Stephanie, if it is any consolation, I had to sell mine because I couldn't get used to the clacking shutter and the build quality. It was aggravating, because it seemed that if VC had just put in some more money for better quality they could have given us a real alternative to a Leica RF at a good price. I had trouble w/ the RF patch as well, especially coming from an M3. The M3 was the perfect camera to me, but having no meter did not work for my shooting.
Since then I have tried the R3A (same noisy shutter and wouldn't take my Summi DR lens, but otherwise a really, wonderful camera ) and a Canon 7 (great build quality, but the uncoupled meter on top of the camera was not very easy to use, and the RF patch was, on mine, not that easy to see). I then bought an M5 and it was great, except that the shutter and meter display in the view finder is lit by ambient light. Guess what happens when there is low light...you can't see the meter!
It seems that every Rf camera I have tried has, for me, had at least one designed in Achilles heel that makes it too quirky for me to use consistently. I think the M6/7's would be the way to go if I wasn't so cheap. So I have a CL coming, and if that doesn't do it I am going back to the Nikon SLR's and the Contax G1 cameras. They are both cheap and have great lenses, and at least the Contax is RF size. Lacking a real camera store in my small New Mexico town means a lot of internet buying, and you never know how the camera will work for you until you get it in your hands.
The really odd thing is that if you go to the less expensive, fixed lens RF cameras you get cameras that are sometimes a lot better designed, maybe because they were marketed at consumers who would not put up w/ a lot of difficulties in the picture taking process. My small and light Konica C35 had a great, but kinda slow, Hexanon lens, exposure lock, bright viewfinder and focusing patch, quiet as a mouse shutter, and cost all of $20.00.
