Is this why Leica and some other expensive cameras are REALLY so desirable?

[Archiver]

No one wants a quiet sports car, unless they buy an EV. From what I understand, manufacturers like Porsche and McLaren tune their sports car's engines for an optimally satisfying sound.

I love the shutter sound of my Panasonic S1, it's damped and yet feels juicy, like an electromagnetic gate closing, which is different from the more light and airy feeling of the earlier Panasonic G9. The S1 was their flagship at one point, so it makes sense that everything was meant to feel top notch. Haptics are surprisingly important for me; I didn't realize that I was mildly disappointed with the feel of the Panasonic S5 until I got the S1, which feels like a 'real camera'. Same with the Canon 30D vs 5D Mark II, as the latter feels like a 'real camera' where the 30D was okay but not fantastic.

Leica M and SL bodies feel incredible, so solid and dense, like they're made from unobtanium.

 

[Darthfeeble]

I know I was a much more revered and accomplished photographer when I was shooting my Leicas. I became even more so when I upgraded from M8 to M9 and then M10. The only way for me to advance myself from there was to get a Hasselblad which put me over the top. Right??

 

[wlewisiii]

Right and wrong here. My MacBook Airs are 2013 and 2015 respectively. Still functioning 90%+ as new. I've done two regular services every 4-5 years, nothing exceptional was wrong with either laptop, mostly to check the innards and clean out the cat hairs and one time, a small ant infestation (I'm in Indonesia in a household of five cats so such events are commonplace here). Where Apple shines for me is in their approach to software - they give it away free. Which goes a long way to make up for the lack of quite a few good basic software packages which makes me keep an old (ca 2012) Acer laptop so I can run my non-Apple programs.

As for the packaging, you are spot-on right. The late Steve Jobs and his cohorts were spot-on with their vision of how and why people buy products, looks and packaging aren't everything but they rank highly on the desirability list. When I bought my two MacBooks I was told there was a good market for selling the boxes and packaging (this in Australia). I posted them on Ebay and they sold. Ditto some early Apple software I found in a local charity shop, especially Aperture which apparently functions super well on the older machines and still has a cult following.

Apple is not without its faults but it does have its good points. Ease of use is on top of my list.

We are now looking at buying an Apple PC as my eyesight is no longer what it was (age-related) and I need a larger screen for my post-processing work. One basic problem with buying Apple anywhere in Asia is price. So much so that we will be looking at secondhand monitors, our local tech market has several shops specialising in good quality used gear and apparently a good stock of Apple and Ben (which all local photographers here use) monitors.

Depends on _how_ you define "ease of use". I find MacOS very difficult to use after (literal) decades of Unix/X windows usage. (Windows XP and beyond is still horrific, granted, but Mac is not a panacea...) Their ideas of "we know what is best, you _DON'T_ remains a very large problem. Sometimes things can become too simple. I would argue Apple hit that point a very long time ago. M$ would love to even see that in their mirror, alas...

No OS is anything near perfect. But as long as I can pop a terminal, type three or four commands piped together and have it fix something brain damaged, that will suffice.

 

[wlewisiii]

I know I was a much more revered and accomplished photographer when I was shooting my Leicas. I became even more so when I upgraded from M8 to M9 and then M10. The only way for me to advance myself from there was to get a Hasselblad which put me over the top. Right??

Nope. You have to buy an 8x18 Deardorf on your tripod and even then you better have a Cooke XVa triple convertible lens... For bonus points, shoot Kodak Portra sheet film at $50 (film plus C41 development) every time you click the shutter on that Copal #3s 🤣

 

[peterm1]

No one wants a quiet sports car, unless they buy an EV. From what I understand, manufacturers like Porsche and McLaren tune their sports car's engines for an optimally satisfying sound.

I love the shutter sound of my Panasonic S1, it's damped and yet feels juicy, like an electromagnetic gate closing, which is different from the more light and airy feeling of the earlier Panasonic G9. The S1 was their flagship at one point, so it makes sense that everything was meant to feel top notch. Haptics are surprisingly important for me; I didn't realize that I was mildly disappointed with the feel of the Panasonic S5 until I got the S1, which feels like a 'real camera'. Same with the Canon 30D vs 5D Mark II, as the latter feels like a 'real camera' where the 30D was okay but not fantastic.

