Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/02/09

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Re: Digital M
From: Mark Rabiner <mark@rabinergroup.com>
Date: Mon, 09 Feb 2004 20:07:24 -0800

On 2/8/04 12:04 PM, "LRZeitlin@aol.com" <LRZeitlin@aol.com> wrote:

> 
> The fact that the story stated that the sensor would use microlenses to
> correct the angle of the light rays hitting the extreme edges of the array
> indicates that they are trying to obtain a full frame result. On the Kodak
> sensor used 
> in the digital R individual pixel elements are located at the bottom of
> shallow wells. The grazing angle of light at the edges was the primary reason
> given 
> for the "impossibility" of developing a digital M.
> 
> Larry Z
> --
I think the microlenses might help them go 1.3, not full frame. The thing
world look like a sea fish on the bottom of the ocean full frame.
The R system back will take us to 1.3 and that to me is above and beyond the
call of duty. 
1.5 has become a standard that people kind of like and are kind of settled
in on.. If they went 1.5 I'd be ok with it and I'm sure so would they people
with money who've not traded in their M systems for DSLR's yet.

At 1.5 magnification with my 21 ASPH gives me a 31.5mm focal length in
effect lens.
That's halfway between a 28 and a 35. A pretty happy place to be.
I wonder how a compact non retrofocal Schneider super Angulon 3.5 would work
with these peripheral advanced sensors?
A lot of Cosina 15's will be sold and 12's even.
But the need for an 18 will come up. Giving you a 27 with a 1.5 mag.
Or 23.4mm if they do go 1.3.

Gee if this new microlens technology DOES make it possible to go full frame
on an M why not sneak it into the R back last minute. The already claimed 10
mg file size is plenty ample and roomy and will end up not even being used
by many. It is already a close match up against the full frame Canon Eos1ds
which is 11.1.  1.1 megs is negligible. 10 against 11.1 is a match. It would
be the quality of the pixels that would make the difference. Glass and a
myriad of other factors.

But if the R back can all of a sudden go full frame They could perhaps jump
up the max file size to leapfrog the full frame Canon by quite a bit.
But I think once you go over ten though you might as well think of it as
medium format photography done with 35mm style DSLR's. People sell their
Hasselblad systems for 1.5 mag DSLR systems.


Leica could very soon fool a lot of people and become quite competitive
quite fast. People will invest in their glass. Forsaking the totally
foreseeable autofocus, a minor feature when one considers everything else
which is going on in digital hardware, software and photography.

As people zoom into their images on their monitor it may be that they may
become much more appreatitive of their glass. Appreciating glass as a key
factor in what they are studying and working with at 1600 X magnification.
Because it is.


Mark Rabiner
Photography
Portland, Oregon
http://rabinergroup.com/Catagorypages/PersonalWork.html




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