Fixed Lens

Bill Pierce

Bill Pierce

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Leica has announced a full frame, 24mg camera with a fixed 28mm lens. Fuji, Sony and Ricoh have cameras with fixed, single focal length lenses, and, I am sure, there are others I am not aware of. These cameras offer the possible advantage of matching lens to sensor, sealing the sensor from dust, compact size, the possibility of simpler and more optimized viewfinder and so on. But they also offer another set of advantages - no fiddling with the zoom ring and no deciding about what lens to use. There are a lot of pictures that don’t demand the framing of a specific focal length as much as they demand a simple set up that allows you to concentrate on pushing the button at exactly the right moment and little else. Your thoughts? Are these cameras a benefit to your photography or a hindrance?
 
Personally I found the Fuji X100 to be liberating and ended up using it for about 80% of my shots. As you say you have fewer decisions to make so you shoot with greater confidence and perhaps with less but more focussed analysis of what you are doing.

For me 28mm is too wide, never have felt comfortable with it. 35mm however seems a comfortable length.

Mike
 
They are benefit to me personally because even though I use interchangeable lens cameras, I don't use that many focal lengths. The issue comes now when I prefer a 50mm over any other focal length... because in digital, there aren't any fixed lens 50mm cameras (without using an add on).
 
Bill Pierce said:
Leica has announced a full frame, 24mg camera with a fixed 28mm lens.
Click to expand...

Bill,

Is that confirmed? And if so, can you point me to a link where I can find information about it?

I'm looking for a point & shoot for an extended motorcycle trip, and the concept camera you have listed sounds appealing. I would be interested in advantages of sealed lens to sensor, small size, 28mm focal length (something I shoot a lot).

Best,
-Tim
 
I would love a high quality prime fixed-lens digital camera. My problem is that I would need to own quite a few of them because I enjoy shooting different focal lengths. So, unfortunately for me it becomes cost-prohibitive.
 
Bill Pierce said:
... the possibility of simpler and more optimized viewfinder and so on.... There are a lot of pictures that don’t demand the framing of a specific focal length as much as they demand a simple set up that allows you to concentrate on pushing the button at exactly the right moment and little else...
Click to expand...

And most of them are missing it with the only exception from Fuji.
Plastic film P&S with prime lens is still superior to any of those cameras in terms of how simple it is in use.

VIEWFINDER!!! :bang:
 
MikeWebb said:
Personally I found the Fuji X100 to be liberating and ended up using it for about 80% of my shots. As you say you have fewer decisions to make so you shoot with greater confidence and perhaps with less but more focussed analysis of what you are doing.

For me 28mm is too wide, never have felt comfortable with it. 35mm however seems a comfortable length.

Mike
Click to expand...

Ditto to Mike on the x100/& 35mm is my preferred go width….
 
Comments from Digicame-info (the original rumor source) are insightful: since it's fixed lens, one doesn't have to purchase the ultra expensive M assets to venture into the Leica land. Not the relatively incompetent X (no matter how good the lens is, other aspects are definitely lacking compared to competitors), but the latest and best from the company.

A well-thought-out product enabling new frontiers for Leica.
 
I always will prefer a leaf shutter and if fixed lens is the way to get there.... I'll take it.
Quite over ready for some longer Focal lengths though :)
 
Best years of photo quality I've had were when I had only (1) Nikon F3 with 50mm lens, or (2) Konica Hexar AF. No decisions about gear were possible... just go out and shoot. I still try to keep my gear simplified. I have choices on the shelf here, but I almost always leave the house with one body & one lens. Choices: Fuji X100T or X-T1.
 
FWIW, the Konica Hexar AF is my all-time favorite personal camera and the Fuji X100 is next in that line.
I also own other cameras and lenses that do various special things and feed the gear daemon that rules me.
But if the house burns down, those are the two cameras that I'd grab and run.
Why . . . because they perfectly fit what I personally need from a camera.
 
A fixed lens camera gives you and fixed frame and thereby lets you put all your creative efforts into where in the scene in front of you to place that frame.

Even when using a camera with exchangeable lens I'll walk around a scene with one lens and than change lens and walk around again rather then switch back and forth between different lens. Or will often use one lens one day and come back another day and work the same area/scene with a different lens.
 
The Leica X with an optical viewfinder is a great general purpose camera. The Leica X Vario is another one, but I prefer the EVF for that because of the zoom. The EVF is far better than any optical tunnel viewfinder that zooms, that I've seen anyway.

G
 
The Leica may have a 28mm lens so it won't compete directly with, and get crushed by, the Sony RX1r with its 35mm lens. The price will no doubt be astronomical.
 
I think people are predicting between 4-5k range.. Until the announcement it's any bodies guess. If the lens is perfectly matched to the sensor the way the sigma dp series is, it could have better results then the current 28 on the type 240.

Still out of my price range.

To Bill's question.. I have both types of cameras.. The reality is that even though I have a lot of different lenses, when I go out, I usually only take two lenses at most (normally really one). A fixed lens camera w/ a lens perfectly matched to the sensor is really hard to beat. I currently use the sigma dp2q and the Ricoh gr a lot for fixed single focal length cameras. The lx100 I recently acquired for fixed zoom. I really like these cameras. The Ricoh, I normally set for crop 35. The Panasonic I have it set for resume at 50 fov. I really don't like changing lenses in the field.. If I take two lenses that usually means two camera bodies.

Gary
 
I think that I just lost all of my sense, because I just bought a Canon Sure Shot Max P&S for $10 and I plan on using that for most of the summer. I love all of my manual cameras, but I'm sick of missing moments with my friends because I'm fiddling with manual controls, or I didn't bring the camera because it's too big/obvious, or because I don't have a flash and it's too dark. Yup, most people would think I'm daft.
 
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