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

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Re: The new 8 mp Leica
From: Jerry Lehrer <jerryleh@pacbell.net>
Date: Fri, 15 Aug 2003 12:42:09 -0700
References: <ECC6F7B330A26C40B652962C47DEA2580208F425@asc02.asc.upenn.edu>

Kyle

Today must be the First of April.  Right?

Jerry

Kyle Cassidy wrote:

> 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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In reply to: Message from Kyle Cassidy <KCassidy@asc.upenn.edu> ([Leica] Re: The new 8 mp Leica)