[Leica] Re: RE: Konica fiction

[Henning Wulff <henningw@archiphoto.com>]

At 4:22 PM -0700 5/10/01, Jim Brick wrote:
>Thanks Adrian,
>
>I wasn't yelling at you, just clarifying your heritage - age statement.
>
>Thank you for the Konica dissertation. I wasn't dissing Konica, I was
>trying to draw a lineage line from when Oscar invented the first Leica to
>the current M6. There is a lot of similarity and expertise that has been
>gleaned over the decades. Leica didn't make film or copiers. Just optics,
>cameras, and paraphernalia that supports this line. So the Leica (Leitz)
>heritage is sort of all in the same vein. Still doing today, what Oscar
>started nearly a century ago.
>
>Konica's heritage is, I believe, not so well defined. My father's father
>was a farmer, my father was a cabinet maker, I am a photographer/computer
>geek. No heritage here. Lineage in the name. Nothing else.
>
>Part of heritage is being known for what you inherit. Konica is a good
>company. Just not known for producing Leica like cameras. I personally know
>Konica for their film. They have produced some great film over the decades.
>
>And I believe that there is a basic incompatibility between Leica lenses
>and Konica Hexar bodies. Incompatibilities that were on purpose.
>Incompatibilities that would not be blatant at f/16 in the bright sun, but
>would bite you in the butt at f/1.4. Unless you happened to get a system
>where Konica tolerances happened to be skewed in Leica's favor and the
>Leica tolerances were skewed in Konica's direction.
>
>Jim

Jim, I am definitely in the same camp as Adrian here. As anyone who 
knows me can attest, I can be anal with the best. My preference in LF 
is Sinar, not Linhof, because while Linhof quality is second to none 
they seem clueless in comparison to Sinar when designing a full 
system that aids photographers, and Sinar's quality isn't that shabby 
either. In MF, I have picked and chosen bits from Hasselblad, Noblex, 
Horseman and Mamiya to do what I want. None has it all.

In 35mm, I have used Leica since I was a teenager, continuously. But 
I have also used Nikon, Konica and Canon SLR systems. The Konicas 
were, by the way, the only cameras I never had to bring in to the 
shop unless I did the damage. I never used Leica SLR's because their 
system or feature set never had what I thought was most useful in an 
SLR system for me.

I now have a Konica Hexar. It is not my only M-mount camera, nor will 
it ever be, but it supplements my Leicas in directions that Leica 
does not seem to want to go. There is a very slight possibility that 
I might have sprung for a .58 Leica had I known about it before I 
bought the Hexar, but some features of the Hexar are still 'better' 
for me.

I use the Hexar with my 35/1.4. As I posted before, my test series 
showed that it does not have the backfocus difference that Erwin 
mentions. I cannot say why, nor will I claim in any way that Erwin is 
wrong except for the single instance that if he includes my camera he 
is mistaken. I get sharp shots at f/1.4, which are focussed with the 
rangefinder, and even at infinity, and which are indistinguishably as 
sharp as pictures taken with the same lens on the same tripod with 
the same film within minutes on an M6. If the backfocus difference 
did exist for my camera, it should be impossible to get sharp shots 
with the 35/1.4 at infinity with the Hexar, as it would be focussed 
at a distance of 6.16m. In practice, as mentioned before, it is 
focussed at infinity, same as the M6. Therefore my M6 has the same 
backfocus as my M6's, and is fully compatible. Note that achievieving 
this degree of compatibility is not due to a generous tolerance, as 
this result is well outside of the tolerance range that Erwin states. 
Someone designed this camera to be compatible.

Believe me, I am picky.

I don't doubt that Konica will give up on fixing the electronics in 
the Hexar before Leica will give up fixing the M6, if both companies 
are still around. On the other hand, I wouldn't be surprised if the 
Hexar turns out to be more reliable than the M6, just as the Konica's 
of the 70's proved to be more reliable than the M4's and M5's I had 
then, and just as my daughter's Mazda is more reliable than my BMW, 
or my wife's Mercedes.

I love Leicas (just ask my wife:-)), but not to the exlusion of more 
important objectives or people (again, my wife). Photography is what 
my use of Leicas is about, and the Hexar helps me make use of my 
Leica lenses - the 35/1.4 is usually on it - and my professional 
photography is not compromised in the least.

Actually, since I am in a confessional mode here, my main 
professional use of the Leica system is an M6 with either the 21ASPH 
or the 15 or 12 Cosina. Occasionally the Noctilux or 75 or 90 for 
recording serious meetings or portraits.

Leica body, Cosina lens. My possibilities open up before me. Leica, 
where is thy 12mm??

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    *            Henning J. Wulff
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