Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2012/06/13

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Subject: [Leica] Leica M Monochrom
From: photo.forrest at earthlink.net (Phil Forrest)
Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2012 00:23:49 -0400
References: <CBFED1BB.16DF6%chris@chriscrawfordphoto.com> <CBFED78E.1F9ED%mark@rabinergroup.com>

On Wed, 13 Jun 2012 23:49:34 -0400
Mark Rabiner <mark at rabinergroup.com> wrote:

"And the respect of the photographic community as a whole."

I think that's a bit of an exaggeration. Maybe much of the Leica
shooting or collecting community but not the bulk of the professional
photographic community. 

But sycophants are sycophants. There is no changing that. It is faith.
Yes, there is science to back up this faith but there is also science
to back up faith in Konica, Nikon, Canon, Zeiss, Pentax, etc. 

It all comes down to the best marketing mystique. Leicas "glow" while
other lenses that exhibit similar characteristics have uncontrolled
spherical aberration. That's just one example. It's how a marque can
create a technically outstanding product and squeeze that last .02% out
of an image that really comes down to faith of what the photographer
said they were using.
"But of course, this was taken with a Leica lens! Look at the
microcontrast! Look at the corners! Doesn't matter that I've worn
eyeglasses for the last 40 years of my life, I can tell that was taken
with a Leica!"
But only the photographer knows what was used and if that photographer
belongs to the 98% of the photographers out there serious about the
craft, it probably wasn't a Leica. If it was on film, these days it
probably was a Nikon, Canon or Pentax.

Birds of a feather do flock together. People know and associate largely
with other people that are similar to themselves. As for Leica, it's a
community of people who like photography, Leicas and a bunch of other
arcania. I'm guilty of this myself. But I won't say that Leica makes
absolutely the best lenses ever. Especially since I can get what I view
(and in a blind test, most of y'all would too) as the same results with
lenses a lot more inexpensively. But Leica is counting on this. They
have staked everything on it and have made a good profit and a little
niche for themselves in the market. Marketing and good spin of MTF
along with web views of the same test scene and a few pretty blonde
Dutch girls can do wonders.

Anheuser Busch doesn't sell the best beer in the world but they
convince a lot people out there with good marketing and views of ample
bosoms that they do in fact make the best beer. 

Phil Forrest


-- 
http://philipforrestphoto.wordpress.com/
http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/philforrest


In reply to: Message from chris at chriscrawfordphoto.com (Chris Crawford) ([Leica] Leica M Monochrom)
Message from mark at rabinergroup.com (Mark Rabiner) ([Leica] Leica M Monochrom)