[Leica] Doomed: Leica MP 0.58x

[bdcolen at earthlink.net (B. D. Colen)]

Hi, Don - While I certainly agree with your final assessment - 
"The best thing that could happen to Leica would be Nikon coming out
with a digital rangefinder and Cosina buying Leica to profit on the
coattails.  Life would be really grand if Canon introduced their own to
take the profits out of Nikon. As B.D. keeps telling us, it is just a
machine that performs a function. Enjoy the machine for what it does," I
can't help wondering where you get these factoids:

*Most Leica users have more than one body but don't work professionally
where that is really necessary.  

*Most (Leica users) can get along quite nicely without an exposure meter
or flash.

*Most of us have chosen Leica precisely because it is an all manual
device.

*End users are not sure that they like the new product better than the
old (in regard to the new glass versus the old)

I suspect - if there's research to the contrary, I'd love to see it -
that while much of what you have written may - may - be true for the
people on this list, it is not true of people who have been buying new
Leica equipment over the past 15 years. Were it, Leica would not have
bothered putting a meter in the M4 to release it as the M6; would not
have put TTL circuitry into the M6; and certainly would not have
released the M7 with AE.

And in terms of preferring old lenses to new - only if one wants glass
with 'old-fashioned' defects, rather than flare-free, sharp, contrasty
glass that provide a 'finger printless' WYSIWG image.

B. D.