G
Guest
Brent,
You display what I call "Leica nobility". Please don't feel this is an attack on you or any other Leica owner. I own a few (including an M6) myself. You can go out in the woods with a fixed-blade knife and build a fort by bludgeoning everything into submission. Or you can take a Swiss Army knife and have the right tool for each job. Do you have to use them all, all of the time? No. But you always have more tools in your kit available when you do. As far as metering goes, again, look at any test of Nikon (for ex&le) metering systems in the last 30 years and you'll see that the meters are spot on in almost all cases. Probably ditto Leica. But, given the option of having a quality spot, average, and multi-pattern meter available when wanted is something Leica cannot match. The photographer manipulates the camera, not vice versa. I grew up using my father's Leica IIIG and manual focus, match-needle SLRs. I, too, have years of experience and understand that technology, as long as it's at the user's discretion, is always a good thing. To say otherwise is simply arrogance for the sake of being "Leica nobility". I will probably keep my Leicas (especially the Minilux), but I see a time when digital really will replace film. And guess what? They're all autofocus, multi-pattern machines. The fact that over 98% of all pro photographers use AF bodies (35mm shooters) and they're all Japanese is not happenstance. Pros can buy wahtever they want, and they want selectable technology. I own Leicas because I love the optics (though Photodo's best was the Contax 45 G - resolution anyway) and the beautiful build quality. They do not offer this mystical power to improve us as photographers that too many people use as support to spend thousands on Leica gear. I understand this is my opinion, but as an engineer I know the limitations of engineering and boundless limits of hype and just feel we spout to much hype over Leica gear. Again, no offense or criticism of your preferences is intended. Erwin Put's review of the Leica Minilux points to the flaw in manual Leica hysteria - the little autofocus gem can do more, and is harder to master, than any of the manual focus bodies on their own. And it's made in Japan.
You display what I call "Leica nobility". Please don't feel this is an attack on you or any other Leica owner. I own a few (including an M6) myself. You can go out in the woods with a fixed-blade knife and build a fort by bludgeoning everything into submission. Or you can take a Swiss Army knife and have the right tool for each job. Do you have to use them all, all of the time? No. But you always have more tools in your kit available when you do. As far as metering goes, again, look at any test of Nikon (for ex&le) metering systems in the last 30 years and you'll see that the meters are spot on in almost all cases. Probably ditto Leica. But, given the option of having a quality spot, average, and multi-pattern meter available when wanted is something Leica cannot match. The photographer manipulates the camera, not vice versa. I grew up using my father's Leica IIIG and manual focus, match-needle SLRs. I, too, have years of experience and understand that technology, as long as it's at the user's discretion, is always a good thing. To say otherwise is simply arrogance for the sake of being "Leica nobility". I will probably keep my Leicas (especially the Minilux), but I see a time when digital really will replace film. And guess what? They're all autofocus, multi-pattern machines. The fact that over 98% of all pro photographers use AF bodies (35mm shooters) and they're all Japanese is not happenstance. Pros can buy wahtever they want, and they want selectable technology. I own Leicas because I love the optics (though Photodo's best was the Contax 45 G - resolution anyway) and the beautiful build quality. They do not offer this mystical power to improve us as photographers that too many people use as support to spend thousands on Leica gear. I understand this is my opinion, but as an engineer I know the limitations of engineering and boundless limits of hype and just feel we spout to much hype over Leica gear. Again, no offense or criticism of your preferences is intended. Erwin Put's review of the Leica Minilux points to the flaw in manual Leica hysteria - the little autofocus gem can do more, and is harder to master, than any of the manual focus bodies on their own. And it's made in Japan.