I bought a 261 back in February, now I've used it for a bunch of other things, but last week used it for a hard week straight doing tornado clean up in Texas. Doing a lot of bore cuts, with a fair amount of limbing/bucking and the saw hasn't let me down yet (and the bar I have, a 20 inch bar from weedeaterman, is absolutely amazing, got it pinched a couple times that I KNOW would have bent a Stihl bar and not a scratch) The manual tune version was less expensive from my dealer than the M-Tronic. I was happily impressed with how much it outclassed (like I expected it to) all the 251s that were being used/provided by the group I volunteer with.
So I like the 261
Just make sure you get the updated version which has more power and is lighter. The easiest way to tell the difference is the way the Sprocket covers look. The newer version has a black top, and an extra slant next to the bar nuts (making it less bulky/square-ish than the old version)