Re: [Leica] What Leica will be showing at Photokina

["Simon Lamb" <s_lamb@compuserve.com>]

Thanks for an interesting reply from someone who has been there and done it.
I am amazed that people pay the money for USM Canon lenses and do not use
the AF.  Guess you have to be good to use MF in fast action sports, although
with F1 the cars are relatively predictable in that they generally go the
same way round the track.  Bet they switch to MF is one spins off though, or
else have shattering levels of manual dexterity.

Simon

- ----- Original Message -----
From: "Frank Dernie" <FrankDernie@compuserve.com>
To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
Sent: Friday, May 12, 2000 9:22 AM
Subject: [Leica] What Leica will be showing at Photokina


>
> Simon Lamb wrote
>   I agree that optically Leica lenses are outstanding (the best), but
> outstanding optics
> are useless if you want to photograph a Formula 1 car doing 180mph
straight
> towards you.  Horses for courses, and in the case of fast action
> photography
> Leica lenses could be second to some, where capturing the action is
> secondary to the optical quality.  Don't get me wrong, I love the Leica
and
> wouldn't swap it.
>
>
> Formula 1 was my business for 23 years. As a keen amateur I know all the
> top F1 photogs. Almost all drool over my M6, which is of course not ideal
> for anything but pit shots. Most feel Canon teles are better than Nikon
and
> none of the good ones use the auto focus function on the circuit - just
for
> snapshots in the pits (and then most of the really good ones use manual
> focus in the pits too).
> If anything has changed over the period I did F1 it is the demise of the
> hand held meter. Whilst most of the good guys don't use auto focus a lot
> they all use the in camera meter 95% of the time. In the old centre
> weighted days almost nobody did.
> FWIW only one guy uses Leica R (an Italian) and one Dutch guy does pit
> candids in B&W using the most battered M6s imaginable.
> cheers Frank