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by Sean Reid

It seems that a new Leica camera introduction never fails to stir things up a bit. In the wide world of the web I'm told there have been some strong negative reactions to Leica's newest camera -- the X Vario.  I can think of two reasons why this may be happening. The first is that Leica made a big mistake, in my view, by pre-advertising this camera as a "Mini-M". That's a very loaded promise and it leads people to hope for a window finder camera that will take M lenses -- something like the long awaited digital version of a Leica CL. So part of the frustration I think we're seeing now comes from a collision between hope and reality. That's not to say that the X Vario is a bad camera. In fact, it's quite a good camera. But it's really not a Mini-M even though some aspects of its design were clearly inspired by the M (240).
On one episode of the old TV series "MASH", characters Hawkeye and Charles start a rumor that Marilyn Monroe will be visiting the 4077th. Of cours...

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Sean Reid has been a commercial and fine art photographer for more than thirty years. He studied photography at Bard College under Stephen Shore and Ben Lifson. In the late 1980s he worked as an exhibition printer for Wendy Ewald and other fine art photographers. In 1989, he was the first American photographer to receive an artist-in-residence grant from the Irish Arts Council in Dublin, Ireland and his work is held in their collection. That same year he gave a guest lecture at Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art in Dublin. In the early 1990s Sean met occasionally with Helen Levitt to discuss and edit pictures he was making in the subways of Budapest and New York City. These were exhibited in New York in conjunction with performances by Jens Nygaard's Jupiter Symphony. Sean's work for clients is often of weddings and architecture. His editorial work has appeared in magazines such as Motorcyclist, Rider and The Robb Report. His personal work is primarily of people in public places -- especially in rural New England where he resides. In 2004, Sean began reviewing cameras and lenses for Luminous Landscape. The following year he began Reid Reviews (link: www.reidreviews.com), a site -- of equipment reviews and essays on photography -- that accepts no advertising and is paid for entirely by subscribers. Written primarily for professional and serious amateur photographers the site has become known for its in-depth analysis based on both field and studio testing. Sean also serves as an unpaid consultant, advisor and sometimes beta tester for several camera and lens manufacturers. http://www.reidreviews.com
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