[Leica] R System in General

[Mark Rabiner <mark@markrabiner.com>]

"B. D. Colen" wrote:
> 
> Actually, Greg, my hands are quite big - one of the reasons I keep Tom A's
> winders on my Ms is that the added height improves the ergonomics for me.
> 
> I'm NOT saying there aren't people who consider the R8 the world's most
> beautifully designed, ergonomically ideal camera in the world - I was simply
> responding to a question about my experience with it. I find the Nikon F100,
> and the F5 for that matter, to be far better designed ergonomically. Isn't
><Snip> 

Actually B.D I recall you just saying you found the enter R system to be
an AFTERTHOUGHT!!!!!.
Yes I do believe that was the word you used yesterday.  :)

I was thinking of that during my breakfast reading the Leica magazine in
which there was an article on the 180 F2 Summicron. Glass so good it
could start it's own religion. 
Image quality aside the lens itself is the most gorgeous thing I've ever
seen. I'd be shooting pictures in the mirror.

The 180 2.8 I'd easily settle for. And feel i had a definite quality
advantage over Nikon/Canon users.

A few days ago i saw a stack of pictures from an up and coming
photographer. A variety of Genre's but NOT ONE required in any way auto
focus. Could have easily been shot with a Nikon FM or a Leica M4. It was
shot with a Canon EOS.

Why not shoot it with an R6 or an R6.2 that's what i say? Or an R8?
A side benefit being you get to use LEICA GLASS. 
And plenty of people feel a camera is a box to keep your film dark -
they just want to use a certain lens. 

Some of the R glass may be questionable but there are plenty of other
glass in the R system to get excited about from what i can tell. Lots of
spectacularly functional true gems.

I'm pretty competitive.
If I'm standing next to a fella and we're both shooting something, say
Mt. Rushmore, we're both standing there pointing our long lenses at
it... 
I don't mind at all if my shot comes out with a tad better contrast,
resolution, and bokeh then his does.
Don't' mind it at all.
Especially if I'm being paid to do it and he's the clients brother in law.
If I'm shooting Leica glass and he's shooting Nikon/Canon glass in most
cases i think that's exactly whats going to happen. I'll have an edge. 

Are the four presidents at MT Rushmore going to start rushing towards us
or away from us?
No they're going to stay where they are and I'm not going to need AF.

By the way someone did an incisive post yesterday on the R8 not being so
great without a winder and then very big and non AF with a winder. In a
way made an interesting point. In a way dead wrong.

How small a profile does a camera need - the shots i just saw were not
street photography which you'd do hopefully with the M system. The shots
I saw and much of the shots I'd do where portraiture and commercial
types of photography.
Other then street photography just about any other type of photography
does not require an invisible camera.

The top of the line Nikons and Canons are not compact street cameras
either. I doubt their profiles are more then an inch shorter then the
R8. If at all.

I think a good part of the times the lenes put on these top of the line
cameras are long and weigh far more than the cameras themselves which
can barely counterbalance them.

Someday I'd like to get an R8 I hope they're still in production when I do.
I know, don't tell me, they're already out of production. I call that a
damn shame!
I call the R8 a true classic in the history of cameras. Don't want to be
too presumptuous but that's how I'm calling it.
I think Leica is doing rather well.


Mark Rabiner
Portland, Oregon USA
http://www.markrabiner.com
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