Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/03/02
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I too remember drooling over many camera ads in the '70s! Minolta, Nikon, Leica, I didn't know the diff. Electronics, LEDs, light-touch electronic shutter release buttons and gallium or silicon metering cells seemed hip at the time,and I guess Leica thought so too, enough to engrave the e-word onto the front of all SLRs. Is it any wonder that I wanted a Minolta XD-11, which was totally buzzword-compliant? By the mid-80s, this lust turned towards the Leica R4s with winder and grip. Along the way, I got a Nikon F3 + MD4, and this really raised my expectations of what good camera design could be--viewfinder displays which told you almost everything you wanted to know, yet were simple and highly visible; quick-change battery pack which also powered the camera body. Following the F3, the XD-11 and R4s were big disappointments (fussy, hard-to-read viewfinder displays, astoundingly bad R4 winder + grip) though I do still like the compact dimensions and general layout of the R, particularly the depth of field lever. I do like where some of the modern cameras have gone, with graphical LCD displays placing all info one one area, and with no readability problems. At the same time, I can now be equally happy with utterly simple, but well-done setups such as the M6 LED display, with it's pair of arrows--no misinterpreting that! These days, I'm less concerned about the exact technologies used, and more concerned about good design that helps me to have more fun and take better photos: In my household, you might say that vacuum tubes and VLSI coexist peacefully :-) Probably my favorite M-system design features are (1) the frame preview lever, which quickly tells you what you could've gotten, had you bought another lens, and (2) the lenshoods which need never be removed from the lens, because they either retract, or can be capped as-is. Jeff Segawa - -----Original Message----- From: drodgers@nextlink.net <drodgers@nextlink.net> >I find comments from others regarding various systems quite interesting. In the >combined knowledge base of the LUG there is probably first hand experience with >every system in existence. > >I have the remnants of many older 35mm systems that I used over the years. I >nearly bought an Olympus SLR in the '70s ago. I opted instead for a Fujica. It >was small and afordable at the time. The thing that really caught my attention, >though, was the LED meter readout. This was very high tech at the time. [snip]