From: Larry Colen
On Apr 20, 2011, at 10:25 AM, John Sessoms wrote:
On Behalf Of Larry Colen
I'm willing to bet that people like that even buy Leicas.
Level of experience or knowledge has nothing to do with how
much someone spends on something. Look at how long sports
cars have been available with automatic transmissions, even
before the modern ones that arguably can out perform human
shifting.
I don't care if the automatic transmission can out perform me in
shifting, it doesn't have as much fun, and is not as much fun to
drive as my manual.
Plus, I regularly get better MPG performance than I would with an
auto. However you slice or dice it, an automatic transmission
takes some of the engine's output for its own operation, and that
translates into decreased MPG.
The modern dual-clutch transmissions don't suffer from that problem,
they do weigh a bit more, and are more expensive than manual
transmissions, but they can shift in a small fraction of the time,
and can also run in manual mode. When the overdrive on my MGB worked
(since replaced with a ford 5-speed), I learned an appreciation of
shifting without taking my hands off the wheel.
Interestingly, despite the propensity of auto enthusiasts to prefer
manual transmissions, over the past 20 years of teaching performance
driving at racetracks, I've had a very small percentage of students
that were actually proficient at shifting. I suspect that something
similar is true of photographic skills. I'm sure that it would be
very enlightening for me to spend some time with someone who really
knows how to use a camera.
Whether I'm any good at it or not, the manual transmission is still more
fun for me to drive.
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