[Leica] M8 alternative? --- why not wait?

[mark at rabinergroup.com (Mark Rabiner)]

>    Why buy an M8 when you can get a SYSTEM with very
> different capabilities for about the same price.  Use
> the M3-7 when your picture shooting requires
> deliberate study.  Use the Leica Digilux 3 system when
> you're shooting fast ("fast" both in terms of the
> subject and your schedule).
>    What wrong with my logic?  Is a FourThirds system
> too limiting in terms of resolution and noise?  (The
> reviews, to be out soon, might indicate otherwise.)  I
> understand that the M8 allows us to use our beloved
> M-lenses, but is it not possible that the Leica D ASPH
> lenses will be as good -- or better, as they are
> designed for digital?
>    I'm not sure what I'm going to do, but I put my
> thoughts out for discussion as a kind of devil's
> advocate for waiting a while longer before ordering
> the M8.  (The worst that can happen if you do wind up
> getting an M8 is that you'll get a later model with
> all the kinks ironed out.)
>    Tom Pastorello
>

Here's a reason
http://www.photoreporter.com/article.asp?issueID=&num=8&vol=14&articleType=f
c&articleID=712
Editor at Large
The Digital SLR Format Wars
by Jason Schneider

1.   A "full frame" CCD on a 35mm looking camera is 24x36mm

2.   APS-C is about half that. Like half frame. 23.6x15.8mm
A magnification factor of 1.5 (that's Nikon at least)
24x18 is half frame film. Full frame movie. (24x36 was originally called
doubleframe. And still is on certain WESS slide mounts I have)

3.  A 4/3's format is measuring 18x13.5mm with a diagonal of 22.5mm,
A magnification factor of 2.

4.  7.2 x 5.3 mm    is the size of the sensor on the point and shoots.
The Digilux camera format and the V-LUX1.
Huge Leica lenses coasting thousands with an image circle the size of a
raison.

Super 8 film specs:
5.79mm width.
4.14 mm height

5.  4/3s format is half frame half frame.
But 4/3's sounds better. They don't ask Mark to do their Marketing.
you really dig and find out how small it really is.
Behind those humongous expensive Leica and Zeiss or Zuiko whatever lenses is
a ridiculously small image  22.5mm, image circle
And bodies which are not that smaller than all the other DSLR's you see
everywhere.

I think a existing set of Leica M glass which many Luggers would have, most
quite compact, shooting back to a camera the size of an M body is a way to
fly which does not compete with these off balance poorly cost effective in
terms of final results alternates. Which aim at mostly amateurs with deep
pockets which they don't want to spend on quality printing paper.
With notable exceptions.



By the way you know that 1.5 crop factor?

On a Hasselblad that gives you a 36.7 x 36.7 mm (Lens factor 1.5)
Which you get with a CFV back.
16 Mpixels (4080 x 4080 pixels)

http://www.dcviews.com/press/pdffiles/Hasselblad-CFV.pdf#search=%22Hasselbla
d%20CFV%22

On average 45 images on a 1GB CF card and over 4000 images on a 100 GByte
disk

Camera support:
All Hasselblad V System cameras manufactured since 1957. 2000 cameras
and 201F with C lenses only. 202FA / 203FE and 205FCC camera types need a
minor camera modification to use F/FE lenses.
All other cameras with Hasselblad V interface.

Mark Rabiner

40?46'56.34"N  73?49'32.25"W
Queens

http://rabinergroup.com/