[Leica] Re: Leica answer

[mark at rabinergroup.com (Mark Rabiner)]

> 
> On Aug 30, 2007, at 6:50 PM, Adam wrote:
> 
>> I keep thinking that you want a particular answer and are disgruntled
>> when you don't get it, Lawrence.
> 
> 
> I never intended to release a flood of emotions when I asked about
> the relative reliability of the M8. What I really wanted was someone
> to say that the M8, and indeed any Leica, is a camera, not the Holy
> Grail. I would have liked to see it compared objectively to other
> cameras, but I guess expecting Luggers to be unbiased is a real leap
> of faith. After all, it is the LUG. I don't even want to see it
> compared to Canon or Nikon. I have no interest in buying either. Nor
> am I unacquainted with the convenience of digital cameras. I have
> owned them since they first came out about 15 years ago, starting
> with a B&W Logitec, the Apple 100, and the Leica Digiflex Zoom. I
> regularly use an Olympus 4/3 DSLR, apparently the second choice of
> many Leica fans. The digitals let me take more pictures without a
> cost penalty but I seriously doubt that they are better pictures.
> 
> What I would like to see is a comparison of the M8 with a film Leica,
> say the M6, using the same lenses on each, the film to be scanned at
> 4000 lpi on a top quality scanner.
> Surely one of the excellent photographers on the LUG has both cameras
> and the interest in making such a test. My problem is that I have
> film Leicas and lenses that I use for personal photography. I am
> satisfied with the results but I like the convenience of digital. The
> entry price of the M8 can buy a lot of film and processing. Still,
> I'm tempted. The largest pictures I regularly make these days are
> 8x10s with an occasional 11x14 or 16x20 for a photo show. No 40x60s
> ever.

The differences in this comparison would not be between two cameras.
But between to ways of working.
Scanning from negs is one way of working.
And working from digital captures is another.
Another radically different way of working from the first.

The influence of the cameras themselves comes way later down the list.

Just curious...
Are you doing any scanning now?
Any capturing?
If not you'd not really have a frame of reference for this input we'd be
wasting our breath.

Any printing?
Uploading?

As much as I love shooting with rangefinder cameras I appreatate digital
capture and what it does for my work more.
So I've gotten involved with DSLRs over the past years. On my third now.
No ones going to give me an M8 so I'll have to shoot with my DSLRs.
A phenomenon now.

I'd like a Leica DSLR.

With whipped cream and a cherry.

Mark William Rabiner
Harlem, NY

rabinergroup.com