[Leica] R8 marketplace performance and the LUG

["GBicket" <GBicket@email.msn.com>]

Morning all,

Back from Ding Darling Wildlife Sanctuary, and awaiting processing of my
transparencies, and reading through the digests, I come across yet another
in the regular pissing-upon-the-R8 parades.  I'll not debate those who
impugn the wisdom of offering a non-AF SLR in today's marketplace.  Sales
activity of non-AF SLR's had slowed relative to the sales of AF cameras of
all flavors, prior to the release of the R8.

I have spent a most satisfying week plus, behind Leica glass and an R8,
peering out at waterfowl and large reptiles wintering in one of southwest
Florida's safe places.  The camera performed flawlessly, and if it has laid
light on film as it has for so many exposures on so many rolls, the egrets,
and the herons, and the spoonbills, and the kingfishers, and the pileated
woodpeckers, and the ospreys, and the alligators that I spent so many
relaxing hours watching through the viewfinder will be accurately rendered.

The R8 is not a camera which was represented as having autofocus and then
failed to deliver.  Not once.  The R8 is a manual focus camera which
delivers extraordinarily well exactly what it represents it will.  Indict
Leica's market analysts, all those LUGgers whose disappointment is so bitter
that the R8 is not an AF camera.

The R8 is a great manual camera.  Deal with it.

It is an exceptional SLR, with a distinctive design target, ergonomics,
precise meter, and set of features.  It's ideal for some, off the mark for
others, but refreshingly without compromise.  If the R8's are not the set of
features you seek in an SLR, there are ample alternatives.

Buy one of them.  Please.  And soon.

The R8 suits many perfectly in terms of design philosophy, and for me, and
many who have actually used it, a joy with which to make beautiful
photographs.  R8 is what it is, and I'm grateful for that.  Whining about it
will no more imbue it with autofocus than change its ergonomics.  Neither
are changes I seek.  If there were an R8 AF available, I would own that
body, ALSO.

I for one, am convinced that Leica will make changes in design, and in
design philosophy not a moment before it is damned good and ready, and not a
moment [or a camera model] sooner.  While it does that at its own peril in a
competitive marketplace, isn't Leica's following its own path part of what
makes its products great?  Does market acceptance of plastic cameras mean
that Leica should make its M6 body out of polycarbonate?  Do you really
think all the violin playing will bring us a Leica SLR with AF any sooner?
Or is this better placed on www.justwannakeepbitchingaboutanything.com  ?

Let me close with thanks to R8-hating LUGgers for suppression of R8 sales,
as this will make extra bodies more affordable in the short term future.
But you're missing out on a good one.

Enjoy the light.

Greg