RE: [Leica] It's the lens, stupid.

[Eric Welch <ewelch@ponyexpress.net>]

At 02:00 PM 5/3/99 -0700, you wrote:
>Eric if you think you can shoot baseball as fast as an AF camera you are the
>most amazing manual focus non-motor drive user I have ever heard of.  As to
>Leica being a stand out because they willnot as you put it "cheapen the
>build of their lenses" I only hope they stay in business long enough to
>worry about that.

Peter, you flatter me. :-)

Baseball is the most boring, slow-moving sport I photograph. The last two 
run-downs I've photographed are the only time I've used follow focus this 
season. And I got them both times. Not every frame sharp, but the critical 
moment in both chances - the tag.

Most of the time it's a game of anticipation. You know the game well enough 
to know when someone is going to make their move. You figure out where 
they're going to go, and you pre-focus the area, then when it happens, you 
just tweak the focus on the catcher, or the baseman, or you just follow the 
shortstop - or second baseman, third baseman - as they chase the ball down.

Photographing people running bases is boring, boring, boring. As exciting 
as swinging the bat. Though I did get lucky a couple years ago when, for 
the heck of it, I photographed a girl swinging the bat - and got the 
winning hit of the district game. The guys at the office, and my competitor 
from the other paper were blown away. I knew I was just lucky (that I 
anticipated something might happen, we make our own luck).

As to your final comment, I'm not sure what you mean. It's a matter of 
record - and fact - that the first AF lenses all were built with pretty 
darn loose tolerances. The first AF Micro Nikkor front cell sung back and 
forth like a palm tree in a hurricane. (Well, that is a bit of an 
exaggeration, but I was horrified with the cheap feel of the lens.) Almost 
all of the first generation AF lenses by Minolta, Canon and Nikon had a 
loose feel to them, and it was for a good reason. Save battery power by 
making lenses loose and easy to focus. The first AF 300 2.8 Nikkor lens was 
very well built. And slow as molasses in January.

Leica - and Contax - I might add have refused to follow that convention. 
And maybe they have paid for it, but they also benefited from it by us 
loyal customers who like tough-as-nails lenses.

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

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