Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/12/10

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Subject: [Leica] lurker speaks re: High ISO thread
From: pklein at 2alpha.net (Peter Klein)
Date: Sun Dec 10 15:50:33 2006

Leica never said any such thing.  But there is a body of Internet noise out 
there, to the effect that unless the M8 was significantly superior to the 
5D or IDS Mk II in all aspects, especially ISO 1600 and 3200 noise 
performance, that the M8 and Leica did not deserve to exist, and should 
deservedly go down in flames to the derision of digiterati everywhere.

If this is the case, why are Nikon, Pentax, Olympus, Sony, etc. allowed to 
exist?

The whole idea is, quite frankly, bovine effluent. It's a combination of 
anti-Leica reverse-elitism and the hegemony of Canon marketing.  Whether 
the M8 is suitable for one's style of photography or too expensive for your 
budget is another matter.  But a rangefinder is not an SLR, the Canon look 
is not the be-all and end-all of aesthetics, and a camera optimized for 
resolution with a body of existing, wonderful optics deserves better than 
it's been getting in some quarters.

If the M8 were being marketed as an all-around picture-taking tool for the 
masses, such comparisons might carry a bit more weight.  But there are 
reasons to take a small, light, nimble camera with fast lenses that focus 
where *you* tell them to, over much bigger, heavier, (acoustically) noisier 
machines that don't do wide angles so well.

Canons are fine machines.  So is the M8, for different reasons.  If people 
want to talk about the relative merits of various design choices with 
respect to various kinds of photography, fine.  But this "Leica should die 
because the 5D has less noise at ISO 3200" is just plain dumb.

--Peter

>As far as I know Leica made no such claim.  I think this was a wish of 
>some one hee ar on another list.
>
>Gene
>
>
>-------------- Original message from "Robert Jagitsch" 
><robert.jagitsch@gmail.com>: --------------
>
>
> > Lastly, I would like to see where the factory claimed that ISO 2500
> > performance would be equal to Canon 5D performance at ISO 3200. What
> > did the factory claim, can someone point me to it?


Replies: Reply from davison_m at msn.com (MARK DAVISON) ([Leica] lurker speaks re: High ISO thread)
Reply from ricc at mindspring.com (Ric Carter) ([Leica] lurker speaks re: High ISO thread)