Re: If you left Pentax, what Scurvy Dawg system would you inviteinto your life?

[Arnold Stark]

1.) I would never like to quit Pentax, as Pentax offers great lenses with the K and F series lenses being my favourites. Also, Pentax has some very nice and affordable bodies (MX, K2DMD, LX, MZ3). Finally, Pentax offers unmatched compatibilty and unsurpassed coatings.

2.) Olympus offers the small high quality bodies OM3 and OM4 plus a series of very nice, small and affordable lenses. Definitely my 2nd choice.

3.) Nikon is the only other company besides Pentax with a system in which I can combine manual (FM3A) and autofocus bodies (F801x) and lenses. However, there are much more compatibility restricitions than with Pentax, the system is quite expensive, and I have a big dislike for huge bodies like the F4, F5 or F100.

4.) The prices for Contax manual focus gear on the 2nd hand market seem to be falling, which makes the system quite attractive to me. Plus there is one AF body (AX) for the manual focus lenses..... The new AF Contax system, however, I can detect nothing attractive about.....

5.) Voigtl�nder offers a very nice rangefinder system with very affordable, high quality lenses, that I would have an intense look at, too.

6.) Minolta have some very good auto focus lenses, and I like the manual focus gear, however, the two are not compatible.

7.) Leica M (too expensive)

8.) Leica R (too big, too heavy, too expensive)

9.) Canon (simply horrible)

Arnold