Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/06/22
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Ted - Your observations are both amusing and thought provoking, but... 1: I ain't going to be here (not likely) by the time digi cams get to the point where we can afford them! And they'll produce the quality or better than many of tradional films of today. >>I don't know how old you are, but this is the kind of thing that someone would have said 15 years ago about portable computers, and digital imaging in general. The quality is essentially here now, it's the price that's the issue - to which I note that the computer on which I send and receive E-mail goes today for literally less than half what it cost when I bought it 9 months ago. 2: Lots of folks still like to work/play in the darkroom. Yup. A lot's of folks enjoy working and playing with manual typewriters, but here we're talking hobby, not work, with few exceptions 3: I've seen some prints that look "nice" but wont cut it with soemone I'm trying to convince to pay $1000.00 dollars for a print, let alone $100.00. That may be true if the standards don't change, but they are changing as we speak. 4: When digi cams and results produce the quality of a well handled M6 and tradional film, I'll buy one. Only then if I can afford two or three of them. I hate changing lenses!!!!!!! :) That's a matter of personal choice, etc. 5: Yep I figure one of these days the Leica as we know our beloved M cameras will be like the dodo bird. Extinct! By then we'll be recording images by some kind of mental image osmosis to a light sensitve image catcher in our pocket!:) No, we'll be recording images, using high quality lenses and microchips - just as many newspaper shooters are now doing with Canon EOSes and NikonF5s modified for digital use. The secret is, buy a bunch of them now, put them away and some day when you have worn out you're present one, just open the vault and walla! A spanking brand new Leica.... And will you be the envy of the digi folks! :) That's probably true - If enough people still care about and appreciate the "ancient" technology. And since they appreciate the artistic image produced by the "ancient" technology of applying paint to canvas with brushes, they may well continue to appreciate the visual value of using film and paper. I look at this like the worry warts of the art world when photgrphy came on the scene: "It is the end of painting....no more great masters of oils to canvas.... it'll never last....... a fad of the rich..... etc etc etc. And, in essence, it is - a fad of the rich. Not many magazines sent sketch artists to cover the conflict in Bosnia, and I'll wager not too many will be covering the wars of 2010 with film. So relax folks. But more Leica bodies and lenses and use them because you want to. Buy great gobs of film use it, because that's what this is really all about. B. D.