[Leica] A modern Leica

[datamaster at northcoastphotos.com (Gary Todoroff)]

>  Does the image stabilization work on the 330? Cheers
>Alastair

Darn right Alastair - that Image Stabilization works great on the 
Olympus E-330 - just plunk her down on a table, counter top or floor 
and shoot at 1 second exposure - perfect framing with the tilted 
live-view screen - no problem and no shake! Howard is right, too  - 
the Digiliux 3 / Lumix L1 doesn't have the features that makes the 
E-330 special. Also the Lumix is larger and bulkier than the Olympus. 
In comparison the Lumix felt big and clunky, though I wouldn't mind 
trying the Leica zoom optics on my E-330.

I've seen the results of the questionnaire that David Young did on a 
potential R10 (Thanks David!). 84 percent said that live view was 
"not important"! Are Leica folks really that stuck on "tradition" and 
not on creativity? I wonder how many people told Edison that electric 
lights were not important - gas works just fine thank you. Live view 
is barely here and I can hardly wait for a forward thinking engineer 
to put the camera viewfinder in my  eye glasses - and why 
not?!  Leica only got to where we revere it now because they busted 
the mold for cameras 60 years ago. They have a chance to break 
photography wide open again while most of the world is still 
designing cameras like they are meant to hold FILM!

C'mon guys - are you shooting pictures or fondling a piece of metal 
and glass? If Leica pays attention to that 84% kind of response on 
the R10 survey, then are we doomed to another round of ten year-old 
designs with occasional colored leather and some silly engravings on 
meticulous camera bodies that will never see the light of day, much 
less take an actual photograph? The E-330 is just a beginning of what 
can happen with digital - small, and handy, super optics, dependable 
and one of the most creative picture taking machines to appear in 
many years. Hmmm . . . sounds like a certain camera that started with 
"M" in the 1950's. Only now it's almost 2007, and I'm waiting to see 
if Leica can actually do the E-330 one better. They are talking like 
it could happen. But are their engineers casting off the restraints 
of tradition and really designing outside the box, both literally and 
figuratively? If they could just shed those R and M blinders, a 
modern Leica could be a real wonder!

Gary Todoroff
Tree LUGger
http://northcoastphotos.com/