[Leica] LHSA convention cluster bombs Part One The Beginning.

[mark at rabinergroup.com (Mark Rabiner)]

On 11/1/04 8:54 AM, "Jim" <jimlong@inwave.com> typed:

> Would somebody please report on the highlights of the LHSA convention?  I
> bet there were no controversys or heated debate about our favorite company.
> 
> Jim
> 
> 
Wow! Well here it is I stuck around over there all Sunday to shot
Williamsburg and hang out and left Monday noon and find no one wants to
start any threads on the multiple bomb hits which were dropped at the
meeting. Although most you had to read between the lines because the
incredibly nice and smart German guy from Leica we see every year who stands
up in front of us to get clobbered and then goes home to get again clobbered
for leaking perhaps the wrong thing in not quite the perfect way or timing.
That he seems to see the humor in this ritual is a gold mine for the LHSA
and I think the interests of Leica itself. A huge asset to that company in
my view.
And a major reason to go the these wonderful Leica historical society of
America meetings in the first place. You hear it there first.

I'm not sure if we all knew or not that the Leica digital M they will be
cramming to get out all year will be 1.3 mag crop.

But because of this Leica feels sorry for us that we loose our famous
Leicalike classic 21mm focal length.
Our 21mm Ultrawide become 28mm near Normals.
And in the influx we also loose our 24mm.
Which turned out to be a key focal length in this LHSA meeting with the
astounding black and white work we saw from Norman Mauskopf of Santa Fe, NM.
HCB is dead!
Long live HCB! 
i.e. Mauskopf who I'll take over HCB any day in my book. And has a book. (I
don't)  More on that later.
But the best slide show I've ever seen in my life bar none.

So our ultra wides when using digital will be gone.

HENCE THE 18!

The Newport News I squarely read between the lines was the oncoming reality
of a new focal length from Leica.
And a stretching of the Leica M optic pantheon

And the first 18mm M from Solms or anywhere.
TAKE THAT!

And one which will cover a whole 24x36 chunk of film.
Leica was not going to exclude the film users in it's optical outlays. This
a concrete decision from Leica. A commitment to the 43mm image circle.

That said when Mr. Kobayashi or someone else comes out with the first M lens
designed for the smaller digital film circles it will be a boom for Leica M
digital shooters who will make up a definite digital nietzsche market before
you blink an eyelash.
Thus spake Rabathustra.
Imagine a cute little 90 1.4 the size of a 50 f2!
I sure can!
But this one is just a wild projecting from my own Ektagraphic imagination.
Not one of the "bombs" which went off at the meeting.

Which brings us to bomb number 2 out of 4.

"A new Leica lens I think we'll be seeing between the focal lengths of 90
and 50" 
    to the effect of... I forgot my tape recorder.
Not saying any NAMES but the initials are Seventy five millimeter Summicron
Apochromatic!!!! Although maybe Aspheric in lieu of Apochromatic it was one
of those "A" words I'm a little dyslexic on.
 
You'll know who to blame if these bombs are duds coming from me as here it
is in writing and my name is on it and it's in the archives with the
anchovies.

The details of course were not supplied by the speaker at the podium or my
imagination but the discussions and mumblings of the plugged in people in
the know I was sitting around who have not lied to me yet. Read it and weep
they are realities for me and delusional I've not proved to be.
But as no one told me this directly no ones going to get in trouble like
when I leaked the M7.

I have a hard time being terrible critical of Leica as it seems like they've
taken my personal wish list which I've expressed repeatedly on the LUG and
put in my personal journals and categorically put them into realities be it
three or four years later. I don't have to be all that patient.

A 75mm M optic not the existing (though wonderful) monster to compete
against the existing compact 2.5 from Cosina which did not capture my Leica
M imagination....
Done.

I could have gone slower and more compact than a Summicron but it's Leica's
thought now that they have a hard time justifying the needed price tag with
a slow optic.
I imagine they sold a few less 90 macros than they'd hoped.
f4 being f4 on our open nietzsche market.

"Give me a Summicron anyday" they all seem to say.

Its the "Mark" of Leica as far as I go and I aughta know!
    (makes an "M" with his blade)

That said I picked up a gorgeous super compact 40mm Summicron for just a few
hundred bucks which will remain glued to my M6 classic for the duration of
the new millennium.

"Give me a Wetzlar anyday" a friend of mine here in Portland who is not all
that plugged into the Leica thing always says.

I'm eagerly awaiting the Cosina 40mm finder as are all the other CM and CME
Minolta people from the past Leica generations gone by.

I now have a Rollei 35 (which has a 40mm lens) in the shape of the slightly
less compact Leica M6. I took the grip off as it seemed like it was making
it less than the compact package it was wanting to be.

Pancakes fight for you!!




Mark Rabiner
Photography
Portland Oregon
http://rabinergroup.com/