Comment in a mag review of Leica lens

First paragraph; 75mm f2 Summicron review:
"This lens is all brass, aluminum and glass,
no plastic." Obviously, Leica hasn't seen
the utility in using plastic in a $2600 lens.
How deluded can they be?
-Rich

 

Obviously they are not as enlightened as Olympus et al

Dick

 

How much does that thing weigh? I have no problem with plastic camera parts.
If you do, go buy a Leica M6 and leave us alone!

 

I do. But then I don't have to buy a Leica to avoid them, do I?
All that a lightweigh camera ever achieves is the ability to transmit
more body shake, so you'll ruin more photos.
-Rich

 

You tell me. I look at the images a camera produces, not what it's made
from. If the 50-200 zuiko has plastic in it, I really don't care all I know
is it works great for me

BTW if you notice the leica lens is manual focus so it doesn't have to be
concerned with the weight of the moving parts of the focus mechanism.

Actually lighter lenses mean I don't have to haul as much weight around and
anyone concerned with image quality should be using a tripod anyway. I shot
this at 1/30 handheld so I don't think the plastic in the zuiko 50mm F2
caused this shot to be ruined do you?

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-1/937049/wasp.jpg

And while we're on the subject, where are some of your shots? You seem to be
so obcessed with "Quality", you must have taken some KILLER images to need
a solid metal camera with A+ optics..

 

Except that more than one person has seen this lens break at the
plastic part. Not too good for $1200.00. You could put great optics
in a cardboard tube, but why do it?

Heavens, how did we ever cope, 15 years ago?

It's a great shot, no doubt. But an E-300 and the 50mm lens have some
weight, I'm sure, about 800gms. Plus, the E-300 is in large part
metal, especially the internals. The SP-500UZ is mostly plastic and
weighs only 385g. Guess which one will take the better shot at a
slower shutter speed? Damping, the act of nulling out vibration is
often achieve by adding weight to something. The higher frequency
body or hand tremors will be better supressed by the E-300/50mm combo
than the SP-500UZ.

http://www.pbase.com/andersonrm/image/46913065

 

Actually they don't break, a few have a problem where they unscrew
themselves.. The people this has happened to said they can't see any parts
that are broken.

I'm not a big fan of AF but very few people would buy a manual focus dSLR.

Did you not notice this is a dSLR forum?

 

Rich wrote:
[]

No, a lightweight camera may mean that you actually get the photograph
because you didn't leave the camera at home. In fact, a person may
actually shake more when holding a heavy object for an extended period of
time.

David

 

Sorry, but camera weigh has never meant I left the camera at home.
If I felt that way, I'd carry a pocketable 5 megapixel job.
-Rich

 

Using the SP-500UZ was merely an example as I don't know how light the
E-500 is yet.
But there is no point in debating what is universally true; Light
weight DSLRs can result
in shots ruined more often by tremor motion blurring or mirror slap
than heavier cameras. It all depends on various factors such as
weight, severity of "mirror slap" and the propensity of the shooter for
hand tremors.
-Rich

 

Then you've never owned a medium format or large format camera have you? As
much as I like the 50-200 zuiko lens, there are times when it stays in the
car just because I don't feel like hauling it with me. If the 40-150 had
the optical sharpness of the 50-200 wide open, I'd have bought it even at
the same price to save the weight.

 

Perhaps just realistic about the tooling cost, which might well
increase the price of a low-volume item even further.

 

I did own a medium format, but at the time, I was shooting black and
white and a 35mm with Tech-pan turned out better images than a medium
format with 100ASA black and white from Kodak or Ilford. I never shot
Tech-Pan in medium format, I figured it would be too hard to develop
uniformly.
-Rich

 

Trust me, I know people who buy high end optics (not cameras) and
they will not put up with plastic. Part of the reason goes to
aesthetics, but part is functional.
-Rich