Was RE: [Leica] DSLR choice - now Zeiss-Ikon

[dennis at hale-pohaku.com (Dennis Painter)]

Hi Bill,

Where are you finding that the R9 has magnesium? The Leica website makes no
mention of it in the R9:

http://www.leica-camera.com/produkte/rsystem/r9/tecdat/index_e.html

This is what's there:

Material: The top cover is a zinc die-casting, lacquered in black or in
anthracite. The inner housing is made of aluminum, firmly attached to the
aluminum tripod plate. The baseplate is made of fiberglass-reinforced
polycarbonate that incorporates an aluminum tripod plate.

Bill Marshall wrote:

> Frank, of course I was quoting from the manufacturer's propaganda. My point
> wasn't that it was right, but that it was NIKON propaganda - not Zeiss,
> Cosina, or Hasselblad. Attacks here have singled out the ZI when in fact
> their choice of materials is the choice of the industry for their highest
> level of products - Leica R9, Canon EOS 1v, Nikon F6. They are all staking
> their reputations on this material - not with ordinary consumers who throw
> away their equipment, but with the professional community who buy their 
> most
> expensive products & who expect them to work in harsh envronments & to
> endure.
>
> I know that you have way more experise in this area than I do, and I know
> that magnesium alloys have the advantage of saving weight which is
> attractive to manufacturers, but tell me why they are all flocking to
> thismaterial like lemmings? And why are their numerous websites out there
> that say the opposite of you in terms of strength & elasticity? Are their
> various alloys that may have different properties? Leica has a fairly
> extensive explanation on their website of the expense that they went to in
> order to manufacture their magnesium covers in a way that would meet their
> product needs. Their are also numerous articles independent of PR
> departments that explain various treatments that have been developed to
> successfully inhibit corrosion. Are they all just puff pieces?
>
> Bill