[Leica] RE: Konica fiction

["apbbeijing@yahoo.com" <apbbeijing@yahoo.com>]

> 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.

Hi Jim

I am sorry if I misread your remarks about the Hexar RF and the thin ice
people using them face as a criticism of Konica's ability to make cameras.

As for fields of competence, for most of the history of Leitz and Leica in
its various current entities the cameras have been only a small fraction of
the lines produced: microscopes, binoculars, surveying equipment and
somewhere after these came the cameras. Konica started as a photographic
company and diversified. Hasselblad started as a textile company and
diversified. Not sure about Linhof but I recall cameras were a sideline
there too. 

Oskar is of course one of our demigods and we all know and love the heritage
of his camera creation - or we would not be here chatting about it. I am not
a devotee of the corporate history of Konica but I do know that they have
been innovative in a number of areas Leica has been, for reasons of size and
style, slow and/or deficient: AE, AF, built-in motors and generally reliable
electronics. I feel that the Hexar RF is a product that complements the
Leica M range very nicely and from my own experience and that of the
majority of people whom I have heard from using this camera there have been
no problems using Leica lenses on them. I know when the focus is out of
whack and I have had a couple of Ms (M3 and M6) with back focus problems
which have, in the case of one M6, needed to be re-collimated half a dozen
times.

> And I believe that there is a basic incompatibility between Leica lenses
> and Konica Hexar bodies.

Is this belief based on actual experience? Let's see what Howard Cummer
discovers in his survey of actual users.

I see that Erwin too has reservations about the tolerances and specs Konica
are working with but the results I and others are getting would suggest that
they are not as big an issue as some might like to think they are. Perhaps
we are all just lucky. I also take the reputed tolerances of Leica
production with a pinch of salt, based upon my own experiences which I
shan't enlarge upon right now suffice to say any company that manages to put
the bayonet on a lens such as the Noctilux upside down and then tout its QC
as a main selling point has its work cut out...

I suspect Konica is cagey about the Leica involvement because of legal
issues: they cannot be seen as condoning nor recommending the use of Leica
lenses since they have not got any form of licensing with them. This is the
same as any other camera company which will specifically disclaim warranty
liability if their cameras are used with third party lenses, flashes etc.
There is also the issue of face: if, as the rumours suggest, the RF was an
aborted coproduction with Leica then Konica probably do not want to raise
the issue in any public forum to avoid embarrassing questions.

Rgds

Adrian


- -- 
Adrian Bradshaw
Corporate and Editorial Photography
Beijing, China

Tel/Fax +86 10 65325112
mobile: +86 139 108 222 92

e-mail: adrianpeterbradshaw@compuserve.com
OR apbbeijing@yahoo.com

website:   http://www.apbphoto.com
           http://www.liaisonintl.com/bradshaw.htm
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