Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2008/05/15
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Mark Rabiner wrote: >http://www.popphoto.com/popularphotographyfeatures/5316/the-future-of-leica. >html > >In this interview with Jason Schneider at RIT Andreas Kaufmann shatters a >couple of very key assumptions or opinions I have about Leicas very much >needed direction. > >Imagine no full frame digital Leica rangefinder. >Imagine no digital R body. > > >The second because our new Top Leica man seems to feel that a DSLR needs to >be AF. >A very very wrong feeling in my opinion. > >Imagine whirled peas. > > >That's a whole lot of very bad news in one interview. >Very bad PR. >If I was the boss I'd fire myself on the spot. > >The R lineup of glass is nothing to cough at. >The R system needs and deserves a compact R digital body. >And so does the world. >Including me! >I'd buy one. I'd buy two! How about you? > >I don't need AutoFocus; >I AM AutoFocus. > >I focused my 24mm Nikkor 2.8 lens down Broadway for three miles tonight from >62nd to 110. On a Nikon D40x. >A whole lot of DSLR shooting is done with the AF turned off or with older AI >lenses not just by me but by a lot of serious non Leica loving people I >know. > >R&D needs to be continued to bend those little image grabbers at the ends of >the CCD sensors inward so a lens right in the sensors face can be used right >out to its intended image non crop circle on a digital M. > >And they should make for for a Hasselblad superwide while they're at it. > >A high end imaging company investing into crop circle formats strikes me as >a highly questionable paranormal eyebrow raiser. >Within 9 months with Nikon and Canon both in heavy competition bringing the >prices down a huge movement will be created to anyone with the slightest >pretensions to shooting a quality image to shooting 24x36 format. Kids at >RIT for sure. Anyone with a bigger than letter sized inkjet printer. Ebayers >who need to be shooting with the perceived latest best thing. > >The idea of Leica M glass coasting thousands of USD each only being used in >its middle area is going to seem very off beat wacky in the year 2009. > >Can half frame film cameras compete against full frame cameras? >Not in the production of quality images. >Which means >BIG PRINTS. And smaller prints and images made at very high ISO's. >Imagine Leica modern mediocrity. > > >Hasselblad went AF became it was bought out by a high tech company with >little empathy and touch with Hasselblad tradition and it customer base. >No heart. Hasselblad is dead. > >I expected more from what's happening now with Leica. >I thought I was looking at some heart. > >You gotta have heart. > > >Mark William Rabiner >markrabiner.com > > > What I conclude is that Leica and 35 mm format should never have existed in the first place. Give them a chance Mark. phx . > >_______________________________________________ >Leica Users Group. >See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > > >