Thanks for the good catch. Of course you are correct. I'm getting my Summar's and Serenar's mixed up. Oh the joys of growing old and losing one's memory gradually. My lens is in fact is a 50mm Ernest Leitz Wetzlar Summar f2. It had lens coating added at the London Leica repair facility by my long ago deceased father-in-law who lived in London perhaps about 55 or 60 years ago with his family. He sent the lens in with the 111c body where he had a flash synch terminal installed in the front. Today it is probably worth less because of flash sync install (from a collectors point of view) -- but it is nicer to use with it. I also have a 90mm collapsible Elmar. In any case my wife and I would never sell the Leica camera equipment because of sentimental value.
:D

Your dilemna is appreciated. I too require filter threads on lenses for a variety of reasons. As a result I fairly recently chose a Sony a6000 with the convenient kit lens (some say so-so quality but I find it OK and very convenient). This lens has a 40.5mm filter thread which I have thread adapters to other sizes. I have plans to buy a Rokinon 12mm f2 super wide E-mount lens which sports a 67mm filter thread for which I fortunately have a variety of 67mm filters formerly used on Hassey equipment. I have an old Leica 50mm Serenar coated lens (sm) which adapters are available for the a6000. I also have an old Nikon 180mm f2.8 lens which mounting adapters are available. So I think I will be OK in the filter department. It's true that many of these smaller cameras do not have filter threads so I looked elsewhere for this reason. :thumbup:

Has anyone used Corel Aftershot Pro2? Corel has a special price of less than $50. recently and I wonder how well its works -- and how easy it is to use. I'm tempted to try it. I have been using Picasa for years and also iPhoto for a year.

Very thorough discussion -- but you seem to have left out of the discussion the very popular Sony a6000 which falls somewhere in the middle size wise. I think most will agree that it does a pretty good job and that it is very fairly priced.

New Prius sold in California come with 150,000 factory warranty. It is apparently 100,000 mile warranty for the rest of the US (I don't know why the difference). Typical reports mention that the batteries usually exceed the 150,000 warranty. For the amount of driving I do that would put it right (for me) to perhaps sell my Prius and buy something new at about the 10 year ownership time frame (minimum for me) that I like to keep my new car. My Prius is a 3 year old 2012 with just under 25,000 miles on it. In approximately 7 years I would re-evaluate what I buy and could even pick something different. I don't believe in locking myself into any one brand. Maybe it will be electric or even possibly a hydrogen car. Toyota just recently started selling to the public in the LA area (newspaper article a few days ago in LA Times) a hydrogen powered car in California (3,000 I believe they said) as experimental cars. They indicated only in the LA area because of limited hydrogen fuel availability. And Tesla wants to market a smaller battery/electric car more affordable for the masses. We seem to in for a interesting ride in future cars -- so hang on and enjoy the ride.

Some of you interested in this thread may find the following article interesting.
driving.ca/toyota/prius/auto-news/news/hybrid-highway-trailblazing-cabbie

I agree with the people that say do the math. Do "all the math" including keeping the new car for 10 years at least (as I do).

Gas mileage is very definitely not the whole story. Three other strong Prius points rarely mentioned in this discussion are:
1. Prius is at the top of the heap (according to Consumer Reports) in least frequency of repairs.
2. Also at the top of the heap for highest resale value.
3. Car writers often have pointed out that Prius is the least expensive car to own among currently available cars.
A pretty good argument to buy one -- provided one like the car.

I also have Time Warner service. Purchased my own Motorola Arris SURFboard SB6141 modem from Costco (about 1 year ago for $70 or $80) and this particular model does work with my phone.

About 2 years ago a friend who is a top Sergeant (female) in the Air Force arranged for me to go on a flight on the refueling tanker (K35 I think) that she was assigned to. No we did not refuel anything like the incredible plane in your video -- but we did refuel a couple other Air Force planes (a fighter and 1 other). It was quite an experience and I will never forget it. Our military does so many incredible technical things that we know so little about.
Kudos to our military people who do these things every day.
Thanks for sharing the video.

The full title is David Busch's Sony a6000 ILCE-6000, guide to Digital Photography. Inside publication date given is 2016 David Busch. The book has 349 pages. I have been buying new & used cameras for 62 years and never have I seen a book with as much information as this one has. This camera has capabilities that I could not even dreamed of. A off the cuff guess comparing the tiny little owners manual that comes from Sony with the new camera might be that it contains a 1000th of what the David Busch's book contains. I have been doing photography all my life since I was a kid and both as an amateur and professionally for 17 years and I again would have to guess that I did not know 90% or more of what is in the book about "this" camera.
My advice would be buy the book. It's under $25. You won't be sorry.
Good luck.

Just received my David Busch's a6000 manual 3 days ago from Amazon so they are now available. I find that it is excellent with a ton of information in it albeit it's on the large size (9"x7.5"x almost 1" thick -- not to mention the weight) to take with me traveling. What will work for me is to take the (not very good) small manual that come with the camera with me and copy a few relevant pages out of David Busch's manual (like cheat sheets) and stick them in my wallet in case I want to refer to them. Good luck.

Welcome to Ugly Hedgehog and congratulations on your retirement. Retirement is great after 16 years of it and I would recommend it to anyone who wants it. All the advice everyone has given you looks good to me and you can't go wrong taking any of it that I read. As for me I recently (3 months ago) bought a new Sony a6000, downsizing from a lifetime of using larger equipment ranging from medium format to 35mm. At my current age (81) I find it easier to haul around on trips without straining myself because of weight and yet still maintaining quality that I want. I am also not hung up on particular brand names. I think you have been correctly advised that in your price range "just about everything" on the market will serve you well.
All the best.

1955-1957, USNR, LI3, on board USS Boston CAG-1

Incidentally I forgot to mention that the USS Boston CAG-1 operated with the Forestal as plane guard during this 1955-1957 period that I was aboard. The Forestal at the time was the newest and the best of it's kind. I did one day in Norfolk, Virginia go aboard for a look around visit.