Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/04/02
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]- --Doug Herr wrote: >Why is a mechanical, non-motorized camera with a dumb spot meter >like the Leica M6 considered by many to be the pinnacle of rangefinder >design, yet to be competitive a 35mm SLR must have multiple metering >and program modes, motorized film advance and rewind, auto-bracketing, >sophisticated flash functions and (in many opinions) several auto >focus modes?<< The reason the M6 is considered a successful design is that many photographers believe that its so-called primitive features are dynamite in the hands of a skilled photographer. I think that the greater issue here is that the features listed above are what the marketing departments of large manufacturers like Nikon want you believe that you really need so they have an excuse to sell their cameras for $2800 and justify why you have to upgrade to the F6 for $3500 in five years. This is similar to the productivity debate surrounding computers. While on a basic level computers are a time saving device, adding a larger monitor or a faster CPU does not make a big impact beyond that original savings. In the same manner, autobracketing, for instance, is a feature of convenience, not necessity, which does not really improve your photography. It helps to keep things in perspective by remembering that "greats" like Cartier-Bresson, Capa and so forth did their best work without the luxury of even TTL metering.