Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/02/02
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Alex Hurst wrote: > This is one on which I can wait for ever. snip > everyone's far more interested in (would > you believe) a _winder_ (not even a motor drive) for the R8. Well Alex, I strongly disagree. I think Leica is just brilliantly marketing an unbelievably inadequate and outdated product. If Leica had introduced their pathetically slow--and therefore practically useless--2 fps winder with the camera, any photographer with a full film cassette would have howled in protest how useless and outdated a 2 fps winder is. The first Nikon motordrive for the SP rangefinder FORTY years ago was 3 fps. Nikon has not marketed a new winder since the low end beginner EM in 1979. Now, only NINETEEN years after Nikon's last 2 fps winder, R8 gullible are getting excited about a miserable 2 fps winder which equals the blazing winder speed of Nikon's least inexpensive SLR ever. The mechanical RapidWinder for the M's should be able to do that. Big deal R8 faithful. It's a great marketing scheme, though. I would not have believed how well it's working. If Leica had shipped winders with R8 bodies from the start, they would have barely been able to give them away. Photogs would have seen it for what it is, and laughed at it's pathetically slow speed. Yet, by brilliantly delaying the "Motor/winder's" introduction by a year or so, Leica created a Motor/winder scarcity. Now the winders are desirable because they are rare and over due. Now photogs are lining up to buy those useless anchors and hang them from an already heavy body. damn, it's one of the greatest photo cons of all time--and probably the only way they could sell a 2 fps winder. too bad Leica had to resort to it. They really have no excuses not to have introduced the R8 with at least a 6 fps motor. Leica doesn't even have to worry about auto focus tracking in the R8, yet they can't bring out an adequately fast motor. And no, the promised 4 fps motor isn't adequate either----- not for a top of the line flagship SLR. Only by demanding Leica live up to it's reputation as the best, are we likely to get the best. The M line has just been beefed up with great new wide ASPH Lenses as well as a very welcomed High Magnification finder. Solms just has no excuses why they should try to pass off inadequate efforts as a Leica product, whether it the new R8 "Motor/winder" or the long rumored and greatly anticipated nuclear powered motorized combined cable release and missile launcher. Instead of lining up to buy the new 2 fps wonder winder, photogs should be lining up to picket Solms. Perhaps then the elves at Solms would get the picture that adequate isn't good enough for Leica, or Leica's customers. Stephen Gandy Yep, I get a lot of laughs