Re: [Leica] why read a book or article?

[Stephen Gandy <leicanikon@earthlink.net>]

Ah Mr. Puts, I do enjoy your funny posts.  I had no idea asking you to
demonstrate your expertise would get you so rattled.

As always, a pleasure to read your humor.

Stephen Gandy



Erwin Puts wrote:

> Mr Gandy, in one of his most perceptive statements ever, observed
> that my writings would only prove the obvious and that is that "the
> newer design Leica lenses are almost always better than the older
> designs". Now this indeed is a view on industrial progress that has
> escaped almost every observer in the photographic scene and to cast
> the view  a bit wider I doubt if anyone in the world has observed
> this.  Cars and motorcycles, tv-sets, mobile phones, computers,
> bridges, roads, trucks, almost every industrial product that is on
> sale now is vastly improved  when compared to its predecessors. Some
> may not have noted it, but even Canon and Nikon and Hasselblad and
> Zeiss and Schneider and Rodenstock and Mamiya and Bronica lenses have
> improved.  Mr Gandy states that documenting the obvious, that is that
> current products are improved versus previous generations, is a
> futile exercise. He at least knows this already and reading about it
> is a waste of time and only worth of consideration if no other
> pressing matters are at hand. So in his view we do not have to read
> any magazine that only notes the obvious. So do not read Cycle,
> because it will tell you that current Harley Davidsons are better
> than older ones, throw away your Car and Driver issues as they just
> tell you that new cars are improved versions of older ones. Why read
> any article or book that will tell you that we are in a state of
> evolution as Darwin already noted that only the fittest will survive
> and that is the best definition of "better".
> Why read at all? If you already have made up your mind,  and this is
> an individual act of supreme importance, reading can do two things
> for you: support what you already know and than it  is a waste of
> time as it is redundant information or challenge what you think and
> that again is a waste of time as you made up your mind already and
> then it is useless information. So in any case as soon as you know
> what you know you can stop reading and what you know can be
> summarized quite easily: the world is in a state of progress to
> perfection and therefore new Leica lenses are better than older ones
> and as a corrollary: dealers of second hand Leica lenses will thrive
> as users of Leica lenses will insist in buying older lenses as these
> are less good than newer ones.
>
> Erwin