Re: [Leica] Wonders of plastic -- am I an old fart at 43? [off topic andlongish]

["Jeff S" <segawa@netone.com>]

- -----Original Message-----
From: Dieter Stoll <dstoll@tuebingen.netsurf.de>
>I feel there is a constant schism here: on one hand,
>the niceties afforded by going digital all the way (of which LUG is a very
>good example), on the other hand, the disgust of the attitude that seems to
>be inherent to modern day economics -- throw-away mentality, "innovation"
>cycles of six months (along with a gallopping deprecation of your
>investment), killing off the traditional dealers with their necessarily
>higher markup than the discount store manned by a sales clerk who doesn't
>know his <meep> from a hole in the ground, and so on.

Some interesting observations there, Dieter.

But I'm generally all for change that somehow makes my life better :-) Where
I grumble is where yeah, maybe newer products are faster and cheaper than
older ones, but where the fact that some simply don't produce results as
nice, is kept as some carefully guarded secret, else so much nonsense is
tossed about that the fact gets lost in the background noise. What the heck
is a "photo quality" printer, anyhow and what kind of photos are they
comparing themselves to; disc cameras?

Nevertheless, here and there, amongst many false starts, fixes for problems
no one knew they had, and goofy-in-retrospect ideas, real advances do occur!
One need only compare a Leica IIIc to an M6 to see just how much this is
true. And for that matter, is today's M-system what it seems? The looks are
comfy and "classic", but the lenses are aspherical. Hmm.

Diverging some from the topic, actually, we *do* have some say in the fate
of even our high-tech gear, but it requires more of a buyer than simply
shopping for the most features for the fewest dollars. If, for instance, you
are new to computers, you may not grasp the significance that a Sony VAIO
uses ATX form-factor motherboards, whereas Compaq is totally proprietary, or
that you could've saved money in the long run, or at least reduced landfill
by going with the former (cases, keyboards and monitors don't age that
quickly). That kind of know-how isn't easy to come by through the usual
sources, which have a vested interest in enticing you to consume more goods
and services.

Jeff