Digital RF

- None of the big-three (those who control the FF market) can move their fingers to design, invest and produce some 15.000 FF-rangefinder cameras a year (Leica's production quota/year), even Leica voluntarily transfer their market share to them. They do not invest to turn out 100 cameras a day while interchangeable-lens camera sales were expected to hit 16 million this year.

- Those preferring to focus through automatic means in our day could well be multiple (if not 100) times of those preferring to do it the manual way, so no large corporation would even consider to introduce a camera with optical rangefinder.

- No camera manufacturer, except Leica, can introduce a FF body by taking into account of the M- or LTM mount lenses in our hands; to amortize their investments they need to give emphasize to their own mount lenses and treat the others as step-child (just to attract some additional customers).

That's why whoever is going to come with a FF-compact body is bound to introduce it as a mirrorless, with EVF, proprietary mount and a few "own" lenses.. and probably to sell at least around 100K units a year..
 
furcafe said:
They did produce the S3 2000 & SP 2005 & are a Japanese company, after all, so they are not entirely immune to the "gear fetishist"/"Luddite" market.
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However, this market is largely in overlap with the Film Possesses Special Powers Absent From Digital segment.

If Leica goes under, who knows.
 
My prediction is that Nikon will never make another rangefinder camera digital or otherwise ... ever.

A black digital SP does sound nice though. :D
 
tempted to get one. with their prices really coming to realistic levels.

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Keith said:
My prediction is that Nikon will never make another rangefinder camera digital or otherwise ... ever.

A black digital SP does sound nice though. :D
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Agreed. Digital Nikon RF not gonna happen. In any lens mount. Ever.

I would love a black digital SP though :bang:
 
I've always wondered ... how much money would it take to stuff a NEX-5N inside a film RF body, like the Nikon SP ... Hm ... Probably something in the tune of tens of thousands of dollars?
 
bugmenot said:
I've always wondered ... how much money would it take to stuff a NEX-5N inside a film RF body, like the Nikon SP ... Hm ... Probably something in the tune of tens of thousands of dollars?
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Probably less than that, if you look at the digital cameras put into Zorki bodies that appear on eBay every now and then for between $600 and $1200.

The other question is what would it really give you - a NEX in a now-non-functional pretty body. It sounds like something Hasselblad might do, but not something useful.
 
rxmd said:
Probably less than that, if you look at the digital cameras put into Zorki bodies that appear on eBay every now and then for between $600 and $1200.

The other question is what would it really give you - a NEX in a now-non-functional pretty body. It sounds like something Hasselblad might do, but not something useful.
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That is essentially what people are asking for when they say they want a Digital Rangefinder other than Leica M.

What is a Digital Rangefinder?

It is a camera body, with a specific mount for Rangefinder lenses of some kind.
It has a Rangefinder focusing mechanism, which is actually mechanical and independent of the sensor.
It has to satisfy certain ... how you say ... build quality expectations.
It has electronic parts inside, including sensor, back LCD/viewfinder, and ... buttons.

A Digital Rangefinder is essentially a mirrorless camera stuffed inside a pseudo-mechanical body.

Okay, so my NEX example may not satisfy them, since it is "only an APS-C sensor". But NEX-5N, for example, plays nice with most RF lenses and can accept just about every full frame lens ever made through an adapter.

However, that's the basics of it. If a person (or a bunch of people) had the knowledge and engineering and manufacturing know-how to be able to modify both a digital body and a mechanical rangefinder body and fuse them together, you essentially get a Digital Rangefinder.
 
While a Nikon digital RF would be nice to see it not only would require to develop such a camera but also developing a new series of appropriate lenses to increase the number of potential buyers (not everybody has a set of well cared for S-mount lenses at home ...)
 
fstops said:
but the $200 was for the kit lens included, which means that M4/3 lenses are as useless as their bodies because the format has no future.
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The price of a kit lens (in a kit) is typically as low as $100. Very few people who want a kit lens buy them outside a kit, but there are always many available. The price of a second-hand kit lens tells us absolutely nothing about the future of the format.
 
fstops said:
tempted to get one. with their prices really coming to realistic levels.

20111101-DSC0482-L.jpg
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I was playing with this yesterday and I have to admit that I like it better than the Sony RX100 P&S. Nikon did a great job with this camera.
 
What ***many*** Nikon users wanted Nikon to manufacture was a small DLSR with a FF sensor, all-metal-jacket, no video, no stupid pop-up flash ontop the prism, 100% VF, simple menus, no USB-TV-HDMI clumsy connectors under an equally clumsy door, double CF cards socket, no live-view (because no video), and of course a total compatibility with the Ai-S lenses.

All in all, a reliable, simple and effective photographic tool.

When I saw the D600 I shouted a loud "Almost !" but to promptly discover that the D600 casting was made of polycarbonate, so the breaking risk while using my 180/2.8 ED is not nil (I'd even say, high). :mad:

So, back to the starting point for me : a second-hand D700 when those have gone under the $1000 barrier.

:rolleyes:

So at this point - not even making the DSLR many Nikon fans wanted, and which doesn't require the least R&D bit from Nikon - I really can't see any digital RF coming out of the blue...
 
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