Leica M and SL bodies feel incredible, so solid and dense, like they're made from unobtanium.

" Leica M and SL bodies feel incredible, so solid and dense, like they're made from unobtanium."
Or in the case of the SL with its battery grip "unobcarryum". Trust me on this. 😏 😆 😆

 

[pvdhaar]

One of the benefits of these so called over-engineered devices is that they have a much larger lifespan. Look at Leica, Hasselblad, or Bang&Olufsen for instance; they're still being repaired or restored, and are less prone to end up as landfill.

 

[joe bosak]

engine noise simulation

 

[JeffS7444]

I enjoy encountering beautifully presented luxury goods, and am amazed at how sophisticated the brand's methods of persuasion can be.

https://www.mercedes-benz.com.au/pa...icles/eqs-scent-expert-sabine-engelhardt.html

While I don't especially care for the scent of old vulcanite, perhaps it smelled different when it was new, else merchandising was simpler then.

 

[Darthfeeble]

Nope. You have to buy an 8x18 Deardorf on your tripod and even then you better have a Cooke XVa triple convertible lens... For bonus points, shoot Kodak Portra sheet film at $50 (film plus C41 development) every time you click the shutter on that Copal #3s 🤣

I thought about that but didn't think I could take all the adoration.

 

[Valkir1987]

But probably still in the visible part of it. The Zenit-E on the other hand...

The Zenit-E was my first SLR and I still use it now and then. When fully serviced the ones made by KMZ can be very smooth in operation. The sound of the mirror however remains. And these cameras are very repairable and serviceable, yet made with larger tolerances to allow higher production numbers.
Compared with a Leica... still very rough. But that's something I like a about these cameras.

 

[peterm1]

I enjoy encountering beautifully presented luxury goods, and am amazed at how sophisticated the brand's methods of persuasion can be.

https://www.mercedes-benz.com.au/pa...icles/eqs-scent-expert-sabine-engelhardt.html

While I don't especially care for the scent of old vulcanite, perhaps it smelled different when it was new, else merchandising was simpler then.

Marcel Proust wrote about the ability of tastes and smells to evoke emotions, make associations and especially to bring back intense memories of earlier years. I recall having just this experience myself some years ago when I tasted and smelled a particular kind of Oolong tea from China which has a specific smell. Suddenly I was a child and could recollect my mother visiting a lady who served this tea and there I was sitting in her parlour being served what must have been this type of Oolong. I could not have been more than 6-7 years old. I can imagine such associations being powerful inducements to buy products. Indeed, now that I know what it is, Oolong (Ti Guanyin - Iron Goddess of Mercy tea specifically) is my favourite tea style.

Smell and memory – The Proust Phenomenon | BPS

An extract from a chapter by Sebastian Groes and Tom Mercer in ‘Smell, Memory, and Literature in the Black Country’, edited by Sebastian Groes and R.M. Francis (Palgrave Macmillan) £14.99.

www.bps.org.uk

 

[boojum]

Oh, the pull of Lemon Madeleines. Long ago I read that there was a Chinese saying that we will fight to defend the flavors of our childhood. It seems these chestnuts are always "old Chinese sayings" whether they are or not. But, yes, a cookie, a tea, so many things will trip our memories and then desires.

About Leicas and me. My background is strongly German influenced and camera influenced, one side of my family is from Rochester, Kodak Rochester, and was always current with Kodak cameras and 8mm movie cameras. I became physically acquainted with Leicas in HS and borrowed a friend's IIIf in '57 or '58 for a couple of weeks. I liked it and was convinced I got better photos with it. It was the best camera I had ever held and used. It was a marvelous machine. It was exquisite, it felt good to hold, handle and shoot. So the seed was planted.

Then in a momentary lapse of sanity I wandered onto RFF. ;o) So many of us have fallen in this manner. I had the taste and began with a very nice M8.2. Chatter on the board led me to an M9 but cautiously as I had been warned about sensor cover corrosion. I scooped up an M9 with a factory replaced sensor and circuit board that was cosmetically not 100%. The outside does not take the pictures. Then two M240's, one for a friend who sent it back. He did not like it.

While others may complain about the M body digitals I like them and a few ounces one way or the other in weight or centimeters in dimension make no difference to me. I just enjoy using the machine. They are nicely made and function well.

OTOH the A7M III and X2D are easier to use.