Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/11/29

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Electronic vs. Mechanical
From: Doug Herr <telyt@earthlink.net>
Date: Fri, 29 Nov 2002 11:09:21 -0800

on 11/29/02 9:06 AM, Dante Stella at dante@umich.edu wrote:

> 
> In my never-ending quest to find things to avoid going to my office the
> day after Thanksgiving, I went through and evaluated the arguments pro
> and contra in the never-ending struggle between electronic cameras
> (say, M7s, Hexars and late Leica R series) and all-mechanical ones
> (Leica M6s, Nikon Fs, etc.).
> 
> This is the link
> 
> http://www.dantestella.com/technical/mechanical.html
> 
> Does anyone have any other thoughts or arguments pro or con *not*
> addressed there?  I am particularly interested in failure modes you
> have actually experienced with electronic and mechanical cameras.
> 
> Regards
> Dante
> 

IMHO, the issue isn't "electronic" vs. "mechanical", it's more an issue of
design and build quality than technology.  I use the Leicaflex SL for a
number of reasons, including build quality, viewfinder clarity and focus
ease, lens quality, and continuously variable shutter speeds.  This last
feature is a big one to me, which brings up a sentence on your web page:

"In the 35mm world, aperture-priority autoexposure and autowinding are good
things with no downside"

As a blanket statement I disagree.  auto exposure and auto winding can be
handy but they are not without downsides.  I gave up on autowinding when I
found that the battery contacts kept getting fouled and the winder quit with
no warning.  I also gave up on auto exposure because a "pretty good"
exposure isn't good enough for my uses.  I like the continuously-variable
shutter in the Leicaflex SL because I can fine-tune the shutter speed for
correct exposure at my lens' maximum aperture; I can't do this with an
electronic camera offering only 1/2-stop shutter speed increments in manual
mode.  If an electronic camera offered something closer to the SL's
continuously-variable shutter speeds IN MANUAL MODE along with the SL's
other features I'd have no trouble using an electronic camera.

Doug Herr
Birdman of Sacramento
http://www.wildlightphoto.com


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