[Leica] AF, a FAD?

["Kotsinadelis, Peter (Peter)" <peterk@lucent.com>]

Eric/Mark:

Face it guys.  You are dinosaurs with MF cameras that keep justifying your
using it.  If the Leica were so good and there was a REAL competitive edge
to the single digit percetages a leica lens yields over Canon and Nikon,
then all the photogs would be using R8s wouldn't they?  But apparently, we
all continue to justify what we own.

"If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a
nail. 
- - Abraham H. Maslow"

Peter K
In the Land of the Dinosaurs

- -----Original Message-----
From: Mark Rabiner [mailto:mrabiner@concentric.net]
Sent: Monday, May 03, 1999 9:11 AM
To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
Subject: Re: [Leica] It's the lens, stupid.


Eric Welch wrote:
> 
> 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

Eric I'm going to argue or whatever here just for fun because it almost
sounds like you are saying here that AF (Auto Focus) is a technological
tweek or fad. In reading your list I see technological fine points which
some systems have, others don't (exception: "matrix" which is so popular
it is now a movie although a breakfast cereal is too obvious).
AF though has come to be a tool which most camera owners seem to feel
they can't live without.
I can live without it because I've found I'm not shooting things racing
at me for a living or for fun:
No skiers, dirt bikers or models down the runway. So my Nikons stagnate. 
Not the mindless lemmings!
AF turns serious photographic instruments into point and shoots.
Shooters do not have to learn the technique of zone focusing.
The fact that the general perception is that autofocus is something that
can be not lived without is going to be hard to break. And it becomes
more entrenched as it hits the medium format world where I feel it has a
real need.
I'm glad Leica is putting their money where their glass is and as you
say "where the tire hits the road" instead of in the AF tidal wave. But
it's only us quirky connoisseurs that appreciate that.
We'll never convince them it's a gimmick. Let them eat cake.
Mark Rabiner	A shameless troll. (for forty points who said "It's the
Caaar!"?)