Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/05/12
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> No one is being disrespectful of Konica nor of their heritage: I am simply
> attempting to ensure that all of us understand the historical record,
> myself included!
Marc,
I appreciate the rigour of your historical inquiry.
I am afraid that, though certainly interesting, it was not central to the
issue under discussion. I perceived rightly or wrongly that the heritage of
Konica had been belittled and was simply trying to bring a little
perspective to the case. Konica is IMHO and IME fully capable of producing a
very fine M compatible camera that is up to professional use in demanding
situations. That had been directly challenged in Jim Brick's original
statement about how any pro going out with a Hexar RF was on thin ice if he
thought it would work with M lenses. Well I and others do precisely that
without falling through ice and it is I contend not due to improbable good
luck or my own low standards that I am satisfied with it.
The relative age of Leica and Konica was rather tangential to the whole
discussion: I brought up the lineage of Konica, which is by all accounts one
where photography has been a core business for much longer than chez Leitz,
to support my contention that they are not incompetent and inexperienced
camera makers as many might be led to believe by the rather offhand remarks
that prompted the whole exchange.
The whole heritage thing seems a bit overstated to me: Leica does not yet
and has no publicly stated intention of producing a camera with the feature
set of the Hexar RF so if you want or need these features and they work, as
indeed they do, it seems specious to attack the company as lacking in
heritage and thus dismiss a fine product that does things the gnomes of
Solms and their disciples with all their love of history can only dream of.
It is a bit like saying that Toyota cars cannot work as well as Fords
because they don't have the heritage.
It is not just one's understanding of history that is brought into question
by such statements.
Rs
Adrian
- --
Adrian Bradshaw
Corporate and Editorial Photography
Beijing, China
tel/fax +86 10 6532 5112
mobile +86 139 108 22292
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OR adrianpeterbradshaw@compuserve.com
website: http://www.apbphoto.com
http://www.liaisonintl.com/bradshaw.htm
http://www.liaisonintl.com/bradshaw_e.htm
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