Brian Levy
Established
I have been considering a Leica as I have in the past used the camera. I have, pretty much a deadended Olympus 4/3rds E520 with the kit lenses and am thinking about getting more active in the hobby again. The Oly lenses are quite good but investing in more of the lenses seems a might silly. Plus, I tend to like a rangefinder more than a SLR format.
My first thought was of course Leica but, after reading the threads here about support and parts, I think I'll strike the brand off the list. Consensus here and on other threads and sites seem to show there is nothing magical about the body justifying the added costs. Lenses are where in the end it used to be and to some degree still is but under the hood if the sensor and software is no better than others the result is not going to be as great as when comparing Leica film cameras to other 35mm film camera results.
I understand that Leica has to outsource things like sensors but considering the profits involved in their product they can afford to either maintain sufficient inventories of spare parts or even order a production run, especially if there appears to be an issue requiring more than statistical parts replacements.
ALso, I am not sure when the M8 went out of production but, in the US there is a Federal aw requiring companies to maintain parts for 7 years after the end of production for a product. While it seems with cheap Chinese products, there is massive disregard of the law with a mega-thousand dollar camera body, it seems the company would at least comply with it.
Guess I wil stick with the Oly for now and mabe look at the other rangefinder offerings. At least if with another I get stuck, it will not hurt in the wallet as much.
My first thought was of course Leica but, after reading the threads here about support and parts, I think I'll strike the brand off the list. Consensus here and on other threads and sites seem to show there is nothing magical about the body justifying the added costs. Lenses are where in the end it used to be and to some degree still is but under the hood if the sensor and software is no better than others the result is not going to be as great as when comparing Leica film cameras to other 35mm film camera results.
I understand that Leica has to outsource things like sensors but considering the profits involved in their product they can afford to either maintain sufficient inventories of spare parts or even order a production run, especially if there appears to be an issue requiring more than statistical parts replacements.
ALso, I am not sure when the M8 went out of production but, in the US there is a Federal aw requiring companies to maintain parts for 7 years after the end of production for a product. While it seems with cheap Chinese products, there is massive disregard of the law with a mega-thousand dollar camera body, it seems the company would at least comply with it.
Guess I wil stick with the Oly for now and mabe look at the other rangefinder offerings. At least if with another I get stuck, it will not hurt in the wallet as much.