Re: The Leica Thing

[creadick@mindspring.com (Nowell Creadick)]

>Hi to All,
>
>When I was in college, in the sixties, I used a Leica IIIf. Just for
>fun, during my vacation last August, I got it out, put an old f2
>Summitar ( the one with the funky f-stops ) on it, loaded it with a
>roll of Velvia, and shot away. I had a lot of fun, and as a bonus I
>ended up with a box of nice, great looking slides.
>
>I have been lurking on this list for a long time, and for a long time
>I have wanted to both get my old Leica gear back on the road, and to
>get some more modern equipment so that I could re-explore the Leica
>experience with my own eyes and hands now that I have had a chance to
>do some living.
>
>I bought a new M6, and I got a 50mm rigid black f2 Weltzar Summicron
>to go with it. I lucked across a mint CL which had just come back from
>Leica. It had a 90mm Rokkor and a 40mm f2 Summicron. I came across a
>40mm Rokkor at a price I couldn't refuse, so I got it, too. My plan is
>to use it in place of a 35mm lens on the M6 until I can get a 35mm
>lens. Perhaps not strictly what a purist would do, but it works. I
>realize that this isn't the top of Leica's line, but, given that, like
>all of us, I have to live with limitations, I would prefer to live in
>a modest house in a better area.
>
>I saw the drubbing Pete took when he posted his stuff about switching
>from a 1n to an R8 on rec.photo. I was going to write in an suggest
>that he ignore it, but then I started reading some of the stuff there,
>and now I am the one who needs help.
>
>This is what I know for a fact. I have been shooting with Kodak's new
>T400 CN film. In my living room, even as I mis-spell this, I have out
>a group of 11x14 prints I made with my new-to-me Leica gear. The
>photographs are wonderful, exceed my expectations, and are identical
>in quality to shots made with name-brand 6x6 cameras using
>conventional emulsions. Believe me. Most of my work is macro shots of
>flowers made with a 4x5 Wisner and Schneider Apo-Symmar glass. To quote
>Hamlet, I most certainly can tell a hawk from a hand-saw when it comes
>to image quality.
>
>On rec.photo I read that only a fool would buy a Leica. I was assured
>that the range finder in my M6 was trash. I went looking in Deja News,
>and was informed that my CL was really a piece of mediocre equipment,
>that the 40mm Rokkor was something  to get rid of as soon as I could,
>that the split image prisim in the CL was going to die on me, and that
>the meter in the CL had weak wires which were guaranteed to break and
>leave me stranded.
>
>What's going on here? Have I just spent my retirement money on junk?
>How do you explain my 11x14's? Is part of the Leica experience
>learning to be hated and being required to cope with idiocy?
>
>My friend invited me to her wedding. I went as a guest, not as a
>photographer. I took my new M6 with me in the hope that I could get an
>informal portrait of her which said something about our friendship,
>and about her wedding day. You should have seen the looks I got from
>the official photographer who was using rec.photo.35 officially
>approved SLR gear. I was able to get the shot I wanted, and gave it to
>the happy couple as a gift, They were thrilled. The real photographer
>took all his shots using the brick front of the church as a
>background. I allowed myself to shadow him one shot to see if it was
>really as gross as I thought it would be. It was. Reminded me of a
>firing squad.
>
>What in @&#^# is going on? Good thing I had my piece of trash Rokkor
>with me. The bricks are gorgeous - clear out to the edge of the frame.
>
>Help.
>
>Barney
>barney@sun1.wwb.noaa.gov

What an interesting post Barney.  Somehow Apple Macintosh computers come to
mind here as suffering the same fate. I think you can sum it up with the
idea that marketing drives the modern world. Then, when people have
responded en masse to these huge marketing efforts, they get very irritable
when it is suggested they may have made a wrong decision.