Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/07/19

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Subject: Re: Some thoughts on the R8 ...
From: hmphoto <hmphoto@delphi.com>
Date: Sat, 19 Jul 1997 17:31:15 -0500

>You cannot compare a R8 with a F5 or a Eos 1N, as the Leica lacks autofocus
>and an integrated motor drive. Why not compare it with the (older) Contax RTS
>III. German magazine FotoMagazin has done so: The Contax won...

While autofocus is nice it is not essential.  Speaking from personal 
experience I have shot as many, no more, good action shots with a manual 
focus camera than I have using autofocus and I use EOS gear, allegdely 
one of the best autofocus systems out there.  I personally think that if 
you are a sports shooter you know how to keep the player, race car, 
whatever sharp simply by adjusting focus as you shoot.  After doing this 
for a while it becomes second nature, kinda like someone who shoots with 
a pump shotgun can shoot as fast as someone with an automatic shotgun.  
Plus with a bright viewfinder and a long lens it is EASY to see when you 
have focus esp if you have switched the screen to a plain ground glass 
screen.  For my really long glass I have an old Canon FD 400 2.8 L and 
F1n&motor and I have no trouble keeping NASCAR race cars sharp with this 
setup even with a 1.4 converter on it-shooting manual focus as the FD 
stuff was not autofocus.  I have photos of football players with 
fingettip catches using manual focus and a 400w1.4x converter as does 
anyone who has shot sports.

Back when I shot NFL football every Sunday/Monday night it was played I 
was using manual R6es and a fellow photographer was using EOS gear.  If I 
missed a shot it was only slightly out of focus, If he missed it it was 
so far gone you could not even tell what he was shooting at.  I would 
much rather know a shot was blown because I screwed up than the camera 
decided to focus on the stadium seats or some such thing.  

The main thing that Leica has incorporated into the R8 that has been 
missing from their cameras is the high speed flash sync and good TTL 
metering for flash-at least this is what I have heard as I have never 
seen an R8.

Now the lack of a motor ....well that is a pretty major short falling on 
the R8 IMHO.



Harrison McClary
hmphoto@delphi.com
http://people.delphi.com/hmphoto