[Leica] M9 reviewers drawn from the "unwashed masses"

[dstella1 at ameritech.net (Dante Stella)]

And while we're at it (not directed to Mark particularly), dismissing  
M9 reviewers who are Canon or Nikon users as "not getting it" doesn't  
do Leica any favors.  Yes, they will flub some small detail in a  
review (just as I'm sure many M users would misunderstand Nikon's  
various AF modes).  But these people and their readers represent the  
future of the brand and are capable of influencing buying decisions.

Without a sizable conquest market, the M9 is the end of the line for  
Leica (Stefan Daniel's statements notwithstanding).  When you market a  
camera that (will likely) cost $7,500 (by the end of this year), you  
can't rest on the handful of pros still using Ms, a dying-off brigade  
of men who used Ms since the 1950s, or amateurs who might have sold  
most of their equipment to be able afford the camera.*  Those are one- 
time purchasers.  The truly rich won't have any idea why they would  
upgrade from an M9 to the next similar-looking Leica 24x36mm camera  
(they may not understand how to use the camera at all).  And many M8  
owners variously feel like unwitting beta testers, feel abused by  
Leica service, feel lied to by the home office, or are underwhelmed by  
what the M9 has to offer for an additional $4,500 over what their M8s  
would fetch.  Leica already took the one and only sale with many of  
these people.

That leaves you with the "unwashed masses" who grew up with Canon or  
Nikon digital.  And although some proportion of them will appreciate  
compact, high-quality, manual focus cameras, they will have no  
background in M-lore (some will never have even used film) and will  
expect responsiveness and electronics that bear some resemblance to  
modern standards.

Will the "unwashed masses" tolerate primitive electronics?  Narrow  
dynamic range compared to DSLRs?  Ho-hum low light capability other  
than using monstrously expensive fast prime lenses?  A focusing system  
that cannot compensate for the focus shift of many of those  
monstrously expensive fast prime lenses?  A camera that gets dust  
inside its viewfinder easily?  Bottom-plate loading that mimics some  
film Leica they never heard of?  A "step" in the top plate to recall a  
low-run obscure press camera of the 1950s?  A black paint finish that  
comes off the brass with little or no provocation?  A sibling that is  
a very sophisticated compact camera designed to ape a Leica from  
before their parents were born? How would you even explain these  
anachronisms to an outsider, especially when Leica's historic design  
ethos has been delivering the highest quality and subordinating form  
to function?

In my view, the best thing to do is to keep the things that really  
count in M photography - manual focus capability, responsiveness,  
silence and compactness; discard the nostalgia; and re-construct the M  
camera as a modern one, not a slavish simulacrum of a film camera  
designed 60 years ago.

Dante

P.S.   I love the attacks on Live View - what better replacement is  
there for kludgy accessory finders for wide lenses?  Can you imagine  
how cool it would be to have a grid displayed on the live view?  You  
wouldn't be stuck with accessory finders, crooked pictures, or  
accessory levels.

        * I would speculate that most people don't have a lens collection  
worth enough to justify spending $7K+ on a camera body.  And given the  
pricing of M9s, it's entirely possible that body sales will  
cannibalize lens sales.
____________
Dante Stella
http://www.dantestella.com

NO ARCHIVE

On Nov 9, 2009, at 1:06 AM, Mark Rabiner wrote:

> We'll see if anyone else in the world especially a reviewer  
> especially a
> real reviewer thinks there's  a speed issue with the camera. As in the
> camrea shoots too slow. Which he goes on and on about.
>
> I wasn't too offended till I got half way down the page and hit the
> " The Major Flaw of the M9"
>
> He's holding the shutter button down until the thing slow up and stops
> shooting at 2 frames per second and that takes  seven or eight  
> exposures.
> " Inexcusable" he says
> !?!?!
>
> And he insists on shooting "compressed RAW + fine JPG" .
> Gotta have both.
> It's gotta be compressed
> And he's gotta go on and on about it.
>
> The last time I held the shutter button down like that on even a  
> DSLR was
> never.
> And I've shot skate boarders.
>
> But not Golf swing studies.
>
> There's a difference between camera  bloggers and  cameras reviewers.
> And I'd think the digitaljournalist people would know that.
> .
>
>
> Mark William Rabiner
>
>
>
>
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