Re: [Leica] We're not alone - quality problems

[Alan Ball <AlanBall@csi.com>]

You are perfectly right, Eric: I have also been following the cserve
forum for the last 2 years and saved loads of threads related to the M
system and other issues i am interested in. There have been a few
threads related to out-of-the-box 'horror stories', just like on this
LUG list. But these threads are marginal and do not form a general image
of unreliability at all. As a matter of fact, it was that forum that
convinced me to step into the Leica M world.

But as much as the Internet is a great consumerist tool offering a great
counter-weight to the marketing war machines of the suppliers, it is
also a worldwide media that relays with the same intensity any damaging
rumour. No credentials are required. 

There are a few maniacs that seem to produce up to 30 posts a day
voicing their so-called experience with all the systems they seem to own
and use simultaneously. You will find their names on Usenet, in various
mailing lists (including this one), on the web. They never talk about
their pictures but they gradually become 'gurus' for the casual lurkers.

Thanks to DejaNews, I have followed the path of one of them. The guy
pretends to have purchased in the last 12 months a FULL Canon EOS system
(with all the L lenses), a FULL Contax SLR system (with all the high end
bodies and all the high end lenses), 2 FULL Contax G2 systems (one
titanium and 1 black with all available lenses), and more recently a
FULL M system (2 M6s and 1 M6HM, and the whole range of lenses:
21/24/28/35/50/90/135). I am very happy for him (this is getting near
the half a million bucks a year) but I just cannot help but shiver when
his name pops up dozens of times a day when I surf the photography
places I subscribe to. It is not physically possible that this person
ever takes a picture, but his Word has more weight on the Net than that
of the pro that occasionally pops in.
 
It is true that these forums and lists can get to one's brains and that
it can become addictive. The cure is to unplug the PC and get out on the
streets with a camera in the coat....

Eric Welch wrote:
> 
> At 12:22 PM 3/26/98 +0000, you wrote:

> Maybe so, but I've been on Compuserve for many years, and I can tell you
> that what he is saying is simply not true. There aren't that many
> complaints to fit his description. Let him use Nikons, there's not enough
> Leicas to go around.
> 
> In fact, some people seem to claim that it's the LUG where they hear all
> these terrible things.
> 
> A small sample of bad cameras can, with the help of the Internet, and a
> desire to see the worst in any given situation, (Not you Danny, the rumor
> mongers) create a plague where none exists.