An interesting mix of responses.
Not having a degree in psychology, I sometimes wonder what it is that causes us to sum up people in either negative or positive manner according to what choices they make upon things like dress, where they live, the cars they drive, and the things they choose to own re consumer items and appliances etc.
I'm always amazed, at how well meaning friends and acquaintances alike, will pick holes in these things, to ones face, as if they are either doing you a favour, or guiding you out of some woeful fate about to befall you.
As an example, I drive an Mercedes. Apparently, any fool knows that Euro cars are crap, overrated, heinously expensive to maintain, and any sensible person buys a Japanese econobox.
I'm told my Miele washer and dryer is a waste of money, because I could've just bought something much cheaper and replaced it when it broke. Apparently they all just break regardless. Or so I'm told.
My Naim Hifi was the best that money could possibly buy, but when I changed it out to what I felt was superior Sony ES on sound quality and build quality grounds, I was called a heretic, and the cries for 'stone him' and 'burn him at the stake' went up.
Now that I've moved again to B&O, apparently this is kit for 'lifestyle' posers, that no audiophile worth his 'salt' would touch, let alone take seriously.
And so on.
Quite why people take it upon themselves to tell you all this stuff, often unasked, I don't quite know why, except that I've experienced it quite a bit from friends and strangers alike over the years.
Leica make damnably good cameras. So do lots of other camera manufacturers.
Leitz, Zeiss, Fujinon, Rodenstock, Schneider are all companies that have enviable reputations for lenses.
The T1, is undoubtedly an overpriced posers toy to some, but then, and the irony is not lost upon me, so is most high end HiFi to most non audiophiles.
So if we put the perceptions, preconceptions and biases aside, what I see, is a camera body, that whilst not weather sealed, looks from an engineering POV to be one of the best made cameras that money can buy.
By 'made' I mean quality of design, engineering, materials and strength. If it's unibody construction imbues it with the sort of torsional rigidity and strength of something like a MacBook Pro, then there's scant little that will touch it in that regards - despite that it looks like other, less well engineered camera bodies.
The Lenses will be up with the best money can buy.
The control interface looks sensational, in that it does to cameras what the iPhone did to smartphones; the removal of multiple buttons, and obviating the need for endless keying and scrolling through endless menus and sub menus with respect to settings.
The only thing I'd 'like' it to be, would be full frame sensor.
Other than that, I think its a stunning engineering achievement, and if it doesn't sell really well, I'll be very surprised indeed.
Just probably not to audiophiles though....
Best
John
