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Beneath its posh, post-modern exterior lurks a solid, traditional SLR with enough high tech, and an electronic gateway to the future.
The Leica R8, the first all-newfrom-the-chassis-up Leica SLR in decades, is a camera that proves many things to many people. Its very existence refutes the allegations, widely circulated among photo industry insiders, that the new, leaner, meaner Leica camera company was no longer capable of serious technical innovation, and that their SLRs were inextricably tied to the admirable but dated Minolta XE-7 chassis. Perhaps even more important, the R8 clearly establishes that the design engineers at Leica still know a thing or two about configuring and constructing an up-to-date, userfriendly camera with properly placed, easily understandable controls, comfortable body contours, a great viewfinder, and that undefinable quality of mechanical precision known as "Leica feel." No, it still doesn't have autofocus (though, as well soon see, its new sophisticated electronic lensmount certainly points in that direction), and you do have to mount an auxiliary winder on the bottom to get autowind and autorewind. Nevertheless, as it stands, the R8 is undoubtedly the most versatile, flexible, and best performing SLR that Leica has ever produced.
The first thing anyone notices about the R8 is its distinctive shape. It looks like no other SLR in the world, not even previous Leica SLRs. Next is its size, which is definitely large for a manual-focus 35mm SLR, but not nearly as big as, say, a Nikon F5 or a Contax AX. Once you begin shooting with the R8, you can appreciate the beauty of its wedge-shaped contours, which make great sense in terms of handling comfort. And while it's no lightweight, the mass of the R8's mostly-metal body is so well distributed that it feels solid rather than heavy. In short, this camera is a classic example of "form follows function" and it grows on you, though most agree that it looks nicer and less intimidating in black finish.
Despite its somewhat futuristic appearance, the Leica R8 is really an evolutionary design that carries forth, along with some notable additions and upgrades, the Leica SLR traditions of solidity, reliability, and high performance. In fact, the R8 incorporates all the basic features of the still-current R7 along with the following...