[Leica] Whither Leica C1?

[Gaifana@aol.com]

Wow. I didn't know I was getting spammed by Leica AG until I read my email 
this morning. After downloading the 1.4Mb brochure for this pocket monster 
(not Pokémon), I am very puzzled.

(1) How can they say that camera looks like an M with a straight face? Looks a
     lot more like a Hexar Silver than an M6. The C1 is actually much more 
elegant
     than the Ms.

(2) How did they come to choose the inside pictures? Except for maybe the 
shot of
      the child coming down the stairs, I thought they were pretty hard on 
the eyes,
      in a sort of over-Kodachromed modern way (which from going through a few
      books on modern German photography does not seem to be limited to 
Zuborn).

(3) What can you do with an f/10 100mm lens? Aren't you better off setting 
the 
      thing to 50 and moving in? Does that mean flash for every closeup shot? 
When
      you look at the pictures they show as examples, how do you 
differentiate the
      accuracy of the AF system from the huge depth of field, even at the 
long end?

That's not to say I don't like compacts - I am quite fixated by the Elph Jr. 
with its 35/2.8 for "spy work," but I find it hard to see how such a slow 
zoom is practical.