[Leica] Theory vs. experimentation

[Mike Johnston <michaeljohnston@ameritech.net>]

> I think a good part of the controversy stirred by the "tripod" discussion is
> based on the feeling by many that they really DO achieve maximum available
> quality in their photographs (technical quality), and that telling them they
> did not defies their own experience.
> 
> Based on the possibilities of Leica lenses used at very high shutter speeds
> I would say that they are many times correct.


Very good points. (And new to the discussion, too.) Bruno Bettelheim wrote a
book about parenting called "The Good Enough Mother." I think I might title
one of the chapters in my book "Good Enough Technique." But of course, one
actually has to _use_ technique and produce actual pictures in order not to
get oneself all in a lather about theoretical this'n'that.

One of the distinctions I made at _PHOTO Techniques_ is that despite being
willing to publish articles that were somewhat technical and scientific in
tone, we were not a theoretical journal, repeating things that might be
found in a textbook; almost all of our technical articles, even the most
opaque and byzantine of them, were based on experimentation. It's a
distinction that, based on what we got as submissions, some authors didn't
grasp.

- --Mike