Re: [Leica] Oh ... It's COMING SOON! :-)

["Gary Williams" <nasmformyzombie@mindspring.com>]

Subject: RE: [Leica] Oh ... It's COMING SOON! :-)


>  Well, I don't see how you figure.  The sensor is SMALLER than full frame
> (1.3x)...and my guess, is in order to use a full frame sensor, just like
> EVERY other manufacturer that is using a full frame sensor, Contax, Canon
> and NOT Nikon...they had to revamp the lense mount.
>
> Austin

For other camera makers the lens mount was re-done 10-15 years ago for
auto-focus, not for digital.  The only exception is very late comer to AF
Contax, which re-did its mount with digital in mind.  But the N system and
the disastrous N digital have not exactly taken the market by storm.  For
the others, the less than one generation old AF mounts are problematic for
full frame digital, so much so that mounts may change again (Nikon, anyone)
and there is now production of digital only lenses---how much glass is the
poor digital user expected to buy in addition to grossly expensive digital
bodies?   Only Canon seems to be getting very much of this right.  Who else
out there has a compelling digital solution?

If the R digital rumor is true, full frame or not, I think Leica has a
decent interim solution with an R body/digital back that does not require
investment in a whole new set of glass.  The strength of Leica R has always
been telephoto, so a less than full frame sensor Leica RD is not such a bad
thing for now.  Digital is still in a steep technological curve and there
are makers and users throwing an awful lot of money into systems and
solutions that are either inadequate or reach obsolete status as they reach
the market.  There is one given with chip sets, as they mature they shrink
in size.  Leica and digital must stay behind the bleeding edge---it has to
with limited resources---but what if as the chips shrink in size Leica is
eventually able to fit a full sized sensor on the existing R mount.  Is this
such a bad place to be?  Nikon is struggling with digital, Pentax has been
starting and stopping, Kodak and Sigma have poorly received products,
Minotla nearly went belly up, and my former system Contax looks just plain
silly.  Leica is arguably in a better position to survive the shakeout in
the photo game right now than some much larger competitors.  Not a bad for a
small company with limited resources.  How many of the big boys will go
belly up or have to consolidate trying to stay on the bleeding edge?

Gary

- --
To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html