[Leica] cameras and guitars

["Johnny Deadman" <deadman@jukebox.demon.co.uk>]

All this talk about where Leica should go, and digital v. analog, puts me in
mind of the Fender guitar company, who resurrected themselves in the 80s
after being run into the ground by CBS - who blew the brand by churning out
clunky donkey guitars in the 70s - by putting out a clearly differentiated
line of made-to-a-price guitars (Squiers) without compromising the quality
of their top line.

Interesting that in the musical world pretty much everything is now digital,
and strives to emulate analog, except the instruments themselves. Even the
synths are analog (resistors and capacitors), or use waves derived from
acoustic instruments, while every attempt to 'innovate' the electric guitar
further has turned into a blind alley.  The Fender Strat has been
incrementally improved, but for my money (and many others) the older guitars
are better. Fender now makes a lot of money making semi-retro versions of
its own product, just as Konica and Voigtlander are doing with the new RF
stuff.

In this analogy, the CCD v. Film argument is essentially that of digital
recording v. tape. You might think this was a straight win for digital, but
not so. 'Tape type saturation' is the plat du choix for the most advanced
digital boxes, while many top studios retain a 2" Studer for some point in
the processing chain because it colors the sound so beautifully. Moreover,
valve guitar amps are right back in (like they ever went out!).

The point is that film 'colors' reality via grain, characteristic curve,
halation, acutance etc. As do lenses (my 35/1.4 Summilux wide open, for
example. Hardly sharp, but... beautiful). Some of these effects may be
emulated by signal processing in the digital domain, but anyone who has used
Digital Signal Processing in either the audio or video realm knows that the
effect is only ever an approximation of reality (though the coloration it
adds by accident can be interesting in its own right).

So while bedroom guitarists buy expensive stomp boxes, most pro guitarists
continue to plug Fender and Gibson instruments into valve amps, to be
recorded by larg-diaphragm mikes (coloration!) through valve preamps and
compressors onto either 2" tape, or digital tape with exciters which mimic
tape saturation (high end harmonic noise). From there, the editing and
mixing will probably be in the digital domain, with a return to valve EQ and
limiting for mastering, then back into digital for the delivery medium.

No-one in the musical world sees a dichotomy here, any more than I do in the
world of photography. The right tools for the right job is what it comes
down to.

Film is about as dead as the electric guitar. 35mm film will continue to be
manufactured for the movies and for image origination (as opposed to
capture). After about a year of wall-to-wall 'cutting edge' digital FX in
magazines and on billboards we will start to see silver halide film as an
'authentic' medium, something like faded jeans used to be, or distorted
guitar remains. We will see lots of crappy effects ('Tri-X Grain',
'Overexpose', 'D-23 effect') which try to make digital images look funkier.
Finally everyone will start to regret selling their 35mm systems for
now-outmoded digital SLRs (anyone remember the Yamaha DX7, which lots of
people sold their lovely Wurlitzer, Rhodes, Vox and Hammond keyboards to
buy?), as they realise that THE TWO TECHNOLOGIES ARE COMPATIBLE, just as
samplers and electric guitars are.

Those who held on to their Leicas will smile.

 As for the larger formats, well, e are currently talking about the
difficulty of making a 35x24 CCD... how long will it take to make an 8x10
CCD? I don't think Sinar have too much to be worried about.

One final thought: in the average pawnbrokers you will find a huge array of
secondhand cameras, most of them usable (35mm film is still produced) or
repairable. Even the simplest and cheapest are often going strong at thirty
years old.

How many of the current crop of digital cameras do you suppose it will be a
pleasure to see in a junk shop in thirty years time? If you don't have a
ready answer, flick through the ads in a photo magazine and decide.


Johnny Deadman

"The happiest time in any man's life is when he is in red-hot pursuit of a
dollar with a reasonable prospect of overtaking it" - Josh Billings