A frontal perspective can never see what’s behind [the subject].
A frontal perspective can never see what’s behind [the subject].
CV earned a place in these forums starting with LTM lenses. Screw threads are not patent’ able…even 39mm/26tpi odd balls.
Then the M-mount patent expired…50 years after birth, so VM mounted lenses soon emerged…and cameras to boot.
Then CV sub-contracted the building of the Epson R-D1 in 2003/4…essentially an adaptation of a recently discontinued Bessa-R body with a Nikon D-100 APS-C sensor. [Those who argued that a Leica or Zeiss or a Bessa could not be adapted take note.]
No doubt Epson would have imposed standard trade restriction clauses in the contract…to prevent CV from making a convenient knock-off soon after the small [10~12,000 unit] production run. Unfortunately, it took 3 iterations to complete [in 2009]. Perhaps we will hear noises by 2012…some 3 years after the last R-D1x.
[Elsewhere in these forums, an R-D1 serial number survey was conducted. It seems the R-D1 run was ~3500, the R-D1s another 3500, and perhaps the R-D1x run had now made up the contract balance.]
While CV was handcuffed in digital RF, it subcontracted the building of the Zeiss Ikon…and lenses, bidding for its time.
Funny thing, in a short decade, CV has accrued more experience than Leica for the RF and shutter iterations…not to mentions its original RF experience when Kobayashi-San [Senior] sub-contracted the built of the Konica S3, Minolta 7S.
I know, I know, Kobayashi-San is said to dislike digital…upgrading cycle too short etc. etc. Perhaps it was merely the Japanese face-saving way of saying we are restricted [by Epson] to even try; and/or we don’t have [our own] capital [yet] to play…
I am sure the CV R-D1 engineer team knows that grafting the newer 12Mp Nikon APS sensor is not much different from using the 6Mp D-100 unit.
As to development cost: consider Sony did the NEX, APS-C sensor and all for a MSRP of ~$600. AND, Sony did supply the FF 24Mp sensor to Nikon’s D3X…now reaching ISO 12,800.
Leica is hardware and glass. The much self-celebrated micro-lens solution to vignette’ ting is just that…hardware and glass, via Kodak.
With a usable ISO 12,800, loosing a stop accommodating an anti-vignette’ ting filter is doable…digitally. An AV factor ~1.4 is enough to deal with lenses with FoV as wide as 90-degrees.
Before anyone argues that Zeiss couldn’t, be aware its recently introduced RMK-DX aerial camera now reaches 130Mp using a 7.2u monolithic Dalsa CCD. The Zeiss engineer I had spoken to openly says the next step is using the newer 6u Dalsa CCD, interchangeable lenses and all. Dalsa also has a FF CCD in its product offering.
Zeiss might yet surprise us all…playing the trump card close to the chest, as might Kobayashi-San.
