Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/03/30

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Re: Leica's inability to do better
From: Dan Cardish <dcardish@microtec.net>
Date: Mon, 30 Mar 1998 13:52:23 -0500

At 10:24 AM 30-03-98 -0500, you wrote:
>Dan -
>
>While I'm sold on the Leica Ms and believe that they're the best cameras
>for me - if for no other reason than that my aging eye does much better
>with a range finder than with a reflex - and that the lenses are
>spectacular, I'd suggest that you put an F5 through its considerable paces
>before you write off some of its amazing performance as advertising hype.
>
>My son, who is finally graduating from the School of the Museum of Fine
>Arts seems to have become a skateboarding photographer - don't say it - and
>shoots with an F5, an F3, and multiple flashes. The metering, both flash
>and available light, on the F5 truly has to be seen to be believed. [snip]

I don't doubt that the autoexposure capabilities of the F5 are superior to
the F3, I am comparing the F5 to the R8, or any other modern camera with
matrix metering.  I am sure my Minolta 9xi will blow the F3 out of the
water, if I had to rely on auto-exposure.  It is the RGB and shutter
self-adjusting nonsence that I am aiming my arrows at.  

When I first bought my 9xi, I loaded it up with slide film and went to the
botanical gardens to see how far I could push the camera.  I set the camera
to Programmed Automatic, and chose the weirdest lighting condistions I
could find.  EVERY frame on the roll was properly exposed, without
exception.  Backlit, high contrast, you name it.  So when I hear about some
new quadzillion cell RGBXWZ matrix DDD metering system that has to be seen
to believed, I ask, " how can it improve upon perfection?".  

And I must add, the simple metering system of the M6 (or any modern TTL
metering camera), if used with just a little thought, can easily equal the
above super-duper metering systems.

Dan C.

Dan C.