Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/08/15

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Subject: [Leica] Re: The new 8 mp Leica
From: Kyle Cassidy <KCassidy@asc.upenn.edu>
Date: Fri, 15 Aug 2003 14:14:43 -0400

I tried this about two months ago in NYC though at the time I was told it
was only a prototype not going into production. I had two problems with it:

1) the lens system is not compatable with any existing lens system. They
claim it's built from the ground up around their digital 

2) the name is, if you ask me, dumb. A leica "sonnycam"? It sounds too much
like sony to me. (I can't remember what Horst said, but Sony might actually
be the company that's making the camera for Leica.)

That said, there are a lot of positive points. They let me use it for four
days, I took about 1,200 images in both studio and street settings. The AF
is fast though the metering seems on the dark side. It's ergonomic, as I'd
expect from a product supposidly from leica (I say supposidly because only
the lens, lens mount, and camera chassis are made in germany, the "guts" are
made on an island west of hawaii which shall be nameless). I never used it
at 8 mp, I found the 4mp setting adequate for everything and the camera
shoots faster at the 4mp setting. The camera that I had came with a black
satchel with a big fuzzy red LEICA dot about four inches across on it. I
thought of cutting off the patch and claiming the satchel was shoddily made,
but I wanted Leica to keep handing me stuff, so I refrained. If you ask me,
although I'm really liking the fact that Leica has finally produced a DSLR,
the bag in and of itself would have made me happy. It's a fantastic size
with three exterior compartments, lightly padded, but heavily padded on the
bottom and with a rigid bottom so that it stays upright if you drop it on
the ground. There's also an "M POCKET" (it actually says MPOCKET" on the
inside) that fits a leica M with a cut away for a lens to stick out. VERY
CLEVER! The sticker price is, well, appropriately high. I believe the street
price was $14,000, figure a street price of a little more than half that
plus expensive lenses.... Ouch! 

The D-Leica has a firewire connection and takes the same compact flash cards
I'd been using in my N____. So no complaints there.

I know some other luggers have seen and used this camera, so I'm interested
in hearing what they have to say....

Kyle




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Replies: Reply from Jerry Lehrer <jerryleh@pacbell.net> (Re: [Leica] Re: The new 8 mp Leica)