Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2014/02/25

[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]

Subject: [Leica] Leica's heyday?
From: wildlightphoto at earthlink.net (Doug Herr)
Date: Tue, 25 Feb 2014 19:44:45 -0800 (GMT-08:00)

Douglas Barry wrote:

>I presume it is now in terms of users, but in terms of being the cutting 
>edge and dominant tool as interpreted by its press corps usage, when was it?

IDK about dominance, but I recall during the late 1960s and early 1070s the 
press at Vietnam War protests often had a Nikon F or two for longer lenses 
and a Leica M for shorter lenses.

>Do we owe Leica worship to HCB, or to whom - a clever early marketeer in 
>Solms?

If it was clever marketing it wasn't Solms, it would have been Wetzlar.  
IIRC it was lens worship more than marketing.  I certainly noticed a big 
difference between my Nikkors and the Leica-R and LTM lenses available to me 
at the time.  I loved how the cameras felt in my hands, too: a Leicaflex 
Standard and a IIIg with vertical alignment and slow-speed issues.

Doug Herr
Birdman of Sacramento
http://www.wildlightphoto.com