Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/06/07
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]In a message dated 6/7/99 2:13:46 PM Eastern Daylight Time, peterk@lucent.com writes: << I was not intending my post to start a flame war. If you look at it objectively, when you were 14 which would be more than 30 years ago as you indicate you are in your 40s, Leica was THE camera to get. Hence the reason you probably started with it. To have a Leica in the 60s was owning the top of the line. You were probably the envy of many back then. At that time however, everything was manual focus. Nowadays, when you look around, there are not many 14 year olds who would buy an M today, or an R for that matter. They was the AF automation, and apparently it sells, whether we like it or not. I am sure you remember buying vinyl LPs too, I did and I still have them but I do buy CDs nowadays although I listen to my vinyl now and then. Peter K >> Sorry it sounded to you as if I was manning the flamethrower. Not my intended message at all. Actually, when I was 14 *the* camera to have (not for a 14 year-old--that was a Hawkeye Brownie!) was a Nikon F and almost everyone snickered at my funny little contraption which, not only was it not an SLR but had *two separate* windows for focusing and viewing, had to load the film onto the takeup spool *outside* the camera, didn't have a thumb-winder or a rewind crank, etc. Heck, the IIIa wasn't even synced for flash! I'm not even sure Leicas were considered collectible then. I remember even M users looking down their noses at my screw-mounts. Back then, the argument was SLR vs rangefinder. Today, my F5 is a far cry from my 1970 FTn, whereas my M6 is basically the same as my 1970 M4 with a meter instead of a selftimer. So now it's SLR-with-5-point-dynamic-AF-8fps-1005 pixel RGB meter-computer flash-1/300 sync vs rangefinder. And you'll still find me with an M around my neck more often than not.