[Leica] LUG membership, "A Waiting for Go/Dig" issue.

[mark at rabinergroup.com (Mark Rabiner)]

I do think it was the digital thing which has widened the gap between Leica
use and Leica conversation on the LUG and in the real world.
Some of us are bound to feel a bit sheepish about what we talk like we are a
user of and what we really do use.
And have found it hard to have our hearts and minds in a film-in-Leica-M
place...
When we are in a CompactFlash-in-DSLR grove.

Of course the vast majority of our usually over a thousand people list are
lurkers as we only mainly hear from a couple a dozen.

We all have an interest in Leica cameras.
But that has been becoming a nostalgic interest.
Even before the digital thing hit a couple of years ago.
Even before that we we having fun talking about the gear we really no longer
used. Not me but I think quite a few of us...
Our Leica M with a lens or two were sitting on the shelf, maybe behind glass
and when we go out shooting it's with a film point and shoot.

Now they can't sell a film point and shoot anywhere in the world to nobody
no how.
The shooting is being done with digital point and shoots.

But on this list are we are at very least photo enthusiasts the move I think
went to digital SLR's. With a non Leica digital point and shoot on the side.
For our purse.

We'd all have a lot more to say about Leica use if we used our Leicas. How
many of us do? It's a rare bird indeed...

How many of us have been selling off our Leica glass and bodies to get Canon
or Nikon micro motor microchip extravaganzas?
Not me but I think one or two of us.
And one or two of "us" have come on to the list only for that purpose.
Those people would be gleefully covered with tar and lit on fire put on a
post and run outa town.

I think I am seen as one of the more die hard Leica fanatics on the list and
I'd be posting a lot more if I'd shot with my Leicas in the past several
months...
or years but I really haven't.
Maybe just a few with my Digilux point and shoot.
The one that looks like an Argus.
Or a Brownie Instamatic 100.
My Leica system which is for the most part Leica M glass has sat like a
wonderful investment filled with burgeoning potential for well over a year
not doing much. In a plastic pelican case.
But it has not been completely idol.
It's been WAITING.
Which I believe this whole list has been actively doing.
WAITING FOR EPSON.
Waiting for the Epson R1D1.
Waiting for Leica R Modul or Leica M body..
Waiting for who ever and when ever is going to make our Leica M or R systems
come alive again with little yeses and no's or zeros and ones.
And THAT is going to make for some real LUG conversation and of the on topic
kind.
The Epson has been spotted in Tokyo and with it's price falling.

The R back is due to come out by the end of the year which is just less than
a half a year away.
If it does come out anywhere near on time and if it "hits" like a Hollywood
film does it could get Luggers selling off their Canon and Leica DSLR's for
gorgeous Leicas SLR's with D backs.
Assuming any of use can bare to capture digital files without auto focus.
I find this highly likely despite where the smart money may reside.
More than a 50 50 chance.
The Digitally enabled R system could make R use ubiquitous.
Although you may have to squint and only look at them out of the corner of
your eye. Like those lizard things on "Dead Like Me".
R use will move up a notch. Or two or three or four notches

Maybe with that new 15mm Super Angulon I mean Elmarit lens and we get are
21mm focal length we are so into!

But it's the Epson for the M lenses which is right upon us and which is the
main thing.
And I think a lot of us have not sold off our Leica M glass for Lexar 2 gig
cards yet.
So we're waiting it for really hit in the next weeks to months. Hear about
how well it's doing and how well the price is doing. And start pre
visualizing our bankroll heading in that direction.
I kind of can.

I can visualize this time next year scores of us with our Canon and Nikon
DSLR's on the shelf but with our Epson and Leica M glass out with us. Then
back to our terminals sucking it all in while we tell the LUG all about it
and upload it for all to see. Leica use and the conversation which comes out
of it.
That has to be what the basis of what the lug is all about and not what it
is about now. Now it's about waiting.
Not imaging but imagining.

But I think that is going to happen.
The Epson R1D1 is going to "hit".
And then when the R2D2 comes out with a motor drive that will really "HIT"!

A dozen years ago I gravitated away from my Nikon SLR use to Leica
rangefinder use both in my personal but then in commercial 35mm work as
well.
But before going Leica rangefinder I'd given up zooms and AF for the most
part. Which made for shooting with 85 f2's and 105 f 2.5's and 2.8's with
Nikon FE2's or even tupperware 8008's.
 
But now with this new digital DSLR thing for me came a look at where AF and
zooms have come to in the past dozen years.
And I find myself all the time zooming silent wavingly.
With variable apertures.
On program mode. Don't tell anybody.

Am I going to get bored with all this high tech stuff in lieu of my ultra
superb Leica M glass lineup on my rangefinder Epson?
Tune in next month or year or a week to find out.
I think it's not just me.

Is it possible we are really into non-monster rangefinder cameras when all
is said and done and our micromoters go full circle?

I'm beginning to come round to that opinion.
All my life I've tried to put it from me, saying Rabimir, be reasonable, you
haven't yet tried everything. And I resumed the struggle.

Am I?

I'm glad to see you back. I thought you were gone forever

Me too.

There's man all over for you, blaming on his boots the faults of his feet.

I remember the maps of the Holy Land. Coloured they were. Very pretty. The
Dead Sea was pale blue. The very look of it made me thirsty. That's where
we'll go, I used to say, that's where we'll go for our honeymoon. We'll
swim. We'll be happy.


(apologies to SM)

Mark Rabiner
Photography
Portland Oregon........
http://rabinergroup.com/