[Leica] Suggested improvements to the M (more rant than fact)

[Bryant <tbryant@wizard.net>]

Hi Luggers,

    Gotta add to the current crop of WHAT I'D LIKE TO SEE IN THE NEW LEICA.

    Autoexposure Ms will cause me to continue to buy used M3 - M6.  After
having several autoexposure cameras, I just don't like the loss of control.
My Canon AE-1 does it very nicely, and quickly too, but I find that it's never
my camera of choice.

    You can just guess what I think of Auto Focus!

    M Leicas are *close* to perfect, but...

       How about an M with a big viewfinder that even people who wear glasses
       can use?  How about a 100% viewfinder.  Never mind 0.72, 0.85, or even
       0.91. 1.00 would be all the more accurate for rangefinding and wonder-
       fully easy to use with both eyes open.

       How about an M that takes leaf shutter lenses?  These shutters are even
       quieter than the already quiet focal plane shutter, and sync at all
       speeds.  The Pros would love it.

       How about a back that takes 100' of film? Or a 4800 x 7200 color CCD?
       (Yeah, I know they aren't out quite yet, but this is about what it will
        take to record the detail the lenses are capable of producing!)

       A faster shutter would be nice, but not at the expense of more noise.

   What I don't want to see is more cheap electronics.  Or plastics.

   As far as their most profitable venture, a slightly updated CL or CLE
might sell very well.  The P&S cameras are nothing special, and they're just
one good choice (albeit expensive!) in an ocean of similar choices.  The R8
is an excellent SLR, but it's having a time competing with the feature laden 
offerings of Contax, Canon, and Nikon.  IMHO, it's the better camera, but most
"serious" photographers think they can't live without AF, 'cuz that's what the
"Pros" use.  Go figure.  If excellent engineering sold products alone, I
wouldn't be typing this on a QWERTY keyboard, and we'd be using Beta videos,
not VHS.

   Leica ought to stick to what they're best at, the rangefinder.  Their
attempts to invade other territories, (SLR and P&S) have resulted in also ran
status, in the minds of the consuming public.  



Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly
because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have
acted rightly.  We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence, then, is not an act
but a habit.
       
                -- Aristotle