Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2007/08/03
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Yes its the invention of the aspheric lens element which has made Leica loose touch of its true competencies. (twas used in the original Noctilux way way back in 1966 my freshman year in high school) 1966 Lenny Bruce died. So did Mississippi John Hurt. So did Walt Disney. The Nobel Pease prize goes to....... nobody. B52's drop their first bombs in Viet Nam. The Soviets crash something on Venus making for the first time somebody crashes on a different planet. Or goes there at all and parallel parks correctly. The Beatles stop performing live. The Gateway Arch is St. Louis is dedicated. Richard Speck murders 8 student nurses in their Chicago dormitory. (34 miles away from my house where I was then not permitted to play on my front lawn) Sniper Charles Whitman kills 13 from the University of Texas at Austin Main Building. The CULTURAL REVOLUTION begins in China. I'm not sure they either forced people to go to the opera or they killed everybody. Probalby the latter. Maybe both.* Grace Slick performs live for the first time with Jefferson Airplane. Actor Ronald Reagan is elected Governor of California. check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1966 COMPETENCIES means "what it's good at" I checked just to make sure. So when Leica came out with the 90 APO Asph it got out of doing what it was really good at. And the Leica 28mm Summicron-M f/2.0 Asph. I'd like to argue that all Leica has been doing in the past dozen years is making the best and by far the best glass in 35mm photography. And its use of aspherics is very crucial to its doing of this. And being number one in optics for its cameras was probably long the case the gap between Leica and its competition has proably widened by quite a bit in the past decade since I've gotten into it. And it was aspherics which did it for the big part. But lets attack THAT to make Leica a better company. Lets ignore the fact that Leica has mysteriously like its in its own personal time warp like usual neglected to come out with a DSLR and that its m8 is buggier than my air conditioner. Mark William Rabiner Harlem, NY rabinergroup.com In Leica's behalf I'm not forgetting it's come out with the MP. Perhaps what Steven K. Lee is thinking that this new glass is what this 2.5 is for glass what the MP was for its bodies. A return to old fashioned quality; what Leica is all about. But it does not really relate perfectly. Glass design verses the hands on feel one gets from a well made body with mallets and brass with help from gnomes from the black forest and so on. And the condenser put back in the rangefinder. Which the MP brought back. Though no one noticed they were all looking at the buggy electronic aluminum M8. And the M7 is a body I'd not kick out of bed on a hail storm ridden with lightning night. I love an "A" setting don't tell anybody. f126th of a second and be there. * lured them to the opera, then killed them.