Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/01/10

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Subject: [Leica] Zeiss Ikon Focus Shift
From: mark at rabinergroup.com (Mark Rabiner)
Date: Mon Jan 10 22:34:33 2005

On 1/10/05 4:15 PM, "Jeffery Smith" <jefferys@gmail.com> typed:

> Easy now, Bill. I used the word hype because Zeiss was giving us the
> information in tiny little snippits while showing us a tiny piece of a
> photo that showed nothing more than a 1/2" square bit of the camera.
> Don't you recall the maddening tiny bits of info that Zeiss was
> releasing on its web site before Photokina? I don't know how Nikon
> released the information, but I hope they were less infantile about it
> than the Zeiss PR folks.
> 
> Jeffery
> 
> 
And in the context of the whole new Cosina Contax system which is being
hyped across the board at a very insulting level with a dozen questionable
affirmations in their brochure straight out of the marketing department. I'm
sure their design depart cringed when they saw it.

Also in the past two days I noticed this weird idea they are passing off of
using your 80mm Planar you so love on your Rolleiflex TLR medium format
camera on your 35mm rangefinder.
Porting a medium format lens into a 35mm camera system is new to me and it
sounds fishy. Especially in the context of all this overwhelming hype.

The other thing just like this is they say they are in effect porting over
the 40 we Rollei 35 users love on our compact collapsible innovative Rollei
35's and that their 40 for this new rangefinder system is the same formula.
I believe this more than the 80.

I am an avid user of both Rolleiflex TLR's
http://rabinergroup.com/ImagePages/CameraworkRudy.html
and Rollei 35's. 
http://rabinergroup.com/ImagePages/PortlandRollei35.html

The idea of getting both those "Looks" of these classic Zeiss optics into my
Leica shooting would be nice if there was any reality worth mentioning to
it.

With all the stuff they are slinging they could tell me the sky was BLUE and
it would go in one ear and out the other.

This system is being over sold. It's bad on its credibility.
It's like a Hollywood movie where the budget is split 50 50 between the
making and the selling.
With cameras I'm more conformable with a budget which went into he
development of the camera itself. Quality and value has a way of getting
around quick enough.

Why over hype it till it stinks?

Mark Rabiner
Photography
Portland Oregon
http://rabinergroup.com/





Replies: Reply from bdcolen at earthlink.net (B. D. Colen) ([Leica] Zeiss Ikon Focus Shift)
In reply to: Message from jefferys at gmail.com (Jeffery Smith) ([Leica] Zeiss Ikon Focus Shift)