RE: [Leica] Canon really has AF figured out...BLASHPEMY? Or it i s?

["Edmond Kim" <edmond.kim@prudential.com>]

I too cannot resist.  I'm 23, and I use a Leica M2 with a 40 summicron (all I
could afford and find surprisingly.)  Its funny, because I've been wanting a
Leica for about 3 years.  I would go to every camera show searching for an
inexpensive M2. Then just 2 or so months ago I finally got one. Waited another
couple weeks then found a lens I can afford.  I think younger generations like
the really old stuff.  I tell my friends what kind of camera I have and they are
always so impressed that it's such an old camera, and think its really cool.  It
is the trend you know; this whole vintage thing.  I dont know what my point is.

It's frustrating because I can't buy a 35 summicron because it is around $750
and a nikkor equivalent is only $150.  Alas, I shoot with one lens and I'm
happy. Collectors drive the prices up so high (oddly they always seem to collect
watches too).  E-bay doesn't help either.  It kills camera shows and flea
markets.

Enough of my rambling.  At any rate.. The young people I meet seem to like the
camera, but once they hear the price, they are instantly turned off..

>Sorry, but I couldn't resist responding. I'm a 28 year old Leica user who
>started out by purchasing an a screwmount elmar 90. It was all i could
>afford until my camera store took pity on me and allowed me to lay-by my
>Leica III. I couldn't afford my M at that point, and, quite frankly, if i
>tried to repeat the purchase of my M3 i couldn't do it again right now.

>Peter raised an interesting point about Leica marketing missing the
>Generation X market. Well I can honestly say I'm realistic about very
>little, and yet I think that Leica has probably correctly pin-pointed their
>market. Very few twenty-somethings can afford to buy Leica. That is an
>almost unequivocal statement. The exceptions, like my amateur self,
>probably started using cameras like my venerable old Dynax and discovered
>something at the camera store that arrived second-hand and were captured by
>the aesthetics and the history. That is, they were captured enough so that
>they saved or gradually paid-off their Leica. When my best friend asked me
>for camera advice i found out very quickly that he didn't really want it.
>He couldn't overcome the belief that he had to buy something new-instantly,
>with some form of international warranty, and it had to be an SLR with
>Nikon or Canon stamped upon it. I think he is also representative of those
>who appreciate the disposability of things. My M3 just looked too old and
>esoteric.

>Best wishes to you all,
>Gary