wgerrard
Veteran
P.T. Barnum was right.
Well, I think most of us just assume the X100 will great image quality based on Fuji's offerings in the past.
dazedgonebye
Veteran
Basically, there's no reason to assume it won't be capable.
They make good lenses. There pretty much aren't any sensors out there you might call "bad." So unless the drop the ball in a serious way and are stupid enough to release the camera that way...
Will it match the latest and greatest FF sensors for resolution and low light capability? I think we can assume a no on that.
So, somewhere between competent and awesome seems an easy prediction.
semilog
curmudgeonly optimist
1. The alignment and positioning of the image sensor plane are *extremely* critical. Much more so than most realise. Setting up a system where users can routinely remove and replace sensors without screwing up this extremely critical adjustment would be, at best, notrivial.
Such systems would also add mechanical complexity and weight.
2. Sensor storage, cleanliness, and damage would be major issues.
3. The hardware portion of imaging pipelines is for the foreseeable future progressing faster than sensor tech. A new sensor with an old imaging pipeline would be stupid. Maintaining interface compatibility with the camera's computational systems (storage, AF, UI, exposure, etc.) would be limiting (since these systems would not be modular, presumably) and, again, would impose major design and manufacturing penalties over time.
4. At the prices that would likely have to be charged for such a modular system, the market would be small, further increasing costs due to a lack of economies of scale.
IMO, modular sensors would create many more serious problems than they would solve.
You watch. If someone is dumb enough to introduce a system like this in anything but high-end medium format, they will take a bath.
And if the modular system is (as rumored) from Olympus, it will be the third major system camera that they abandon in less than two decades (OM, 4/3, modular). I do love Olympus optics (especially their microscopes), but this is an error that they cannot afford to make.
Canon could afford to make such an error, but they are not stupid enough to do so.
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nksyoon
Well-known
semilog
curmudgeonly optimist
Fear that it would cannibalise sales of the m8/9. A completely justified fear, too.
Good tactics, but a lousy and arrogant strategy. Leica deserve to suffer a bit for it, and I hope the X100 is good enough to do that.
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Santtu Määttänen
Visual Poet
I didn't say anything about user replacable sensor
Just make it modular enough (as well as all the circuits and other non-mechanical electronics) to be replaced at service with ease. Then offer upgrades periodically for a price lower then new camera. For this to work the mechanical parts should be top notch and worth the effort and all knobs, buttons and other parts should be able to withstands decades of abuse.Maybe a standard sized sensor circuity which could be replaced with improved version with ease (as in no soldering involved and relatively solid and thick golden contacts or optical contacts).
But all this is speculation and I'm sure no camera company is stupid enough to offer this kind of system at any affordable price since it would seriously hurt future sales of full systems. In medium to large format systems, for sure. But for anything below that it would sound like a bad business strategy. Then again I would love to see a company to work more towards sustainability then towards profits. My company does it since we don't aim at profits only to make a living to all involved. But we don't build cameras or other electronics..
shadowfox
Darkroom printing lives
Well, since you acknowledged that there are more than just myself wishing for this, that indicates that you need to figure out how to understand the motivation, *if* you're curious at all.
Or just ignore us, that works for me too.
Ernst Dinkla
Well-known
It is at least more than a painted piece of wood. I have looked throught the optical viewer on the Photokina and switched the lever that gives live view but the EVF image was a fixed one in that state. Manual or any focusing not possible either for that display model. A lady guarding it and a queue of 6 men behind you isn't the environment to discover its features. Hard to tell what camera it will become. Fuji did give it a lot of promotion there.
Ernst Dinkla