Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/06/27
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Kyle Cassidy writes: > though you really must admit, the M has _not_ > evolved significantly past the nikon F from > its earliest inception ... Neither has film photography. And that's why I bought a Leica M. If I wanted "evolution" every six months in a field that does not require it, I'd buy Canon equipment and "upgrade" it every time a new gadget came out. As it happens, that's not what I want, and buying one camera that works the same way for 30-80 years reliably seems more useful to me than buying a new camera every six months that is different from its predecessor. The idea, after all, is to take pictures, not to obsess with equipment. > ... the design has _for the most most most part_ > remained _identical_ since the introduction of > the camera. There has been no reason to change it. All you need to take pictures is a good lens and a reliable shutter and aperture adjustment. Leica cameras have had all of these for many decades. > with the exception of the light meter, the ONLY > real changes of any significance have been a better > viewfinder, the replacemnt of that stupid spool > with a stupid fork, and the replacement of that > stupid rewind knob with that signficantly better > rewind knob, and the loss of the self timer. > other than that, it's basically the same camera. I know. Isn't it great? > my point being: the M is yesterday's technology > too. Yup. You talk as though this is a bad thing. > i love mine, but you can't compare the evolution > of the nikon f line with the evolution of the > leica m line -- only one of them really evolved, > the other's like a crocodile -- still around, > still chugging along. Yes. So? I'd be happy if Nikon bodies stopped "evolving" with the F5, and perhaps I'll get my wish (I have a suspicion that the F5 may be the last high-end _film_ SLR body from Nikon, with all the future high-end stuff being digital). And Nikon still sells some of the older bodies, which proves that they understand this to some extent. One important attraction to both Leica and Nikon is that they "evolve" quite slowly. Since photography really requires no evolution at all, brands that "evolve" quickly are usually just finding excuses to get people to junk their old cameras and buy new ones, even though photography has not changed in all these years.