[Leica] Ten years behind? I think not.

[tedgrant at shaw.ca (Ted Grant)]

Felix Lopez de Maturana said:
>>>> I still believe that R8 is not a great camera but his lenses, most of
them,
> are. <<<<<<<<<<

Hi Felix,

That's too bad. However to each his own. I found the R8 right out of the box
so perfect in my hands it feels like it was born there.

The metering has never failed me under any conditions in colour slide / col.
negatives or  B&W.

And given I had my first Leicaflex in hand around '67-68 and used them on a
regular basis with upgrading models since then, as far as I'm concerned the
R8/9 is without question the best of the breed.

And yep I've used Canon EOS, nearly every day during 1993/94 and I'd still
take my  R8 before the Canon.  The only thing the Canon gave me was auto
focus and yes I used it everytime I had the camera in hand. But it wasn't
the be all to end all tht many think it is. Particularly when you understand
the action of humans.

But like anything else, it's in the eye of the beholder and user which works
for one and not another. For me the R8 is just fine! And yes I still use it
manual focus for sports.

But remember I was shooting pro and international sports when we were only
using Speed Graphics! ;-) And yes we still managed to shoot some amazing
action photos without autofocus and high speed motor drives. ;-)

It's called.. the ability of the photographer to understand whats going on
and not relying on the techie stuff of electronics and whiz bang machines!
;-)

ted