Peter Alling posted: > When you come right down to it, we're comparing very different creatures here, > (except for the fact that they all use film). About the only thing they have > in common is their classic user interface. The partial electronic partial > mechanical > shutter arrangement of the LX owe's more to the arrangement in the ES/ESII > than the > ZX-5n owes to the LX. The TTL metering in ZX-5n is more reminiscent of the > system > in the OM-2 with OTF for flash and cells in the prism for normal metering > rather than > the simple and elegant solution in the LX. Now don't take this the wrong > way, your > analysis is perfectly valid. I just see a more rugged body as being only > half measure, > and I would really like to see a battery free film advance and mechanical > shutter speeds > like that will ever happen.
Yes, they are different beasts on the inside -- though again what I was saying in the more recent post is that the ZX-5n more closely resembles the LX than it (the ZX-5n) resembles the MX. I was especially thinking about the outside -- interface, handling -- and then as an afterthought the TTL flash. For my part, I like the ZX-5n. I use it a lot. But I wish it was more rugged. Battery independence for film advance and shutter speeds (that's what you were saying at the end there, right?) would be *nice* but I've not been inconvenienced by battery failure on this camera and it's not as important to me as it apparently is to you. This of course is also why camera makers can never please all of their customers at once! I do agree with you that battery free film advance and mechanical shutter speeds are unlikely to appear on an autofocus camera. If Pentax introduced a camera just like the -5n but with a tougher body and interchangeable screens, I would trade in my current -5n so fast, and I'm not sure how much use my LX would get after that ... But I do mean *just like the - 5n*. I'm not tempted by anything with the ZX-10/ZX-7/ZX-L interface, and I definitely don't want one of those Rebel clones that can't use manual lenses.
