Why the obsession with "Leica Killers?"

[benlees]

David Alan Harvey is exhibiting 5-foot prints from images taken with the Panasonic G1 adjacent to ones taken with the D800, M9, M6, and Mamiya 7. They all look gorgeous because they were shot by a real artist and printed by a great printer. DAH has used a lot of Leicas and can use any camera he wants to use. Last I heard he's mainly choosing the X100S, Mamiya 7, and iPhone.

Sensor resolution ≠ artistic merit. Presence of a particular focusing mechanism ≠ artistic merit.

Goodness! This is no place for "truth"!

 

[Pioneer]

I am nowhere near being an "artist." I just take simple pictures but I still get some rather decent 11x17 (or maybe they are 17x11) prints from my poor little Pentax *ist DL2. If my printer went larger I might even be able to go a bit more. I also have some that look stunning at 5x7 in the midst of a white, 12x16 field, but do not do very well at 8x10. It kind of depends on the picture itself and the presentation, not necessarily the amount of enlargement. Megapickels have never been the be all, end all, of picture making.

 

[jsrockit]

Yes. Plus a thousand. Guys. It so AINT about the camera.

I think what some on this forum need to understand is that not everyone is trying to be someone in the photographic community. We have plenty of "friends and family" type photographers here as well as some serious (and not so serious) collectors.

For the collector, it IS all about the camera. For the friends and family photographer, they probably don't have aspirations of being a pro or an artist.

Let's remember that we have all types on this forum and we have room for all of them.

 

[Sejanus.Aelianus]

Let's remember that we have all types on this forum and we have room for all of them.

Good words.

 

[Margu]

if every leica owner's wetdream was to use their leica lenses with a camera like D800, now they can do that by the inevitable M adapters for this camera that will appear very soon.

Sony finally put the nail in the coffin of almost every camera maker perhaps except fuji.

 

[Rangefinderfreak]

if every leica owner's wetdream was to use their leica lenses with a camera like D800, now they can do that by the inevitable M adapters for this camera that will appear very soon.

Sony finally put the nail in the coffin of almost every camera maker perhaps except fuji.

Strange... I want to use canon, Nikon (ltm) and Voigtländer lenses on a Leica M I give a s**t about those X&Y "new full frames" I have new full frames 36 times until I take a small cartridge out and put in a new one. Then, when I feel like, I dump the contents to funny chemicals ( Yes they seem little like acid...) Then , suddenly I have all the images I want. I don`t have to kill anything else, but a little time, maybe...

 

[CameraQuest]

Everyone except Sony needs that slap. No one else is making a large-sensor mirrorless camera with interchangeable AF lenses.

Sony just made it to the marketplace 1st. There is no telling how many similar cameras are under development.

Nikon and Canon will have to respond with a similar camera.

Likewise Fuji will have to respond with a full frame FujiX.

Its only a matter of time.

Stephen

 

[Michael Markey]

I think what some on this forum need to understand is that not everyone is trying to be someone in the photographic community. We have plenty of "friends and family" type photographers here as well as some serious (and not so serious) collectors.
For the collector, it IS all about the camera. For the friends and family photographer, they probably don't have aspirations of being a pro or an artist.
Let's remember that we have all types on this forum and we have room for all of them.

Well said , some threads have been rather censorious of late.

 

[Lss]

Sony just made it to the marketplace 1st.

Exactly. There is no magic to this. They will however get a nice head start if no one else releases a similar camera this year or early next year.

 

[Rangefinderfreak]

When you guys are talking about the IMAGES you are going to produce with these wonder instruments...?

 

[Wulfthari]

I think what some on this forum need to understand is that not everyone is trying to be someone in the photographic community. We have plenty of "friends and family" type photographers here as well as some serious (and not so serious) collectors.

For the collector, it IS all about the camera. For the friends and family photographer, they probably don't have aspirations of being a pro or an artist.

Let's remember that we have all types on this forum and we have room for all of them.

But do you need a camera with a red dot to be a "professional"?

