New Pixii 26MP

Boojum, I like the Pixii, and I'm trying to figure out if I should buy it. Horses for courses.

If I went with the flow and stuck to the framelines provided, the 28mm Ultron II would be an easy choice. Pixii might go full frame in a couple years and voila, I'd be all set.
 
Godfrey said:
This becomes thoroughly silly. There’s rather a lot between a 5.5x7mm sensor camera with a dedicated, non-interchangeable lens that produces only 3.2Mpixel JPEG files and an M8. At the time of the S70, something like the M8 was generally considered to be practically impossible to make at all.

The creation of the M8 required a huge amount of research, engineering, and perseverance. There was nothing off the shelf that would work and be sellable at a profit.

The Pixii is a remarkable first product for a startup company, but its creation rests upon an intense and furiously raised mountain of available technology, vastly lower cost available components, and the engineering knowledge of a generation of thousands of engineers. To say that Leica screwed up with the M8 is nothing but sour grapes and prejudice speaking.

As always, if you think you could do better, go do and prove it.

G
Click to expand...

I do not have to know how to build autos to tell you that the Land Rover is a dog. And to say that there is a lot of distance between the current Land Rover and the 2CV proves little except that Land Rover should be doing way better. Yes, it is more complex. Is that they excuse for crap? If it does not work or works poorly why disgrace yourself by bringing it to market? And if the 2006 M8 was a technological leap over the old, 2000, Sony DSC S70, they sure as hell fell after the leap. The M8 was ill-designed, ill-executed and ill-supported. It was, in short, disgraceful. The M8 in 2006 and the M240 in 2012. Seven years to get done what should have been done before it left the factory. And there are still complaints about the M240. The is n ow that the M11 has gotten it right. I am underwhelmed. I really believe that you have to be a masochist to fully appreciate a Leica. I do not care if they M8 was the first camera in the world. It did not work right. Forget the companies, forget the technology, forget the reputation, I am after the image. If you can do it with a tobacco can and a magnifying glass I will buy it.

Sour grapes about the M8? I think not, I have an M8.2. It has its strengths in spite of Leica. I do not dislike the camera, I dislike the company. Again, their kind of service is what we got our cow each spring.

Not bad for a ~3Mpixel 72 DPI image:


But, this is a Pixii thread and dragging in the pitiful Leica is unfair, distracting and too controversial. Let's confine ourselves to just whether the Pixii is a speculative piece of crap, une morceau de la merde, or not. I really like the Pixii. Hopefully I will not be much more than a week behind you in getting mine.

Cheers
 
I'm not interested in your opinions about Leica—the company or the cameras, boojum. Or about Land Rovers, for that matter. I won't bore you with my opinions of your 3.2 Mpixel Sony photographs either.

Period, end of discussion.
—

Yes, let's keep to the subject of the thread which is about Pixii cameras and the lenses that work with them, and about the new Pixii we have both recently ordered. Germaine to that, I was out shooting with the Aporia 24mm lens using my Leica CL in order to practice with it for the Pixii as I've been shooting mostly with 21mm and 35mm lenses on APS-C for a while now.

With luck, UPS will deliver my Pixii tomorrow. 🙂

G

51996570326_c425c5937a_o.jpg

A Tough Day
Santa Clara 2022
—
Leica CL + MS Optical Aporia 24mm f/2
ISO 200 @ f/2.8 @ 1/2000​
 
Godfrey said:
I'm not interested in your opinions about Leica—the company or the cameras, boojum. Or about Land Rovers, for that matter. I won't bore you with my opinions of your 3.2 Mpixel Sony photographs either.

Period, end of discussion.
—

Yes, let's keep to the subject of the thread which is about Pixii cameras and the lenses that work with them, and about the new Pixii we have both recently ordered. Germaine to that, I was out shooting with the Aporia 24mm lens using my Leica CL in order to practice with it for the Pixii as I've been shooting mostly with 21mm and 35mm lenses on APS-C for a while now.

With luck, UPS will deliver my Pixii tomorrow. 🙂

G
A Tough Day
Santa Clara 2022
—
Leica CL + MS Optical Aporia 24mm f/2
ISO 200 @ f/2.8 @ 1/2000​
Click to expand...
​

Teddy is weeping because you have no Pixii. Save The Bear!
 
aizan said:
Shopping around for a 24/25mm lens (35mm-e) is ROUGH.

