I am thinking of getting my wife a C1 as she is jealous of my new M6. Have any of you any experience of it?

-- Fred.J. Carss (fred@jcarss.fsnet.co.uk), March 17, 2002

Answers

I'm in the same boat, and bought my wife the C1 also. It is a nice P&S that is much sturdier than other cameras I looked at. The best part of the camera is the metal shell. The C1 is a reasonably priced high quality snapshooter's camera, with a decent quality lens. It is NOT a Minilux however.

There are tons of cameras with similar specs out there, but the Leica name is on very few. Don't rule out other models from other manufacturers because of that. Warning: the features and controls are very much Leica (vague, and minimal in number).

Good luck with whatever you buy.

-- Kevin Baker (kevin@thebakers.org), March 17, 2002.

Fred, I was fortunate to receive the C1 as a Valentine's Day present from my wife. She bought it on the QVC televesion home shopping channel here in the States. It seems to be well-made, is built in Germany (unlike Leica's smaller 35mm - 70mm point and shoot, which I also own, which I believe is made in Japan), and comes with a nice plastic protective case and two straps - one long and the other short. A leather accessory case is also available for about US $65 - $100, according to where and how you buy the case. I have taken about 5 rolls of 100 ASA and 200 ASA color print film thus far with the C1, and like the results. Slide film looks great as well. Of course, the flash guide number is not rated as very powerful, and when you rack out the lens to its longest extension, the f/10.4 effective aperature requires a longer shutter speed than you might at first imagine. This can sometimes lead to some camera shake and blurring, so be sure to hold steady when taking a shot with the lens extended all the way, in poor lighting. Also, I'm still trying to decide if the C1 lens, an ASPH by the way, adds a cool tint to the photos - I'm still trying to decide. Anyway, the C1 is a fine camera that has given me the best shots from a point and shoot than I've gotten with other brands. Good luck.

-- Steve Brantley (superglidesport@mindspring.com), March 17, 2002.

For "consumer" grade P&S camers, it's very good for the ASPH lens. The color is very good from slides I shot from it. But the drawbacks is the same as others like Aperture, shutter lag... the same thing as other P&S. Remember to buy one with US warranty, I had mine serviced couple times with good service from NJ.

-- Fred Ouyang (yo54@columbia.edu), March 18, 2002.