RE: [Leica] Leica and 15 year old technology

["B. D. Colen" <BDColen@earthlink.net>]

Stupid questions: why do you use a computer ? Does your car provide
electronic management of ignition ?

I think your
judgement on who makes the picture - camera or person - is also a
caricature.

I'll argue even further: a highly proactive high tech setup potentially
(I insist on the 'potentially') allows the user to concentrate more on
some of the more strategic aspects of the process: composition,
relevance of the image, expressions, incidents, colours, shapes,
whatever... Time spent doing this is, in my point of view, MUCH more
useful than playing with aperture ring, focussing ring and speed dial.

Interesting POV. However...First, how much time do you really spend "playing
with aperture ring...(and) speed dial"? Yes, focusing is a deliberate
process with a non-autofocus camera, but that hasn't stopped photographers
from capturing "the decisive moment" in war, sports, disaster - all
occurring at high speed - and just plain life.

I would argue that all the bells and whistles are themselves the
distraction, and that simply looking through a "picture" window with a white
frame appropriate for a given lens allows me to concentrate on what isn't in
the frame, what is in it, what colors, moods, shapes, shadings, etc., are
within the frame or about to be within in.

I am not for an instant suggesting, as I type this E-mail on my laptop and
it will be at the server in a matter of nano-seconds and on its way to you,
that technology is bad. God bless technology. And, under certain
circumstances and for certain purposes, God bless technology loaded cameras.

But for now, as long as I can focus, I'll stick with the basics.