Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/08/19
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Brian Reid said: Subject: Re: [Leica] Conformity in Athens > Am I right in assuming that those are all Canon FL lenses, mostly the 600 f/5.6 but an occasional 500 f/5.6 Fluorite? > > Nobody is copying anybody there. They're all trying to get the shot.<<<<< Hi Brian, Absolutely! You're not there to copy anyone and if you are you're wasting your time. Look at it this way, we generally accept Leica is the best? ;-) Well if that were the case there would be more Leica's than white and black lenses in the crowd. ;-) Hell I and a few others of the early days of the '70's we'd have been copied like crazy. ;-) However, the truth is Canon went after the world of SLR's and pro sport shooters like wild fire and they beat out Nikon hands down when it came to equipment and servicing where Nikon had been the ruler. I've gone to the Games where there might be 3 or 4 photogs using Leica, the '72 winter games in Sapporo, Japan there was myself and a couple of German photogs. One a news shooter, the other a German Leitz technician using a new 400mm lens on a sort of pistol grip mount on a motor driven SL. I kept trying to take a picture of him using it and when he caught me he hid the camera. later we introduced ourselves and it was a test of what became the pistol gripped 400 and 560 lens. The Summer games in Munich there were quite a few with Leica, obviously in Germany what would you expect as Leica was still the dominant camera there at the time. Then after that, it was Nikon for sometime. But after the Commonwealth Games in Edmonton Canada, 1978 where the Canon A1 was introduced, Canon climbed to where it is today. They developed new equipment and an absolutely great service turn around, the loaner pool of gear was incredible, ask and you received! Technical support on sight at games would fix anything wrong with your gear. It became the question of the day.... " going to the Olympics?" became known as... " Take every Canon you could find with you, working or not and you'd come home with it like brand new! FREE! :-)" Cameras were stripped, cleaned, tested and replaced or repaired. And while they were doing this they gave you any amount of glass and bodies you could use.... FREE! As long as you were an accredited photographer. Obviously their service and attention to the world's news and sport photographers has paid off when you see a bunch of sports photographers in a photo positon. Someone mentioned Nikon had a few white lenses, so big deal! They missed the boat about 30 years ago when they had the world by the tail and they let Canon take the ball right out of their pocket! ted