Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/05/08

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Subject: Re: [Leica] "State of the Art"
From: "Joseph Codispoti" <joecodi@thegrid.net>
Date: Fri, 8 May 1998 23:26:04 -0700

All this bashing of F5s, EOS-1s and their users makes me think that many
among us are trying to justify paying exorbitant amounts of money for very
basic (albeit precise) technology.
Come on guys, all this Leica chauvinism should seize after purchasing the
second Leitz item.

To say that "auto everything" is not valid and renders the photographer a
lame "button pusher" is childish.
Is the meter in the M6 decadent? I am sure that many M4 users scoffed at the
very idea of  introducing convenience at the expense of purity.
I am equally sure that when cellulose film was introduced there was an equal
outpouring of disgust from the earlier die-hards. I can just hear it: "Huh,
only a lazy no good so and so would buy anything less than coat-‘em-yourself
glass plates".

There is a reason for all the progress and, while I do not use a F5 or
EOS-1, I assure you that if I were a sports photographer I would not be
caught with a camera that does not have lightning-fast focusing, accurate
metering in most if not all situations, and the rest of the wiz-bang
features of the modern marvels of technology.
We can boast loudly about our "superior" choice of equipment, but there are
thousands of good photographers producing excellent photographs and taking a
lot of cash to the bank earned with F5s and EOS-1s.
I refuse to believe that we are enlightened ones while others are plodding
along aimlessly.

Joseph Codispoti