Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2009/11/10

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Subject: [Leica] M9 reviewers drawn from the "unwashed masses"
From: douglas.sharp at gmx.de (Douglas Sharp)
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 2009 01:17:00 +0100
References: <C71F5DE7.585AF%mark@rabinergroup.com>

Right, Cosina, I just love their Voigtl?nder lenses - they deliver 
fantastic quality, which I like, and look good too - which seems to be 
what you like.

They only really shook off their reputation of being a low-end 
manufacturer after the launch of the Bessas and the Voigl?nder lenses - 
all because their boss is a great fan of Leica.

Alongside their own SLRs and the predecessor of the Lomo (CX-2) Cosina 
actually produced plenty of reliable but rather basic mainstream cameras 
for any number of distributor brands or store-brands wanting reasonable 
quality, entry level equipment - nothing special to look at, but not 
junky - even for Canon (T60), Nikon (FM10) and Olympus (OM-2000), other 
lesser known brands they built for were Bauer, Argus, Chinon, Carena, 
Elicar, Hanking, Exakta, Hanimex, Kenlock, Miranda, Panagor, a whole 
series for Petri, Ricoh and Vivitar and a couple by the name of Sears.

The coup of joining up with the German distributor and store-chain 
Ringfoto, who owned, and still own the Voigtl?nder brand name (inherited 
first from Zeiss and then from Rollei), was a brilliant move that 
certainly rapidly increased the awareness of the "resurrected" brand and 
got people talking about them before their reputation for high-quality 
was established

Best regards
Douglas

BTW: If the looks of cameras and lenses make a contribution to great 
photography it's news to me.

But, no matter, I liked the performance AND the looks of the Contax RTS 
(Porsche Design) in all its guises, but, then again, my favourite 
camera, and most innovative in its time, is still the Rollei 3003, so 
that probably doesn't mean much.


Mark Rabiner wrote:
>> Zeiss are doing it - at least with manual focus SLR lenses with Nikon,
>> PK, Canon and M42 mounts.
>>
>> That such cooperative ventures can work successfully (at least for quite
>> a time) was proved by Zeiss and Kyocera (and to a lesser extent by Leica
>> and Minolta).
>>
>> Cheers
>> Douglas
>>     
>
>
> Yes the great photographs in our culture taken with the Zeiss and Kyocera
> cooperation are well known.
> The fact is the camera system appealed to I don't know who. Nobody that I
> can think of.
> The stuff looked like junk. Especially the lenses which looked like Tokina
> glass from the 70's.
>
> Cosina is an interesting innovated company who does not need to be put in
> the same sentence with Kyocera.
> Its a shame they seem to think that ANY name is better than their own.
> I remember there  used to be Cosina SLR's. They were ok.
>
>
>
> Mark William Rabiner
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>
>   


Replies: Reply from mark at rabinergroup.com (Mark Rabiner) ([Leica] M9 reviewers drawn from the "unwashed masses")
In reply to: Message from mark at rabinergroup.com (Mark Rabiner) ([Leica] M9 reviewers drawn from the "unwashed masses")