Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/03/27

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Subject: [Leica] More RD-1 news
From: abridge at mac.com (Adam Bridge)
Date: Sat Mar 27 12:46:05 2004

On Saturday, March 27, 2004 B. D. Colen thoughtfully wrote:

>First off, one of the glories of digital is that every single shot is
>both color and monochrome. ;-) Second off, it should be possible to have
>the monochrome option in the firmware. If they develop the write
>algorithms, having the b&w, bw-green, bw-red, bw-yellow  built into the
>camera could be wonderful. Carry around a pile of filters? Why?

Aaaaaarrrrrrrrgggggghhhhhhhhhh!

NO, B. D., it's NOT the same. Because IF you're not shooting onto a color sensor
you can either have MORE sensors for a higher pixel density OR you can larger
sensors for a better signal:noise ratio. Otherwise you're letting the firmware
of the camera play Hobb by attempting to make a monochrome image from various
parts of red and green and blue.

It's not the same thing at all. Why shoot with black and white film at all then?
Why not just shoot color? But we DO shoot black and white. But even this isn't
as great a difference as between a digital color and a digital monochrome
sensor.

When the color sensors are of sufficient density and the SNR is up to par then
I'll relax this. But it's damn clear that Leica ain't likely to have access to
anything that's remotely close.

So why shouldn't I ask for something that makes a lot of sense? Using an M to me
means shooting in available light without flash. And all those fabulously
expensive pieces of glass that Leica makes are there to make it even more
possible.

So why shouldn't Leica make a camera that exploits these features like no other
camera can - that uses all the system's capabilities so that, by golly, you can
shoot at ASA 3200 or even higher and  have a SNR like that of the best current
cameras at, say 1600 (thinking of 1Ds and its CMOS sensor).

Leica is a niche market. If they can figure out how to deal with the process in
order to make it happen then there will be a reason to consider investing in
Leica.  

We're seeing an increase in interest in black and white portraiture. Why not a
camera that does it superbly?

Adam Bridge


Replies: Reply from bdcolen at earthlink.net (B. D. Colen) ([Leica] More RD-1 news)
Reply from feli at creocollective.com (Feli di Giorgio) ([Leica] More RD-1 news)
Reply from henningw at archiphoto.com (Henning Wulff) ([Leica] More RD-1 news)
Reply from mark at rabinergroup.com (Mark Rabiner) ([Leica] More RD-1 news)
In reply to: Message from bdcolen at earthlink.net (B. D. Colen) ([Leica] More RD-1 news)