RE: [Leica] mainstream thinking

["Andrew S Jordan" <andrewsjordan@worldnet.att.net>]

Erwin, Nathan and others:

I find the ongoing doomsday predictions going on for the last few days
frankly tiresome. I join Erwin in stating that if the G2 with its excellent
Zeiss T* lenses didn't  "kill" Leica, the new rangefinder efforts by sundry
companies with less reputation than Kyocera/Contax won't do it either.
I have two explanatoons for the current "panic" among our friends on the
LUG. One is the approaching winter doldrum of photographers who prefer the
cozy company of the Internet over taking pictures. Second, is the fear of
the camera collectors that the new "toys" coming out of Solms will dry up in
face of the potential competition. Following the Porsche analogy of Erwin, I
do not know anyone who would seriously wish to have a Porsche with automatic
transmission(or a Patek watch with quartz mechanism), so why press for a
Leica M or R with autofocus?
Every time I open and look at a box of slides, taken with my "obsolete" M5
/M6 or R5 with current or 20 year old lenses, I am astonished by their
richness of detail and color rendition.The focusing and exposure are right
on the money. What else do we want?

With best regards, Andrew Jordan