[Leica] Re: Full frame

[lrzeitlin at optonline.net (Lawrence Zeitlin)]

On Oct 27, 2006, at 4:51 PM, Nathan wrote:

> Sorry, but I don't understand the necessity for "full frame". The 35mm
> is a coincidence stemming from the movie film Barnack had available in
> the early 20th century. There is nothing magic about it. I very much
> doubt that a 24x36mm sensor Leica M is in the works.

You are certainly right that the full frame format (originally double  
frame) was created by using two full movie frames (now half frame) on  
35 mm movie film. Barnack wasn't the first to use the full frame  
format, however. The Simplex Multi-exposure camera, introduced in the  
USA in 1914, took pictures in two sizes 18x24mm and 24x36mm. Using a  
100 ft. long roll of film, it took 800 half frame exposures or 400  
full frame exposures. The Simplex patent was issued in 1912. Barnack  
made his first Ur-Leica camera in 1913 but it didn't hit the market  
until 1925. It was beaten to the post by the French Furet camera, a  
small full frame camera in 1923. This is all meaningless trivia, of  
course. The reason why the smaller cine frame format didn't catch on  
was the graininess of the available film, making full frame a virtual  
necessity. It wasn't until film quality improved in the post WW2  
years that half frame cameras became feasible. During the 60s and  
early 70s about 50 different half frame cameras were marketed,  
culminating in the elegant Olympus Pen F and the all in one Yeshiva  
Samurai. Even Leica designed a half frame camera, the Leica H, as the  
post WW2 replacement for the LTM series. After a tough internal  
competition, it was dropped in favor of the M series. Curiously the  
half frame size is similar to the size of the sensor on 4/crds system  
cameras.

The only driving force behind full frame RF digital cameras is the  
availability of lenses computed for the 24x36 mm frame size. Camera  
bodies may wear out but lenses last forever. We are still discussing  
the merits of the Elmar, the Summar, and the Sumatra, lenses 76, 73,  
and 67 years old respectively. The lenses have outlasted a dozen  
different Leica camera models. If you have a full inventory of very  
expensive Leica glass, highly touted for exceptional image quality  
over the entire frame it doesn't make much sense to throw away nearly  
half the frame area covered. Nearly half the area? Check the math.  
The M8 sensor has only about 56% of the M7s film frame area. Working  
on the truism that the greater the film area, the better the results,  
the desire for the mythical M9 full frame RF Leica is understandable.  
(Rollei and Hassleblad users defend me here. And also you guys who  
shoot 11x14".)

Personally, I've been scared off the M8 both by the price and the  
lack of a full frame sensor. I'll muddle along with my old film  
Leicas and my cheap, but very good E-500 DSLR. And I certainly won't  
buy any new Leica lenses until a digital camera is available to use  
all the goodness that Leica optical designers have engineered in.

Larry Z