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This review originally appeared in the July / August 2000 issue ofPHOTO Techniques USAmagazine. The version below though is theoriginalmanuscript along with several updates, enhancements and with a number of more recent photographs taken with this wonderful camera system.
Note that in April, 2003 theXPan IIwas announced, with minor though useful updates.
Top Secret: Internal Eyes-Only
Date: December, 1996
Memo To: Product Development
From: International Marketing
We need to create a new market segment in the high-end and shake things up a bit. The camera equipment marketplace is saturated with SLRs and  Point-and-Shoots. Leica has had the rangefinder market to themselves for decades. The Contax's G1 and G2 have the automation features that consumers want but autofocus doesn't appeal to a lot of  high-end buyers.
Try and come up with a new interchangeable lens rangefinder system that has TTL metering, optional auto-exposure, motorized advance and rewind.  The body should...

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Michael Reichmann is the founder of the Luminous Landscape. Michael passed away in May 2016. Since its inception in 1999 LuLa has become the world's largest site devoted to the art, craft, and technology of photography. Each month more than one million people from every country on the globe visit LuLa.
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