Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/08/23
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]As a subscriber and poster to this LUG, I'm kind of surprised at being so defamed (as clueless, an idiot...) by so many LUG people who obviously haven't taken any time to read my page on the problems with Autofocus (at http://www.smu.edu/~rmonagha/third/af.html). What's the deal? Why do people on the Leica UG - dedicated to manual focus cameras and lenses - so vehemently attack someone who argues those same MF cameras and lenses are superior to AF cameras in many photographic situations? Duh??? Why is it surprising that I suggest you can focus more accurately with a continuously variable analog manual focus camera in shallow DOF situations than you can with an autofocus camera limited by its discrete sensor size focusing to discrete digital steps or jumps? That's how it works, right? I can't be the only advanced degreed electrical engineer on this LUG. You don't have to believe me, the facts, Keppler's tests and his photo industry engineer's explanations - there are dozens of real-world photographers whose observations I have posted on my AF page that go into various AF issues as it has impacted them in real-world photography, alright? As to _my_ background, I started in 1971 as a professional scientific photographer (archeological site photogr., 60 inch telescope wet plate camera photogr...); I have taught beginning and advanced underwater photography, have over sixty articles and book chapters (from Astronomy Magazine to the Yale Scientific Mag.), and ten college and grad degrees, including three grad degrees in electrical engineering and computer science, a legal degree (and 7 years in the legal trenches/pits ;-) etc. Like many of you, I am a recovering Lens-aholic with over 100 lenses and two dozen cameras, not including over 20 homemade lenses and telescopes, and ranging from 35mm to medium format to large format setups ;-) I bought/ deducted over 300 used/new photobooks last year - it helps to have the world's largest used book store just a mile away (Half Price Books Motherstore) I have about 600+ HTML pages related to photography at my web-site, with 2,000+ photos and 10,000+ archived posts along with several thousand typed pages of photography resources http://www.smu.edu/~rmonagha/mf/index.html So you'all can easily see what I do and don't know about photography; a couple of months reading for about an hour a day should just about do it ;-) Sadly, while I am told there is an immense amount of experience and expertise about photography in general and Leicas in particular on this list; but I seem to be missing a lot of it somehow between the personal attacks and cigar/car/bicycle posts ;-) Okay, I've shown you mine, now you show me yours. Where are your sites? Seriously. I think I have more materials on my third party lenses subsite (~rmonagha/third/index.html) than ALL of the non-commercial Leica RF/SLR pages out there put together. Where are _your_ Leica sites? Those of you who have defamed me as so clueless, where are _your_ sites displaying your photo expertise and knowledge for a "clueless" "idiot" like myself to learn?