I'm new here but it seems to me that there's a lot of...can we call "feticism" around the Leica name, Leica here, Leica there, no camera can offer more than a Leica etc..etc...😱

 

[Ranchu]

Perhaps "surprisingly good" would be a better analysis. Compare it with (say) a Nikon 43-86 and it was stunning. I still have a couple, and I'm rather looking forward to trying the Nikon-mount one out on an M typ 240.

What did/do you particularly dislike about it?

Cheers,

R.

I think it's just not good at the wide end until 5.6, and even then not all that great. The long end was OK, it got pretty sharp, but the thing has such a strong green cast to it, it was like shooting through a bottle of olive oil. Generally, if it doesn't get usable (to me) until 5.6, I'd be/am happier with a f4-f5.6. I rarely use zooms anymore though, seemed like a good Idea at the time.

 

[jsrockit]

But do you need a camera with a red dot to be a "professional"?

The standard Pro would disagree. So, of course not. Which is why I'm so shocked at all of the Leica killers out there. Why not Nikon D800 or Canon 5D MKIII killer?

I'm new here but it seems to me that there's a lot of...can we call "feticism" around the Leica name, Leica here, Leica there, no camera can offer more than a Leica etc..etc...😱

There certainly is... no other camera can compete in the fetish realm with Leica.

 

[Michael Markey]

I'm new here but it seems to me that there's a lot of...can we call "feticism" around the Leica name, Leica here, Leica there, no camera can offer more than a Leica etc..etc...😱

Its called Rangefinder Forum and there`s only one main rangefinder manufacturer.
No surprise then. 🙂

 

[Wulfthari]

Its called Rangefinder Forum and there`s only one main rangefinder manufacturer.
No surprise then. 🙂

Today, yes. Once upon a time no..for instance, should we remember that the "revolutionary" M3 incorporated many features that were available in Contax cameras much before?:angel:

If today was 1938 and I had to choose a rangefinder I'll definitely buy a Contax, not a Leica II or III, so the M3 was the "Contax killer"?😉

 

[Michael Markey]

But it is today 🙂
From what I`ve read over the years I`m not sure that I would choose Contax.
Don`t know about the evolution of the M3 as regards Contax.
I do know that I use a 1955 M3 DW and I like it .

 

[Roger Hicks]

Today, yes. Once upon a time no..for instance, should we remember that the "revolutionary" M3 incorporated many features that were available in Contax cameras much before?:angel:

If today was 1938 and I had to choose a rangefinder I'll definitely buy a Contax, not a Leica II or III, so the M3 was the "Contax killer"?😉

And many that weren't. Multiple automatically selected suspended parallax-compensated brightline frames, for a start. And a bigger lens throat with a simpler single mount. And...

Cheers,

R.

 

[Wulfthari]

And many that weren't. Multiple automatically selected suspended parallax-compensated brightline frames, for a start. And a bigger lens throat with a simpler single mount. And...

Cheers,

R.

mm...bayonet mounting lenses, check.

viewfinder/rangefinder combined, check.

longer rangefinder base, check.

single non rotating shutter, check.

built in lightmeter (for the III model), check.

And all this happened almost 20 years before the M3, that didn't invent anything but incorporated all these important features (more important thant the parallax compensation already offered by Zeiss' multifinder turret and the automatically selecting grid that was never used by Leica after the M3, as far as I remember) in a Leica format.

The moral of the fable is not that the Contax was the best rangefinder ever, but that until the 60s there were many RFs built by many companies and some of them were quite remarkable (Contax, M3, Leningrad, Canon 7, Nikon SP etc...).

Of all these models just the Leica survived merely for fashion reasons and after the transformation of what used to be one of the best camera makers in a luxury brand.

All of this IMO, of course.

 

[jsrockit]

Are we calling "friends and family" photographers collectors? I think that might be a disservice.

No, and don't even try to bend my words. "AS WELL AS" was used.

 

[David Hughes]

Hi,

What I have against collectors is that they push all the prices up. I saw some Olympus mju-II's on ebay this week and they sold from sixty to eighty pounds.

Regards, David