Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/06/23

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Subject: [Leica] Another Lame Brian Bower Book
From: Dan S <dstate1@hotmail.com>
Date: Wed, 23 Jun 1999 13:02:38 GMT

I just read the new Leica Lens book by Brian Bower at the book store and as 
with his other books I am amazed at how superficial and basically pointless 
this book is.

Other than some nice pictures, some of which are rehashed from his older 
books, there is basically no objective information about the performance of 
Leica lenses.

If you listen to him there is nary a defect in any Leica lens ever made!  I 
also get the impression that he hasn't really used all the lenses he writes 
about in much depth.  He seems to be an outside marketing tool for the 
company but little else.

It is a shame that few if any books have been written that actually compare 
the performance of the lenses and use PHOTOGRAPHS to illustrate the 
differences!  Certainly anyone looking to buy Leica lenses would appreciate 
some direct comparison shots from lens to lens.  Even Erwin, a very fine 
researcher no doubt, does little in the way of PHOTOGRAPHIC comparisons in 
his reports.  They are typically TEXT.

It certainly does not seem difficult to create these comparisons.  A person 
like Bower who has already built a track record with a publisher willing to 
print a high quality book (and presumably has access to a wide selection of 
lenses) should have little trouble getting the job done if he were willing. 
(obviously he is not)

Wouldn't a series of high quality PHOTOGRAPHIC comparisons do a lot to take 
the VooDoo out of this subject?

Dan



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