Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/02/15
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Peter Kotsinadelis wrote > Opinion, remember! Everyone has one. The Ms are nice but in reality little > used today by the great majority of photographers. and Harrison McClary replied >I think you might be surprised by the number of news types who have an >M stuck away somewhere in their bag of tricks. LUGgers may be interested in my experience. For the bulk of my career I have been involved in motor sport. As a keen amateur photographer I know most of the Pros covering the sport over the last 25 years. I myself stopped taking a camera after the first couple of seasons because of pressure of the work I was being paid for. During the period most pros went Nikon F1, to Nikon F2 to Canon F1 to Canon A1 to Canon EOS. Very few stuck with Nikon when the F3 came out and almost all went to Canon with the advent of autofocus. As always the best photographs are taken by the best photographers it would be unfair to do a long list but David Winter and Bernard Asset stand out. Both use Nikon. David retired years ago but he used F2s and an incident meter for action and a Canon sureshot for pit portraits! Two of the photographers use Leica, a French pj who does human interest B&W in the pits using appalingly battered M6s and a successful Italian who uses the R system. All of them are interested in my Leicas, most say they would love to use one but can't afford it. I tell them that over time it is not expensive but they are fearful of insurance costs. Most do not use autofocus on the circuit. It is not 100% reliable so they do not rely on it. Ideal for snapshots in the pits. All of them wear out their long teles each year and need an expensive overhaul. I buy everything used. The dealer I use says his biggest growing customer base is young pjs who have returned to Ms "like their fathers" R does not sell well and is a bargain used. I bought a R6.2 and am a bit disappointed by the mirror slap but the 35 f2, 80 f1.4 and 100 f2.8 are wonderful - as you all know! Cheers Frank