Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/06/19
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Hi Frank, I can't disagree with your viewpoint either but couldn't help thinking of something I read a long while back . " A camel is a horse designed by a commitee" (which probably has nothing to do with this thread at all) Putting a 135/2.8 Tele-elmarit (with the specs) on the front of an M6 Titanium makes for the ugliest Leica set I can think of, but the performance is quite exceptional. My great heroes of the past, Brunel, various Stephensons, Trevithick,Abraham Darby,Barnes Wallis , were all engineers, visionaries and to a certain extent, artists working with the new media of cast iron, steel, copper and brass. They all had the touch of breathing life into inanimate objects, something which has very nearly got lost in the past 50 years. Take a look at a steam engine - stripped down to the very basics an ugly machine - add a bit of fluting here, a doric column there, a little more polished brass and copper, a touch of colour and you get a living entity, no wonder the old engineers and mechanics were proud of their machines. I don't have to, and unless there is no real alternative,still will not accept personally perceived ugliness as a product attribute, regardless of the desirability of the products' function(s). We all have to make compromises at one time or another, but I'm not YET ready to do it in the direction of a Leica R9. If I was to find that this camera body would increase my "success-rate" or "quality" of my shots to an enormous extent I might just, if my income was dependent upon this factor, consider buying one the basis of economics. As it is, for the present I'll stick to what I've got and what it does - my eyes still work, I've got some reasonable lenses, and the camera bodies I use do what I want them to. Above all I'm still mobile enough to get to some nice places or events to cater for the all important "being there" factor. bfn Douglas FRANK DERNIE schrieb: >Hi Douglas, >as an engineer I make a clear distinction between >design - which I see as fitness for purpose and >functionality, that normally done by the engineers. >And styling - the aesthetics, sometimes by engineers, >sometimes by "designers" and sometimes the management. >In a camera the functionality is far more important >IMO than the looks. Having the controls fall under my >fingers and that viewfinder make up for the hideous >(IMO) styling for me. I find the M5 ugly but it is IME >the best M camera. >I feel the same about most things. A beautifully >styled car which is overweight and/or handles badly is >of absolutely no interest to me, though I would prefer >it to look nice, mind you there are almost no cars on >the market today which appeal to me. >cheers >Frank >_______________________________________________ >Leica Users Group. >See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > > > -- Ihre bevorzugten Shops, hilfreiche Einkaufs-Hilfen und gro?artige Geschenk Ideen. Erleben Sie das Vergn?gen online einzukaufen mit Shop@Netscape! http://shopping.netscape.de/shopping/