Re: [Leica] Whingers, whiners, and R8's

[Chris Bitmead <chrisb@ans.com.au>]

John McLeod wrote:
> 
> Chris,
> 
> At the risk of extending a discussion that probably interests only a few
> LUGgers, no can know exactly what Alf meant (except Alf) when he wrote:
> "why don't you stick with your camera ?  I don't see a reason, why we should
> prove anything to you ...".  He may have simply been suggesting that
> different camera/lens systems are fine, and that just because this is a
> Leica list does not mean we must defend every Leica piece as inherently
> superior to its competition.  Or maybe he felt it was fruitless to try to
> compare the two lenses (e.g. because few people would own both, tests would
> be inclusive, etc.).  Or maybe he really was giving you a mild rebuke in
> defense of the Nocitlux, "King of Darkness" as Guido Ridoli would say.

It wasn't a discussion about lenses. What I asked was whether
anyone had tried to quantify how many stops slower shutter speed
you could expect on average using a rangefinder. Reasonable
question for a Leica group I would have thought.
 
> Regardless of the above Chris, my sense was that the comment was fairly
> mild.  

The reality is he got bee in his bonnet when he realised I use a
Canon camera. If I had asked something like "I just bought this
truckload of M cameras and lenses. How much slower shutter speeds
can I use", I would have been showered with praise and
congratulation.

Is it really reasonable that anybody asking a sensible question
on this list be told to "stick with my camera. I don't have to
prove anything to you".

> I read all kinds of things here where I say to myself "Whoa, a
> zinger, out of the blue, someone's gonna be mad here".  I didn't do that
> with Alf's comment.  But when you replied with "Grow up", I KNEW the battle
> lines had been drawn.  Things sort of snowballed from there.
> 
> That's really about it in my mind.  As I said, sometimes the intent behind
> messages is not altogether clear and sometimes we can hit the Send button
> and think "yeah, I probably could have worded that a little 'differently'".
> 
> John McLeod