Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/05/25

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Oh ... It's COMING SOON! :-)
From: "Gary Williams" <nasmformyzombie@mindspring.com>
Date: Sun, 25 May 2003 18:52:23 -0400
References: <NABBLIJOIFAICKBIEPJJEEPHGEAB.darkroom@ix.netcom.com>

Subject: RE: [Leica] Oh ... It's COMING SOON! :-)


Austin, we're obviously not talking about the same thing.  My point is
EVERYONE (except Leica and Contax) re-did their mounts 10-15 years ago for
AF, pushed their old glass aside, asked users to spend thousands in new
systems, and with these AF mounts and re-done glass NONE EXCEPT for Canon
has a compelling digital system today.  So what are they all going to do,
re-do all of the mounts and glass again?  How many of them will even survive
the current upheavla in the photo game?  With a Leica R digital back, one
can use very credible older generation R glass (60mm Elmarit, 90mm Elmarit,
180mm APO Telyt to name three) without spending a dime on new glass.  To
boot, many of the older Leica lenses outperform optically their more modern
counterparts at Pentax, Minolta, Nikon, et.al.   Maybe this point is just
too obvious.

> I think you're just sour grapes here, Gary.  The N Digital is a simply
amazing camera.  I know it has it's flaws, but for >what it's usable for, it
does in fact make very good images.
>
> Austin

Sour grapes---over what?  I abandoned Contax because I believe it's going
horribly wrong.  Do you really think Contax is going anywhere but down and
out with it's N mount gear including the ND?  Or maybe you prefer "a dead
end" as Erwin Puts commented about the N. When is the last time Contax
released anything that made any real noise in the marketplace?  The G2 in
1994?  Its sales are very slow today.  OK, the Yashica T4 was a success
until someone at Kyocera figured out that it produced better images than the
Contax T3 at about one-quarter the price and pulled the plug on it.  But
back to the ND.  How is the ND usable?  At only up to 100 ISO without noise
it's usability is severely limited.  The camera sold originally for $7000
new and today about 6 months later can be had on the street for well under
$5000.  If you're defending the ND perhaps your loyalty to a brand is
clouding your thinking.  The only thing amazing about the ND is how it so
quickly makes your investment in it disappear.

Gary

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In reply to: Message from "Austin Franklin" <darkroom@ix.netcom.com> (RE: [Leica] Oh ... It's COMING SOON! :-))