Can Anyone Tell me their Experience with MINILUX :)

I'm thinking abt getting a minilux and would like to hear anyones experience?

Erwin Puts has a page about the qualities of the lens (Summarit 1:2.4/40mm). <a href"http://www.imx.nl/photosite/leica/magazine/minilux.html">Click here</a>

Oops, sorry!

 

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<a href="http://www.imx.nl/photosite/leica/magazine/minilux.html">The Leica Minilux and Summarit 1:2.4/40mm</a>

Bought a minilux a couple of weeks ago and got the first print

results 1 day before shooting 2 rolls during the wedding of my

daughter. The results were very very good and nearly, for this

occasion, as good as my M6 shots. This camera is worth every dime and

got me once more hooked to Leica.

I've had a minilux with fixed lens for one year.

 

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Quality of the lens is excellent for a P&S. I really got some

stunning pictures with my Minilux. Amateur Photography (a UK weekly)

rated it as having the best lens available among top notch P&S with

fixed lenses last year. I'm not impressed by the quality of their

tests though. As suggested above, see Erwin Putts for more.

 

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You can switch to semi-auto (aperture priority) and manual focus (by

estimating distances: No rangefinder), which for me is critical.

 

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Ergonomics is OK, but not great: When you turn the camera on, you

have a fully automated mode (flash will fire if needed) which I never

used: I had to set my setting every time I turned the camera on, and

it took a long time.

 

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Some Minilux (zoom and fixed lens) develop a fault with the obturator

which cost about $150 to fix. I have given my Minilux to somebody

and it developed the problem since then...

 

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Xavier Colmant

Very nice point and shoot camera. I use to own one got hooked, now I

am up to an M7, 2 M3s an M2 shall I go on?

I've owned one for about a year also. Optically the Minilux is

excellent. I have read countless reports of it having a less-than-

durable shutter which costs quite a bit to repair. If the Minilux

were a $150 P&S it wouldn't even be discussed, but an $800+ camera is

too expensive to be considered disposible, yet I would think also at

that price one should expect more durability. I bought my Minilux

second-hand, mint-in-box for about $400, to be kept in my luggage as

a last-ditch backup replacing a Rollei 35S which was used for that

purpose for many years but is a guess-focus-only camera and so a

problem at wide apertures close-up. At the price I paid and for the

purpose I intend, the Minilux is a good choice. I would not even

consider buying it new and using it as my main camera. For the same

$850 I could get a Bessa R and one lens.

The Minilux takes great pictures, but I found it to be a bit

"redundant", and that holds true even more now than before.

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At its weight and size, you might as well endure a little more size

and weight and take your M + compact lens along. It's by no

means a pocketable camera (well, maybe your large winter

jacket's pocket), and it's quite heavy. If you don't own an M-body

and are shopping for a high-end point-n-shoot, the Contax T-

series (particularly the T3) are more portable.

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Bear in mind that most Leica users prefer no-flash photography,

and this setting must be manually set every time you turn on the

camera. A big hassle, and typical of the ergonomic mess of the

Minlux. And one last thing-- it's very un-Leica like in its decibel

rating-- you can hear the thing from across the room!

You can do a lot with an aperture priority camera having a fixed

focal length. Especially if the lens is a 40mm/2.4 Leica lens.

Throw in some B&W film and you might just get some of your most

memorable photos, since you no longer have to worry about zooming,

metering, focusing, etc. and can enjoy the beautiful output of a

superb lens. I used two different cameras at my son's wedding last

January, a Contax N1 (24-85, 70-300) for color and a Minilux for

B&W. With the Minilux the number of successful images was much

greater. Don't know why, it just was. You could buy an M7, 35mm and

50mm Summicron for about $4,300 or a Minilux for $475. What more can

you really do with a 35mm/F2 and a 50mm/F2 that you can't do with a

40mm/F2.4 in a much more convenient package?

late again, but here goes. great camera, with 2 problems:

 

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like many autfocus p&s, it is excricitaintlgy log between shutter

press and exposure. At least, if you are used to the immedicay of the

m-series.

1st version, fixed lens (which is great, optically), the settings do

not stick -- that is, fill flash (or whatver) must be reset every time

you turn the thing on. that, and some other fetures, imprved in later

version.

Dennis, you might like to scroll down and look up previous Minilux

questions (also look up LUG). My Minilux took me to various countries,

produced very sharp pictures with lots of detail, and survived a drop

from a ski lift...BUT developed the infamous EO2 fault, which

necessitates a new shutter. I don't believe this camera is made to

last, so I agree with others: get an M, which will last forever, or

for a carry-anywhere-don't-worry-about-point-and-shoot-camera, scout

around for a cheaper (and lighter) leica mini 2 or 3, Yashica T5, or

Olympus stylus/mju.

I got a Contax T3 to slip into a pocket when even an M body and 35mm

Summicron was too big. It's been a constant companion and responsible

for some of my favourite images, I really appreciate the T3's size

and weight advantage over the Minilux, plus the flash can be

permanently turned off. Woody Allen said that 90% of life is just

turning up, I guess 90% of photography is just having a camera to

hand when you need one!