Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/01/12

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Subject: [Leica] Zeiss Ikon Focus Shift
From: bdcolen at earthlink.net (B. D. Colen)
Date: Wed Jan 12 14:14:50 2005

No one's suggesting consigning our Ms to the dustbin - I'm simply saying
it's ludicrous to worry about whether Zeiss will produce these lenses
for three days, or three hundred years. IF they are state-of-the-art,
beautifully constructed lenses, they will last. Buy them or don't buy
them.

As to a digital M - I'd put my money on a digital Zeiss in M mount long
before I'd put it on Leica coming out with a digital M. Digital M?
Wasn't that the camera Leica said was impossible to produce - until the
day Epson came out with a digital M mount? Or was it only LUG chatter
that proclaimed it an impossibility? ;-) In any case, time will tell...

-----Original Message-----
From: lug-bounces+bdcolen=earthlink.net@leica-users.org
[mailto:lug-bounces+bdcolen=earthlink.net@leica-users.org] On Behalf Of
Mark Rabiner
Sent: Wednesday, January 12, 2005 11:38 AM
To: Leica Users Group
Subject: Re: [Leica] Zeiss Ikon Focus Shift



> Why do you need a long-term commitment? First off, with film use 
> fading faster than a print that hasn't been fixed, the market for film

> equipment is going to be miniscule five years from now - and there 
> will be far more than enough used M lenses around to keep the diehard 
> aficionados in equipment. Second off, assuming for a moment that the 
> Zeiss offerings are even close to as good as Zeiss is claiming they'll

> be, if they offer them for a year that's a year longer than not having

> they available at all. I don't know about you, but in the 46 years 
> I've been involved with photography one way or another (starting at 
> age 12) I have NEVER had to send a lens for service. I buy them and 
> use them. Period. So I can't say I'd lose any sleep over Zeiss only 
> offering this stuff for a year - or for a month. Of course the body is

> another matter.
> 



The quick dominance of digital over film over the present years does not
make the issue of which lens to use on our cameras an issue of the used
glass market. The dead and pass? this or that. The Zeiss lenses coming
out now are new state of the art lenses designed to work on new state of
the art cameras. Film or digital. Just like any lens made for the Leica
M mount is. Many and most new lens we get for our Leica, Nikon or Canon
EOS and other systems are lenses which for the most part work with
either film or digital bodies. Even Olympus.

Lets not forget the Leica M mount has one existing digital camera for it
so far and one from Leica itself in the works. Digital photography with
the Leica M mount has taken hold and it can do nothing but become more
firmly entrenched. I got the Calumet catalog and there it was up front
and big, on the B&H site and just about everywhere. You would think it
was not such a nietzsche market item.

We're not giving up on Leica as quickly as others so quickly have over
the years always  finding any excuse to justify disposing them to the
quaint archaic junk heap.

Leica has survived and or absorbed SLR's, Auto exposure, program
exposure, quick load and point and shoots, auto focus, and now it will
survive and absorb digital. They have met each other half way. Low tech
digital.



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





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Replies: Reply from mark at rabinergroup.com (Mark Rabiner) ([Leica] Zeiss Ikon Focus Shift)
In reply to: Message from mark at rabinergroup.com (Mark Rabiner) ([Leica] Zeiss Ikon Focus Shift)