Steve said: >>> Leica is to be credited as much for their business acumen in defining a > market for their new camera and taking market share from earlier technology > vendors, as much as the technical development and innovation of the camera > itself. The appeal was to seize the 'decisive moment' as photographers like > Cartier-Bresson and others exemplified, for those frustrated with the > artistic detachment of large format pictorialism and static portraiture of > the previous century.<<<<<<< Hi Steve, An honourable comment on the brilliance of Leica in the ...." very good old days". However, the past ten, twenty years, probably longer, they've been absolutely clueless about marketing strategy. Today Leica's probably as close as one can get to becoming a "TV History Channel" programme simply because of their stupid marketing methods in this modern world of high tech everything photographic. I'm a Leica user as a professional photojournalist for over 45 years and use Leica because it gave me a quality of film negs and slides other gear did not. Also a method of shooting as unobtrusively as possible regardless of subject or situation. And certainly with the light one sees the world around them without flash. I think most old time Leica shooters on this list and many others are aware of the error in the Leica ways to marketing while not keeping abreast of the sound barrier breaking advances in the digital world. Unfortunately they're scrambling like crazy to catch-up while still thinking / living a hundred years in the past when they were the only "photo kid on the block!" Whether they crash and burn or reach unimagined digital successes it wont change my gear as it'll always be the best. ted Grant http://www.islandnet.com/~tedgrant/ ------ Unsubscribe or change to/from Digest Mode at: www.horizon.bc.ca/~dnr/lrflex.htm Archives are at: www.freelists.org/archives/leicareflex/