Re: [Leica] M camera parts now a long rant.

["B. D. Colen" <bdcolen@earthlink.net>]

Don Dory wrote:
> So where are all the whatever's today? Nikon is a
> subsidiary of Mitsubishi?, 
And as a subsidiary of Mitsubishi has continued to produce world's class
reflex bodies - the F5 may just be the best built Nikon 'pro' body of
all times - and excellent optics, and is a leader in digital reflex
equipment and 35 mm scanners


Canon is really an electronics company

And continues to produce top-of-the-line autofocus reflex equipment and
lenses...(there aren't a lot of pros, Don, using SLs and SL2s. And, for
that matter - sorry Ted, et al - there are very very few working pros
using R8s.

>Minolta is sliding off the radar screen

But Minolta hasn't really been on the 'pro' 35 mm radar screen for quite
a while. While they continue to produce an excellent top-of-the-line 35
mm reflex body, they don't have much of a lens line for it. 

Olympus is making a run in digital, 

Olympus is making far more than a 'run' in digital - Olympus is the no.
1 selling brand of digital cameras today - albeit most of them are P&S
type models. But that is clearly where photography is going, so more
power to Olympus for leading the pack for once, rather than trailing
behind. And, BTW, I know - because I happen to have a good friend who is
high up in Olympus, that the OM line has been a loss leader for the
company for more than a decade, something they hung onto solely for the
purpose of being able to say they have a 'pro' camera.

> Zeiss Ikon is gone.

And has been since before a number of LUGers were born.


> 
 Poor decision making in
> other areas also heavily contributed to the very sick finances at the time.

Right - one of which was the decision to get into the reflex business in
a half-assed way. Yes, the optics are incredibly good - but despite what
Ted, Jim, etc., will say, jumping all over me, Leica has never made
reflex bodies that are anything to write home about. And they have also
failed to keep up with the trends in terms of pro-use, which means, like
it or not, autofocus.

> As far as lenses go, the low cost lenses are out there either used or from
> Cosina.  Does anyone think that Leica wants to be known for sorta good
> lenses? 

Cosina's lenses are hardly in the sorta good class. They are, in fact,
in the excellent class. As good as the newest Leica lenses? No. But if
one believes Erwin The Great, and others, a number of the Cosina lenses
are as good or better than some of their Leica counterparts from the 60s
and 70s - which, I would bet, the majority of LUGers use. And they are
sure as hell better than the - by today's standards - junk from the 40s
and early 50s that many people shoot with.


> 
> The lower priced companion model only works when the step up models are what
> are sold or the real money is in accessories. We all laugh at the re-badged
> Panasonics masquerading as Leica's so I don't think the cheesy second camera
> to drive us to the M_ is going to work. 

Oh, right, and that's why so many LUGers appeared to be taken by the
red-badged Fuji P&S digital camera.

One of these days, if we're lucky, Leica will realize that producing
less expensive entry body could serve to introduce more people to the
joys of rangefinder photography, get them under the Leica tent - instead
of under the Cosina tent - and then step them up.

I have suggested here before, and continue to suggest, that the real way
for Leica to grow its market is by selling basic equipment at
manufacturing cost to students majoring in photography at accredited art
schools and Universities and colleges with BFA programs. Limit the
offering to a body and 50 or 35 mm lens. And then offer additional
equipment at a slightly discounted price - or with a slightly higher
rebate than normal. Most kids today have literally no idea what a
rangefinder - or a Leica - is. So show them at a price they can afford.
Hassleblad offers steep discounts to students. Why not Leica. Introduce
them to the camera of HCB - or, more to the point, Garry Winogrand and
Mary Ellen Mark. Let them experience it, and they will be hooked.

Meanwhile, produce a lower priced intro body.


> To sum up this rant, for taking really great pictures in the existing light
> as unobtrusively as possible there is no better camera out there than an M
> Leica or one of it's proxies.  If it changes too much then it is not a M
> camera anymore.  For me, the TTL is just too big.

Excuse me? Too big? Yes, the F is smaller and more pocketable than an M,
but you're living in photodreamland if you think you are less noticable
using an F than you are using a TTL M. ;-)

> 
> Ah, I feel much better.  Anybody else make it to the end?

Yup! :-)

B. D.
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