Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/02/12

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Subject: Re: [Leica] M7 wish lists
From: Dan Cardish <dcardish@microtec.net>
Date: Thu, 12 Feb 1998 17:25:10 -0500

At 02:36 PM 12-02-98 -0500, you wrote:
>
>Why all the fuss? Even Leitz, 30 years (give or take) after introducing
>their screwmount camera, saw fit to launch a photographic revolution by
>releasing the M3. They chucked most of their old technology and styling and
>gave the world a much better, faster-operating, more versatile, and
>stunningly modern camera. Anyone still complaining about that? [snip]

This was in 1953 or 1954, when the rangefinder still reigned supreme among
miniature cameras.  Nowadays, lets face it, the rangefinder is a relic,
loved and nurtured by a relatively few of us fools (used in a kind and
loving tone  ;-)) .  If the leica had never existed, and some German
company in Solms decided today to introduce a camera called the Leica M6,
priced as it is, it would be a complete flop.  Who would buy it when faced
with the competition?  We love the M6 partly for what it is, but also for
what it was.  Make too many changes to it, and suddenly it becomes a very
expensive modern camera that does a job only half as well as SLRs and
Contax G2s , but at 2 or 3 times the cost.

I've said it before, but here goes again: The Leica will never be obsolete
because it already IS obsolete!  The M7 that everyone seems to be
clamouring for will be obsolete the day it leaves the factory floor.

Dan C.