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Write to the Editor at ap.ed@kelsey.co.uk and include your full postal address. Please don’t send letters in the post as there is no one in the office to receive them. Replies are from the Editor unless otherwise stated
Absurdly good
As an impoverished amateur, I went wild a decade ago and bought a six-year-old Canon EOS 7D for just over £300. Years later, sweating, I moved to the dark side and bought a used Nikon D800 for £800. By buying used carefully, moving from camera to camera has cost me little.
I can sympathise with Chris Quest, having been penniless, but a year ago my mum died, leaving me loads-amoney. A Leica M11 was easily affordable but, being a bargain hunter, I got an ex-display model from Red Dot and saved a grand. I love the camera but rarely manage to focus successfully on moving subjects! Not great for professionals. A Nikonshooting friend recently asked me to be second shooter at a wedding. I would never risk recording someone else’s special day with anything other than a reliable old workhorse and brought a D800E recently purchased, unbelievably, for £90!
The latest AP issue, featuring ‘Best cameras under £500’, enthusiastically called it ‘an absurdly good deal’. Forget Leica rangefinders, it has never been more economical to buy a ridiculously good secondhand top-of-the-range DSLR (and become a serious, professional photographer, if you wish) with the thinnest of wallets!
Wow, you certainly got a cracking deal on the D800E, Ross. Regarding the M11, it is indeed difficult to focus on a moving subject using a manualfocus rangefinder, but it’s great that you love the camera. As we said in the reply to the previous letter, we cover a wide range of cameras in
Stumped by sensors
I dream of owning a Leica Q2 Monochrom but, being a pensioner, that isn’t going to happen any time soon. However, there is something that is confusing me about the camera. Both the Q2 and its Monochrom sibling are advertised as having a 47.3MP sensor but surely they can’t both be the same? Given that the Q2 has, presumably, got a Bayer colour filter which means that four photosites are used for each pixel but the Monochrom does not have a filter, does that not mean each photosite provides one pixel, so the camera actually has almost 200MP?
Technical editor Andy Westlake replies: Bill, let
