[Leica] What's it all about?

[Mike Johnston <michaeljohnston@ameritech.net>]

>>>
<< the 75 Cosina >>
Why a Cosina lens on a Leica - why bother? Leica photography is all
about
subtlety - the lens is the point!
<<<

Sheesh. Actually, the _photograph_ is the point. At least for me.

Several people have weighed in again with the opinion that an unknown
lens must perforce be inferior when compared to a Leica equivalent, just
as many people anxiously dismissed the new Konica after merely seeing
the web page and hearing a few rumors. I'm not saying one way or the
other on the issue of the 75mm, but coming to conclusions in advance of
the evidence defines closed-mindedness, doesn't it?

I also don't want to get backed into a position of defending Cosina.
However, several Japanese lensmakers make lenses equal or superior to
their Leica equivalents; in my (ahem, expert) opinion, the chief
distinction is the prices each can charge. I think it is certainly
possible that an experienced volume lensmaker such as Cosina, given the
opportunity to make a fixed-focal-length lens that they can sell for a
relatively very high price, is theoretically capable of making a
superlative product. Whether they have in this instance will await
actual evidence. But it is not impossible.

If some of you guys don't watch it, I'm going to have to design a test
that objectively compares prints from four or five different lenses, and
invite people to put up or shut up (as the expression would have it; I
don't mean to sound rude). If I did a more informal test and sent around
a stack of prints made with four great lenses, are any of you so sure
you could pick out the pictures made with the Leica lenses? Be careful
how you answer that! <s>

- --Mike