Erwin names the elephant in the room!

[ho_co]

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Can't argue with a thing he says.

 

Two points:

 

1) What else could you say if asked to summarize and draw a conclusion from 30 pages of detailed but meaningless data?

 

2) Isn't Microsoft a major investor in dpreview.com? What else other than bloat would we expect from them?

 

 

Don't get me wrong. I like playing with the interactive lens-performance graphs at dpreview, and I check the site daily for news updates. But the very format--having to review every new product with apparent interest and excitement--is itself stultifying, and meaningless verbiage is a concomitant of having to fill the space. dpreview is only a single example among many.

 

 

Mr Puts has scored in another way: Some people find his articles confusing (e.g. Ken Rockwell's Updates, under "Film outdoes digital - again"), but here he shows that some articles considered 'more readable' are mere meaningless fluff.

 

Kudos, Mr Puts! Right on, mijn herr!

[SJP]

Yes, nice!

[stunsworth]

2) Isn't Microsoft a major investor in dpreview.com?

 

No

[ho_co]

Thanks, Steve.

 

I remember a couple years back some 'big name' took a stake in dpreview. It was mentioned at the time both at the dpreview site, and also by Mike Johnston at T.O.P.

 

But a quick search didn't turn it up, so Microsoft was a guess.

 

Wonder who it is. Need to keep looking.

[stunsworth]

It was Amazon.

[ho_co]

YES!

 

Thanks again, Steve!

 

Amazon. Should I say "talk about bloat"?

[ho_co]

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Another example of marketing hype is in the Zeiss CLN #35 (Willkommen bei Photoobjektiven von Carl Zeiss), where the intro to the celebration of Zeiss' 120th year of lens production contains the sentence:

Sie fliegen seit der ersten Mondlandung ins Weltall, sind die Lieblinge in Hollywood und die ständigen Begleiter anspruchsvoller Fotografen auf der ganzen Welt.

"They [Zeiss lenses] fly in space since the first moon landing, are the favorites in Hollywood, and the constant companions of demanding photographers the world over."

 

They fly in space since the first moon landing...

Yes, because an astronaut accidentally dropped one (attached to a Hasselblad body) during a spacewalk and couldn't retrieve it. It floated away and is probably still drifting.

 

No mention of the fact that NASA was using Nikon and Nikkors before using the Hasselblad, and continues to do so.

 

... are the favorites in Hollywood...

"Among the favorites" might be more accurate. Panasonic lenses are also highly respected, and Leica has recently introduced their own line. I'm speaking on hearsay; maybe a cinematographer could comment.

 

What's a 'favorite' anyway? Does that mean it's given lip service but not used?

 

(And we certainly wouldn't want to forget the song's 'fetching Lola,' "der Liebling der Saison." )

 

... the constant companions of demanding photographers...

Irrefutable, because it's a circular definition: 'You can tell I'm a demanding photographer because I'm using a Zeiss lens. People less demanding than I aren't.'

 

 

:D

[adan]

1. At least Erwin figured out how to insert paragraph breaks - and I'd say his point about the interchangeability of SLR reviews is telling. It is part of the reason why I think the best course for Leica with the M line is to look at SLRs and try to do the exact opposite in every case possible - avoid me-tooism and you won't get a me-too review.

 

2. Howard, while the Zeiss promo is no doubt marketing-speak:

 

a) Do you have access to shots of lunar astronauts using Nikons? They all had Hassys strapped to their bossoms. There is a reason why the original of the famed "earthrise over the moon" shot from Apollo 8 is square. Can you guess what it is? I've met the man whose eyes were the first to see the 70mm film as it left the processor (but that's another story...)

 

Apollo 8 Earthrise Photo Earth Rise Photo | AS08-14-2383 | Earthrise | Sky Image Lab

EB/ES 351 Manned-space photography

Remote Sensing Tutorial Page 12-1

 

(and of course Leica's had their place.... Bill Taub; photographer recorded NASA history - The Boston Globe )

 

and Nikons are preferred today for digital work.

 

I hope you meant "Panavision", not "Panasonic." Although I note Panasonic now has a pure video camera out based on the micro 4/3rds sensor.

[ho_co]

Man, Andy, you caught me napping! Yes, Panavision! Ohmigosh, dreadful, unforgivable error.

 

You're right about the choice of Hasselblad, but in the 70's, there was a "NASA screen" for Nikon, and all the Shuttle and ISS work I've seen has been done with Nikon and Nikkors, film and digital. (You'll note that my mention of Nikon was equally as nebulous as Zeiss' of their lenses: Wiggle room, I think the politicians call it. )

 

There were official Leicas as you say, and I think one of the astronauts took his own Minox aboard one of the missions, but I think the only cameras requisitioned specifically for use in space were the Hasselblads and Nikons.

 

Thanks for the links; more specifics are always helpful.

 

I'm sure you know the story of the "NASA screen," right? As I heard it from a Nikon rep:

 

NASA went to Nikon and asked for a 45-degree split-image screen. Nikon explained that that was ridiculous because it would reduce focusing accuracy.

 

The NASA project leader said yes, that was so, but one of the astronauts couldn't get the hang of focusing with the standard split-image: Focusing on a vertical line, he would turn the camera vertical; focusing on a horizontal line, he would turn the camera horizontal. The project leader needed a screen made so that the astronaut could focus with the camera held in either horizontal or vertical position.

 

Nikon consented and made a single batch of the 45° split-image screen. They delivered the requested number to NASA and sold the others as "the Nikon screen designed to NASA spec."

 

Brilliant move on their part. Took them less than six months, I think, from request to delivery. Obviously not a particularly useful item, so they built enough of the screen to cover the development cost, keeping unit costs down for consumer and Space Agency, and let marketing sell them.

 

AFAIK, it was a one-shot deal and never entered the catalog.

[giordano]

AFAIK, it was a one-shot deal and never entered the catalog.

 

Something got into the catalogue: the Type L focusing screen had the split image prisms at 45 degrees. (AFAIK the first camera to offer this was the Alpa 6 or 6b in the mid 1950s).

[marknorton]

Interesting comment about the 45 degree screen because I'm sure I'm not alone in rotating the M through 45 degrees to provide more accurate focussing when there's no vertical boundary to use with.

[lct]

Criticising 30 pages of a serious review through 10 lines of 'final word' is not fair IMHO. All dpreview's conclusions are not the same fortunately. Less easy to comment this one i guess: Leica X1 Review: 27. Conclusion: Digital Photography Review

[felipe-m]

Criticising 30 pages of a serious review through 10 lines of 'final word' is not fair IMHO. All dpreview's conclusions are not the same fortunately. Less easy to comment this one i guess: Leica X1 Review: 27. Conclusion: Digital Photography Review

 

Well said, if you blindly believe/take seriously ALL what is written in reviews, in the internet in general, and can't filter-in the useful stuff, it's more your own fault...