Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/01/14

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Subject: Re: [Leica] rotten journalists ? (was: 50 1.4 Test Results)
From: Eric Welch <ewelch@ponyexpress.net>
Date: Fri, 15 Jan 1999 01:04:27 -0600

>So, dismissing those professionals or their work with low end innuendo
>is an insult to the whole journalist profession (that includes
>photojournalists ;-) ). Example of such innuendo : "maybe they're more
>friendly to Leica now, because we see occasional Leica ads in magazines
>these days".

Geez, you guys can't take a joke! sheesh.

On the other hand, such a sentiment is naive. Car dealers are notorious for
pressure on advertisers. There was even an antitrust lawsuit, I think in
Georgia, against organized car dealerships who refused to publish in
newspapers that dared tell their customers how to buy used cars, or some
such frivolous reason.

You conspiracy theorists forget a major point. We have experience. When a
magazine tells us something we know is not true, we tend to get skeptical. 

> but I find it very strange the way some of us reject test
>articles as a whole by insinuating that the editors and labs are crooked
>and/or incompetent and that their considerations are worthless as soon
>as they are not sufficiently laudative for the revered L brand.

Exhibit A. Distortion. I rest my case. I never said such a thing, but the
desire to twist what I say to a preconceived notion some have of what I
think is all too common here.

Honest as they try to be, I don't think they are nearly as competent as the
people who design lenses (Leica, Canon, Nikon, or even, Sigma) to set up
tests that are truly useful. Thus their tests are worse than having no
tests, because they give impressions that aren't factual, when they can
have no way of understanding the design goals of a given company.

Any test, other than in the field, is not going to tell me what I want to
know. It's not just Pop Photo. I find people's reactions to the tests at
Pop Photo or anywhere else (Hey, Pop Photo says Leica lenses aren't as good
as blah , so don't spend the extra money, it's not worth it!) to be less
than useful. If you do, fine.

Eric Welch
St. Joseph, MO
http://www.ponyexpress.net/~ewelch

Always be on the lookout for conspicuousness (or, It's hard to tell if
someone is inconspicuous).