Wow... Tough crowd (M9)

gavinlg

gavinlg

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Was just reading through an article published on http://www.dpreview.com/articles/4052788152/shooting-with-the-leica-m9-p on using the leica m9-p. Thought it was an alright article, some of the samples are pretty nice, did a bit of lusting over the digital M etc etc. Scrolled down to the comments and WOW. Almost overwhelmingly bitter and negative. Now I know Leica's aren't everyones tastes and in everyones price range, but I'm surprised to see how many people dismiss it PURELY on features & specs without really knowing anything else about it. People even saying that the sample gallery photos showed poor IQ, which is just silly really.

Me? I'd be happy with an M9 thanks - gotta be pretty close to the perfect digital camera IMO.
 
Is it the Leica? Or is it the members of DPReview forum?

I've been wondering if Internet forums evolve through a "natural selection" of personality types. The argumentative tone of so many DPReview threads keeps me from participating in those threads at all.

I don't know if it's for a similar reason, but I noticed that forums on FoxNews.Com had degenerated to a mass of extremist political arguments and irrational name-calling...so lately I almost never see a "Comment" section beneath articles. Did FoxNews simply give up on having forums on their main news site?

Robt.
 
It sees like people find it fun to bash Leica because there's a certain... snobbery to the brand. Photo people are always in shock when they find out someone they know owns a Leica...

Though I find it kind of funny because I often see more DSLR people (including the past me) comparing gear and always wanting the latest and greatest, thinking that good gear makes a huge difference in photo skills. I also always find that DSLR people seem to look down on those with lesser gear. Kind of ironic that they think the snobby ones are the Leica owners.
 
I don't have a problem with people bashing the camera, but comments on Leica owners get a little irksome sometimes.

Cheers,

Antonio
 
The only people who have really noticed and coveted my M9-P were two experienced non-RF shooters, D3 owners, tiring of the size, weight and noise of their cameras, or young women film photographers. For some DSLR users it would be a natural progression if for some reason they needed to stick with full frame. Impartial assessors see the M9 for exactly what it is.
 
I just assumed that's the way dpreview forums were. The content doesn't much matter, really. You post about something you like and then 20 people tell you why you're obviously wrong.
 
It's the Internet. You're in contact with roughly a billion other humans who don't see the world the same way you do, a large proportion of whom are immature, regardless of chronological age.

Swim with the flow or drown in the cess, it's your choice :D
 
gavinlg said:
but I'm surprised to see how many people dismiss it PURELY on features & specs without really knowing anything else about it.
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But you could also say they dismissed it purely on the basis on what it does and does not do. That's far more rational than us lot buying cameras just because it's black paint and not black chrome.

We all have silly reasons for buying and not buying stuff, their's are just different to ours. I bought an MP instead of an M6, at great expense simply because it's prettier. That makes me less rational with my choices, but probably happier with them in the long run.
 
I've owned A Leica of some sort uninterupted since 1977, long before they had devolved into photogrphic status symbols. I currently own an M5 and an M8. I love the m5 (best 35mm rangefinder ever made IMHO) and get along with the m8, which produces beautiful B&W files when its not freezing up or doing something funky.

That being said, I don't see why any serious photographer in their right mind would buy a new m9, as its vastly overpriced for what it does. $6000 for an M9 when you can buy a D800E, a canera that gives you large format results, for $3500? Or a NEX-5 N for $500?

What used to be the draw of film Leicas was their mechanical simplicity. In the age of cameras as computers, Leica snobs i.e. people who see cameras as status symbols, now attempt to justify their cameras by reference to all sorts of silly things like better IQ (the Leica Glow) and ability to take Leica "Glass." Its the functional equivelent of buying a Patek Phillippe watch with a quartz movement and justifying paying $ 70,000 for it by claiming it keeps better time than a Seiko.
 
Leica? They are just not for everyone. Like any camera/tool you use it for what it can do and work with its limitations, getting to know it intimately. It, I hope, with subsequent upgrades, never do video, or ever have "idiot" modes or filters.
 
The anonymity and relative consequence-free nature of internet forums means you get a lot of people at their worst, behavior-wise. Forum arguments themselves are not about the topic at hand; they are about the social pecking order within the forum. Establish that something doesn't meet your criteria and you're discriminating and cool, and winning arguments gives you social status in the forum.

The arguments themselves mean nothing. It's all kabuki.
 
Teuthida said:
That being said, I don't see why any serious photographer in their right mind would buy a new m9, as its vastly overpriced for what it does. $6000 for an M9 when you can buy a D800E, a canera that gives you large format results, for $3500? Or a NEX-5 N for $500?
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Is there anything cheaper than the NEX-5N, or should we just go and announce it the only acceptable tool for any serious photographer?
 
Doesn't matter exactly what one proclaims, as long as its delivered In absolute terms and the insinuation that anyone who doesn't agree must be intellectually deficient.
 
FrankS said:
Doesn't matter exactly what one proclaims, as long as its delivered In absolute terms and the insinuation that anyone who doesn't agree must be intellectually deficient.
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I categorically and vehemently disagree with this statement. Clearly you must have been held back in school during your formative years !!

Smirkingly,
Dave
 
gavinlg said:
Was just reading through an article published on http://www.dpreview.com/articles/4052788152/shooting-with-the-leica-m9-p on using the leica m9-p. Thought it was an alright article, some of the samples are pretty nice, did a bit of lusting over the digital M etc etc. Scrolled down to the comments and WOW. Almost overwhelmingly bitter and negative. Now I know Leica's aren't everyones tastes and in everyones price range, but I'm surprised to see how many people dismiss it PURELY on features & specs without really knowing anything else about it. People even saying that the sample gallery photos showed poor IQ, which is just silly really.

Me? I'd be happy with an M9 thanks - gotta be pretty close to the perfect digital camera IMO.
Click to expand...



I guess people expect a lot for $7000. Go figure.
 
if we had had FPreview Forums back in 1971, would have been fun to see what s**t storms M5 raised :p

agree with comments thats its probably more about DPreview Forum than anything else. am never bothered waste time discuss there, but their reviews are informative.
 
on dpreview people also dismiss photographs purely on their technical specifications. i find it hard to take these kind of discussions seriously.

- N.
 
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