Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/10/11
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]The new book from van Haesbroeck (texts) and Colin Glanfield (photographs) , Leica in colour, leave me with ambivalent feelings. The 140 colour pictures are almost all very good. There are several prototypes of lenses and cameras really unusual and interesting. Some parts of the text are more or less OK, like the chapter about the M6 (not perfect). But you can't trust it as a reference. You will have to use it together with other books like Lager, Laney or Rogliatti. Examples: page 77 the Leica M4 and M4-2. page 119 the description of the various 28/2,8 for M camera. (Laney or Rogliatti are only slightly better about that lens) page 129 the 65/3,5 elmar for Visoflex. page 135 the Elmarit, Tele-Elmarit and Elmar-C lens. Ouch ! Etc... It's like if the book was written without any bibliography other than his own previous books. To bad because a lot has been written since, like in the LHSA Viewfinder, Lager, Vidom etc... It lack of a systematic approach. Sentences like the following are a little bit confused: (about the M4) - -The rangefinder provides accurate measurement from infinity to 28 inches, as with the M2 (the M3 rangefinder could focus to 1 metre). The focused image is 0,7 times that of the M2 (that of the M3 is 0,9 times greater, so is more precise for close-focuswork).- Inches mixed with metre, 0,7 times what ? etc... Anyway, I will buy it again because of its other qualities. Lucien