i am just back from my leica introduction course in milton keynes. was good fun... there were about 10 people there. they gave us a introduction to leica's history and showed a few slides and a movie. they had quite a bit of equipment there, the whole m-range and most of the r stuff. around midday we were sent out to take a roll of slides. we could borrow any equipment we wanted. i went for a r8 with a 180 summicron. was a good experience. although i accept that this camera is really good, i realised that my m is better suited to my kind of photography. they got our films processed and made a small slideshow. this is one of mine:

it was taken with the camera lying on the table in front of me, aperture priority at 5.6, distance and framing guessed. they also let us handle the 0-serie and a remake of the ur-leica. no news about the m7. it was a nice day, and it assured me, that i bought just the right equipment

-- stefan randlkofer (geesbert@yahoo.com), February 07, 2002