[Leica] OT: A little history

[tedgrant at shaw.ca (Ted Grant)]

B. D. Colen said:
Subject: RE: [Leica] OT: A little history


>A 200 dpi file will produce a beautiful 13x19 - I've done it. But the
> real issue of "obsolescence" has more to do with the compulsion of
> people who are worried that someone, somewhere, has a bigger one than
> they do, than it has to do with need. There are plenty of cameras out
> there now that should keep some of us happy into the next decade.<<<,

Hi  B.D.,
yep I think that too many people are more concerned with "size" than what 
they actually know how to make it work, no matter how small or big it is. Or 
use the smaller camera properly regardless of size.

It seems it's always....... "bigger is better, get it!" Than "how big are 
you going to make prints and are you going to shoot professionally or just 
family happy snaps?" Sure some cameras and users, working pro's, sport's and 
news shooters need all they can get, but the general run of the mill folks 
we see with digi cams today are family shooters making 4X6 prints. And or on 
occasion a 5X7 for Aunt Maude or grandma.

However they get sucked in with the hype about megapixel size and other 
unnecessary bells & whistles they don't understand nor need the limited use 
of the camera for the family. Heck even some pros get sucked into the hype 
of size and other doo dads when they're not going to make anything bigger 
than an 8X10 print.

I think a short time down the road when people begin to get past the "number 
things, bigger is always better" maybe this digital frenzy might slow a bit 
and we'll begin to see better photography produced. Or certainly as good as 
what shooters were producing with film cameras. As I have this thing about 
digital in that it doesn't necessarily make for better photographs, it just 
allows you to see the screw-ups quicker! ;-)

If leica were to come out with a digital camera as close to the size of an M 
body as possible and capable of making use of the M lenses for their full 
image size or nearly so. We "might" see a solid move away from those big 
honking digi cameras of today. Obviously providing the new Leica digi isn't 
at a completely prohibitive price.  However, I find the 20D a very nice fit 
in the hand as I know there are others of similar size producing equal or 
better capture at an acceptable price for many folks. In particular R leica 
users who are finding their R glass works extremely well with this new 
machine. Or other models like it.

However, until the hype of size and digital rhetoric slows it's going to be 
a constant ... big is better, faster is better and every other reason one 
should change simply for the sake of change and nothing to do with better 
quality of picture content.

ted