Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/03/30
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Hi Dan, While I agree that the film loading may be a bit old-fashioned, I also find that it works extremely well, and I happily pay this price for having the other attributes of Leica M. DX coding would be totally useless to me, since I shoot very few films at the nominal speed--really only Fuji Provia 100 and Kodak E200. Autofocus would be equally useless. In fact, the more I use my M-system, the more do I appreciate the genius of its manual rangefinder focusing system. I have my autofocus SLR, and also a point-and-shoot. Whenever I use one of them, I am never sure that it has focused on what I intend. In fast action, like a street party, I found recently, after using both my autofocus SLR and my Leica M that the M gave me a higher proportion of sharp slides than the SLR (a Pentax PZ1-P, by the way). Leica will never re-gain a sizable market share, no matter what they do with the R series. Of course, it depends on what you mean by "sizable", but certainly it will never approach the sales figures of any of the big four Japanese companies, nor should it try to. Nathan D Khong wrote: > While film loading is an essential part of handling any camera, I find that > film loading on my F90 or G2 or even my P&S a breeze compared to my M6. > With the former I always get frame #1 after a short whirrrrrr. The > baseplate on the M6 is a pain, the flap at the back offers at most a peek, > and when the film is wound I have to consciously eye the rewind knob to > confirm that the film is truly running. Except for the challenge to my > dexterity everytime I load the M6, and for the supposedly stronger > construction of the M body (as contributed by the baseplate design), I find > the leica M film loading design terribly archaic. > > I welcome the DX system as I have a tendency to forget to reset the film > speed on my M6 especially when I change to a different film speed. It is > so nice to just pop in the film and know that the ISO setting is taken care > of. > > Electronic shutters are far far more accurate than the majority of > mechanical shutters. > > I am sure that when Leica goes AF in their SLR series, they will regain a > sizeable market share. > > Dan K. - -- Nathan Wajsman Overijse, Belgium General photo page: http://members.tripod.com/belgiangator/index.html Belgium photo page: http://member.xoom.com/wajsman/index.htm Motorcycle page: http://www.geocities.com/motorcity/downs/1704/index.html