[Leica] Slow CV 20mm for Pentax Nikon

[mark at rabinergroup.com (Mark Rabiner)]

Geoff I don't object to fast cutting edge lenses I love them but shooting
through just the middle of them does not justify the size, weight and
especially the cost. We've been through this before maybe we're saying it
better this time.

I can't see how Leica is going to do well competing against Fujiblad a
camera which is mainly rented by pros by the day with a guy running a big
monitor and the software which goes with it.
Not bought.
Rented.
Borrowed.
That awesome amount of money behind the R&D on the S system could surely
have put us in business with the Leica glass we shot film with in the 90's.
Leica might be making an S outa themselves my pappy would have said.

Leica rangefinder in the 90's shooting film was a very strong answer against
Canon and Nikon SLR's. A lot of serious work was always being done with it
Every newsstand had a feature in which some photog picked the Leica
rangefinder non AF option in the 90's. You'd see M6' and 7's everywhere.
Now I think we've shrunk to nothing in that respect and the next year we'd
see people deserting Leica like lemmings to shoot ISO 32,000 with no
discretion and clear images which blow up to 17x22 easy.

Annie Liebowitz shot the in progress new New York Times building between
July 2005 and July 2006 with an M8 if she was doing it now I think she'd
surely use the Canon full frame she's shooting everything else with. No more
medium format digital on the Mamiya 67 even if what I'm reading is true.
http://newyorktimesbuilding.com/leibovitz/FLASH/slideshow/photographs.htm


I keep thinking there is a lack of confidence at Leica in non AF.
And rangefinder. 
>From Dr. Kaufmann. 
If not for the slew of new M bloated glass.
Priced to psych out all competitors like the S system a real ball buster.
But none of this stuff is going to psych anyone out sitting on camera store
shelves.
If I'm wrong the new glass will sell like hotcakes to film users I was not
aware of and serious shooters who someone don't care they are shooting
cropped format in 2010 and paying big bucks to do it.

If I'm right unfortunately the glass won't sell and the only money coming
into Leica will be from its saviors pockets.
People want more imaging power in terms of byte for their buck and that
comes with the format the M system was designed to be from its inception.
- that's what would make it sell thrusting the Leica M system into the
forefront of serious modern shooting.
Right now Leica is sitting on the bench waiting for its coach to put it in.
Barnack would want it to play.

If Leica had decided that unlike the rest of the world shooting 24x36 film
in the 30's it was going to do half frame 18x24 and give you 72 on a roll I
don't believe it would have made it very far into the 40's.
The stuff would just not have blown up so well even with choice Focomat
V72's you could use with it with their smaller footprint than the V-35's

Unless like the Pen F system they had a line of cute little lenes to put on
their compact pocket sized bodies. Then they could have sold the idea of
immense portability with great 5x7 blow ups.
You want clean 8x10s then forget that get a bloated Contax or Nikon 24x34.

Half frame film format is a millimeter away maybe two from our cropped
digital formats of today.
I love 72 on a roll.
Except now I get closer to 720 now with my half frame D40x and D200 bodies
soon to be upgraded.
If I was shooting Full Frame then I guess I'd be getting 500 on a roll I
don't know.
With an 8 gig cassette.
The 16's are probably affordable now.




Mark William Rabiner