Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1996/10/20

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Subject: Re: Photo Technique
From: dmorton@cix.compulink.co.uk (David Morton)
Date: Mon, 21 Oct 96 04:46 BST-1

In-Reply-To: <264EBC70.1736@ipc.co.uk>
Mark_Bishop@ipc.co.uk wrote:

> We also have the weekly Amateur Photographer magazine, which we 
> redeveloped last
> February.

In which case I congratulate you on the relaunch, which has had me buying 
it for the first time in 15 years, and actually *reading* some of the 
editorial (and not just the adverts, like before).

The old AP was embarrassing, I always used to say that I felt like 
wrapping it in a copy of Knave so as not to appear like a dirty old man. 
I don't object to pornography personally (while maintaining the opinion 
that sex is an unsatisfactory spectator sport), but I do object to soft 
porn masquerading as 'Glamour workshops'.

It was also *deeply* flawed technically. I always recall the issue which 
appeared around the time of Halley's comet, which contained a blatant 
re-write of a Tasco press release, claiming that a 2000mm f36 (or there 
abouts) Tasco telescope on an un-driven altazimuth mount was "perfect for 
astrophotography" (nothing could be further from the truth).
 
> I can only speak for the UK in saying that our magazines are not slow to
> criticise bad cameras. AP recently came in for a lot of stick (from 
> readers,
> more than its advertisers) for branding the Ukranian Kiev 'a turkey', 
> more for
> its lousy reliability record than its optical performance.

The Kiev seems to be the Acorn Archimedes of the camera world, say 
anything rude about it in print and the Editor gets killed under a sack 
of mail (most of it written in green ink).
 
> Occasionally
> advertisers will threaten to withdraw support if they are criticised 
> heavily -
> but that doesn't stop the magazine for telling it like it is.

I'm going to be covering the RAC Rally in November, and we'll be running 
digital cameras with good old boiled-up-cows as back up. I wonder if 
anyone will take the article which goes (as, knowing the event, I 
strongly suspect it will): we ran the DCS until it rained, then we 
switched to the F4s/F3s until the rain got heavy, then we broke out the 
F2s and FM2s for the rest of the event :-)

dmorton@cix.compulink.co.uk      |  "The loss of an old man
david@cassandra.compulink.co.uk  |  is like the destruction
Kilburn, London, England.        |  of a library"