Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/05/03

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Subject: Re: [Leica] It's the lens, stupid.
From: Eric Welch <ewelch@ponyexpress.net>
Date: Mon, 03 May 1999 08:23:39 -0500

At 10:26 PM 5/2/99 -0400, you wrote:
>who says
>Leica is "far behind the curve in the SLR business"?

It doesn't have AF! Horrors! You'd think Leica R8s were made in the 60s the 
way people are talking. What other camera allows second-curtain flash sync. 
with ANY flash? Which other camera has built-in flash meter? (Contax RTS 
III and 645). Who has matrix metering? Everybody and their dogs. Who has 
AF-D? Nikon. Who has IS? Canon. Who created eye-control AF? Pentax! (Not 
Canon, they licensed it). Everybody has their technical advances and 
intelligently (most of the time) put it to use. I like the fact that Leica 
emphasizes the glass, which is where the tire hits the road, rather than 
the me-too one-upsmanship of the other companies who miss the point. It's 
the glass!

Sure it's lacking in some technology. But some is by choice, not lack of 
technical savvy. But some people love to spin a negative impression of the 
R8, because they don't want people to use them, and say they like them, 
because somehow that must mean the complainer doesn't get it. It's the 
glass! (To repeat myself).

At least that's my conspiracy theory and I'm stickin' to it.  :-)

Eric Welch
St. Joseph, MO
http://www.ponyexpress.net/~ewelch

The arts and sciences, and a thousand appliances