Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/07/16
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Pascal, While I appreciate the thoughtfulness of your post about SuperAutomated cameras being able to nail more pix, given the absence of the human error factor, you are right in certain instances, such as dealing with flash fill, maybe metering (even that is doubtful). Or especially wildly changing subject movement (composition control), or exposure. Otherwise, maybe. The ultimate quality of the lens (quality in this case referring to optical charactertistics of sharpness, contrast, color, and (this is my personal favorite quality of a Leica lens) flare control. A lens with a flater, less sharp, less contrasty, poorer color rendition to start with can only degrade more under adverse shooting conditions (which is usually the conditions under which more interesting photos are made. So why not start with top quality?? An image with less flare and more highlight and shadow detail may survive the cut where a lesser quality image (speaking optics here, not content) would not. If I had a complaint about the two lenses you mentioned, the 70-180 and the 35-70 (both of which I lust for) it is that the two ring system is couter productive with a MF lens. You cannot flow with the composition, but have to change hand positions and then return to focusing. With AF you can leave one hand on the focal length ring, and depend on AF to handle focusing. In rapidly changing situations, this is a problem. I have kept my older Nikon 80-200 because it is push pull and I prefer to MF. In my opinion, Leica made a poor design decision, given their MF limitation. Beyond all this, an amateur with little experience with a F5 on program will probably do pretty well, technically. But with a seasoned professional, this is less a problem. Pros get pretty good at outthinking the camera. Witness the wedding folks with their Hassys and bronicas. I spoke with one of the highest priced, best quality wedding shooters in San Diego on Friday and they use Hassy even for the party candids, not being able to tolerate the quality loss of 35mm. Their goal was to just as good as 35, but use 6x6. donal donal - -- __________ Donal Philby San Diego www.donalphilby.com