Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/05/10
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Thanks Adrian, I wasn't yelling at you, just clarifying your heritage - age statement. Thank you for the Konica dissertation. I wasn't dissing Konica, I was trying to draw a lineage line from when Oscar invented the first Leica to the current M6. There is a lot of similarity and expertise that has been gleaned over the decades. Leica didn't make film or copiers. Just optics, cameras, and paraphernalia that supports this line. So the Leica (Leitz) heritage is sort of all in the same vein. Still doing today, what Oscar started nearly a century ago. Konica's heritage is, I believe, not so well defined. My father's father was a farmer, my father was a cabinet maker, I am a photographer/computer geek. No heritage here. Lineage in the name. Nothing else. Part of heritage is being known for what you inherit. Konica is a good company. Just not known for producing Leica like cameras. I personally know Konica for their film. They have produced some great film over the decades. And I believe that there is a basic incompatibility between Leica lenses and Konica Hexar bodies. Incompatibilities that were on purpose. Incompatibilities that would not be blatant at f/16 in the bright sun, but would bite you in the butt at f/1.4. Unless you happened to get a system where Konica tolerances happened to be skewed in Leica's favor and the Leica tolerances were skewed in Konica's direction. Jim At 06:11 AM 5/11/01 +0800, apbbeijing wrote: >> >> But for Adrian Bradshaw, the word Heritage does not mean age. It means: > >Hi Jim > >I know what the word means. I understand your point of view. My point of >view is that Konica is a respected (though perhaps not by yrself) and very >old member of the photographic world. It is precisely the features that >Konica brings to the Leica M experience that are not part of the heritage of >Solms that I bought it for: compact, built in motor, faster shutter and AE >facility. These are all part of the Konica heritage if you will. They have >produced a number of decent products dating back from before even Eastman >Kodak was founded and as such can be trusted to produce a relatively basic >camera like the RF which is not going to be a flagrant liability to a >working pro as you suggested. Konica has heritage and so does Leica. They >are of course different. Your ignorance of the heritage of Konica does not >mean it does not exist. OTOH it has no relevance whatever to the making of >pictures except from the sensual or even snobbish side of things. None of us >on this list can claim to be dispassionate about the latter issues. > >Leica can no more be depended to produce a 100% perfect and dependable >camera out of the box than any other brand I have used: if anything less so. >The only cameras I have ever had fail me utterly whilst on jobs have been >Leicas: two new R8s, an M4P and an M6 have all seized up on me during >shoots. All the noble heritage in the world is not going to get the picture >in these cases. That is why pros test their equipment, carry backups and >don't trust myths and fables about reliability. > >Now I do not like my Hexar RF as much as any of my Leicas: I find it ugly >and has a few annoying design quirks. It does however have a number of >features that are useful to me and work as advertised. To suggest that >Konica has not the heritage to back this up is IMHO inflammatory. > >FWIW I have left the lens and flash that came with the Hexar I bought >wrapped in the box, after duly checking them out since they do not add >anything for me. Having successfully used more than a dozen M lenses on the >RF to shoot several hundred rolls of film in deserts, from helicopters, on >boats, in steel mills and dozens of other locations I am confident that it >works fine. I have dropped it several times and had it fixed by a service >centre that puts Leica's to shame. I have even used Konica film in it and >got good published results. > >And for Marc - Leitz may be the older company by two or three decades but >Konica was, as I stated, in the photo business first predating Eastman Kodak >by a few years. Leitz only came to it later from a background in microscopes >and other scientific equipment, as I understand it. > >YMMV > >Bests > >Adrian >-- >Adrian Bradshaw >Corporate and Editorial Photography >Beijing, China >tel/fax +86 10 6532 5112 >mobile +86 139 108 22292 >e-mail apbbeijing@yahoo.com >OR adrianpeterbradshaw@compuserve.com > >website: http://www.apbphoto.com > http://www.liaisonintl.com/bradshaw.htm > http://www.liaisonintl.com/bradshaw_e.htm > > > >_________________________________________________________ >Do You Yahoo!? >Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com