Another camera-Leica X2

Friend Wayne manages to find real camera bargains on eBay. A little while ago he found a Leica X2 at a bargain price. The X2 is a later version of my much loved Leica X1. It has a 16mp CMOS sensor instead of the 12mp CCD sensor on the X1. It has faster autofocus,a redesigned flash unit (completely useless-I have never used the flash on my X1 in 6 years and thousands of photos) and the control dials are stiffer-a useful improvement as the control dials on the X1 turn too easily. The lens remains the same -the fabulous f2.8 35mm Elmarit. A big improvement over the X1 is that it accepts an EVF (electronic viewfinder) which slots into the accessory shoe. The EVF from my X Vario slots in nicely although it is rather bulky and if I owned the X2 I am not sure that I would use the EVF. I have been happy with the little Voigtlander optical viewfinder on the X1.

Wayne seems happiest using cameras with lots of controls and fancy menus. He bought the X2 because of the quality of the photos I get from my X1 but he is having trouble gelling with the X2 and its barebones specification and relatively slow autofocus- it's a good thing that he did not buy an X1 as its autofocus is really slow-so he has asked me to use it for a few days to see what I could produce with it. Well I only picked it up over coffee yesterday morning so I have not had long to try it out but I have managed to take a few shots with it . I have set it to identical settings as my X1 and I have only taken jpeg files.The autofocus is definitely faster than the X1 but otherwise it really is the same camera although perhaps there is a marginal difference in the colour rendition.
Wayne is off to Cambodia in two weeks and is still not certain whether to take the X2 along.I don't know whether my photos will persuade him.
 The exercise has confirmed to me that the X1 and X2 are both superb cameras and they are already latter day classics. It would be nice to say that you can pick a used one up at a bargain price but that is not so.The last bargain was bought by Wayne.
All the photos above and below were taken by me with the X2 over the past 2 days.