[Leica] Photokina and such

[mark at rabinergroup.com (Mark Rabiner)]

 a put downward price pressure on the
> Canon 1Ds MkII.
> 
> The Zeiss camera was not yet up to production standards, so any
> impressions have to be tempered by that. It had a nice viewfinder,
> although not hugely better, IMO. The finish was poor, and it
> certainly didn't feel like a high quality item. We'll have to wait. I
> tried a couple of the lenses on my cameras, and took some shots. I
> don't know how much relevance the results will have, but I haven't
> developed them yet. I talked a while with Dr. Hubert Nasse of Zeiss
> about optical design, and specifically these lenses which he says
> were designed by Zeiss (and manufactured by Cosina). It was extremely
> interesting. The 15/2.8 and 85/2, both relatively huge, are
> manufactured by Zeiss in Germany. The display in the photos on my
> site was at the Zeiss booth, while the hands-on was at Hasselblad. I
> later saw Dr. Nasse again at a private room at Cosina, with
> Kobayashi-san. The prices are apparently likely to be in the 60% of
> Leica range. For that the present impressions of mechanical quality
> are marginal.
> 
>From the photo's I saw the chrome "Zeiss" lenses appeared to be made of real
chrome. They looked like nickel not the silver spray-paint look that Leica
"chrome" lenses have now.

If they do look as good in person as they do in the photo's I predict Herr
Cohen is not going to let that stand for more than two seconds.
He will redo the finish catching up and trying to surpass the "Zeiss".

Might be interesting the thought that while they're at rethinking their
ideas on paint with metal flecks in it vs. real metal they might rethink
their Titanium finish as well. Drag out some hunks of real titanium and put
those on and in the "titanium" cameras.

I think both the silver and Titanium "finishes" Leica has is a disgrace.
And I'd like to have that option.



Mark Rabiner
Photography
Portland Oregon
http://rabinergroup.com/