really weird...Siggy will not forgive me for that last statement....
Working with the screen is ok...I prefer a viewfinder and maybe I'll go that route...only if they firmware in a scale...if not....the screen stays....
How the heck do they expect a serious shooter to use that 17mm and finder without a scale......?
well...end part 1....gotta process some images to send to webshots....
Later......
don