...
MS Optics 24mm f/2 Aporia
...
The less-than-ideal lens options in the critical 28mm-e (18-21mm) and 35mm-e (24-25mm) range ...
Click to expand...

So ... I went out with the MS Optics Aporia 24mm f/2 yesterday on my walk to re-familiarize myself with it, since I've been mostly testing the Color-Skopar 21mm f/3.5 v1 this past few weeks. I set the aperture to f/2.8 and the ISO to 200, let the Aperture Priority float the shutter time, and just focused, framed, took pictures.

I'd have to say I see nothing "less than ideal" about its performance. It's a little fussy to set the aperture (carry a toothpick to turn the aperture setting ring, especially with the lens hood fitted) but, eh?, I often just set it for f/5.6 and leave it there anyway, just like I do with most other lenses on this format. The focusing is remarkably comfortable given the extremely small size of the lens. f/2.8 on the Aporia nets a very nice amount of background softening when working at short distances, and beautiful sharpness.

Note that any vignetting in these photos is something that I like and add in rendering, the lens shows very little corner/edge falloff..

A gallery of yesterday's picks: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjzKdTk

With lovely lenses like the Aporia 24/2, Color-Skopar 21/3.5, Color-Skopar 28/3.5, HyperWide 10/5.6, Summilux 35/1.4, and Summicron 50/2 available, I can have the whole range from ultra ultra-wide to portrait telephoto covered and carried in a very small bag. This is exactly why I like the CL, and the Pixii follows the same "compact and excellent" lens strategy for me.

G
 
Regarding the price, people should keep in mind scale. Pixii is a tiny company, and making a digital camera at a large scale would be extremely difficult. Right now, they’re being assembled by the engineer!!! Can you imagine the quality control issues there would be if the camera was “reasonably” priced for an APS-C camera and production was scaled up?
 
Thanks for the link to Mattias' second video. Mattias' viewpoints and opinions about things in general seem very similar to my own, it's fun to hear him articulate what he sees about the Pixii and see how we match and differ. Great job, Mattias! 😀

I've reviewed all the Pixii threads again. Ugh: Big sigh. 🙁

In the end, it must be said I don't really care what others think of the camera; I care what I think about it. Before it arrives, I'm happy enough with the concept, with how it is designed, with what the specs say it does to be worth spending the money and going further. That's about it.

Once it gets here ... the "two day express" service from UPS has had a glitch (the camera's been sitting in Customs in Kentucky since last Thursday) which cost me most of yesterday on the phone with UPS drones and various communications back to Pixii SAS to unravel ... I'll enjoy the unboxing and learning how to use it. THEN I'll have some more to say about it, I suspect.

Meanwhile, the concept of a MATE (Tri-Elmar-M 28-35-50mm f/4) being a "three lens in one" option (wide-normal, normal, portrait tele) for travel and cycling popped up, and my favored Leica dealer has a rather second-hand looking example in stock at a decent price. He's sending me the lens on spec to see if I would like to buy it. It's great to work with good folks whom I can trust, and who trust me back. 🙂 This way, once the camera and lens get here, I can see whether it occludes the rangefinder and how the haptics of use fare in an objective (rather than conjectural) fashion.

And so the wait for delivery continues...
I'll go play with my car restoration project today as diversion. And maybe load up the Polaroid SLR670a with some color film and take more pictures of it... 😀 😀

G

footnote:
Despite the fact that I'm buying another camera, I am actually advancing once again on my goal of clearing a lot of the unused equipment in my office out to others who will use it. I sold two bodies and a lens out of my Leica R jumble a week ago. Last evening, I sold a modest but complete kit of Panasonic GX9 gear as well. Only seventy-five unused cameras to go!! 😱
 
^^^^^ I'm with you: I bought this camera to please myself and no others. I am happy with that, thrilled actually. From Burling's posts and Ranger9's the camera can be trusted to reproduce well what it is pointed at. I will test mine against the M8,2 when it gets here. I like the M8.2's images and as many have suggested it might even be cheaper than a Pixii I want to t see how they compare.

G., good luck with ours and your new lens. K&S in PA?
 
boojum said:
I will test mine against the M8,2 when it gets here. I like the M8.2's images and as many have suggested it might even be cheaper than a Pixii I want to t see how they compare.
Click to expand...

Will it come as a surprise to you, or anyone, if a 2022 Pixii II with a 26MP sensor performs better than a 2008 Leica M8.2 with a 10.3MP sensor? Surely the technical performance of digital cameras has improved in the intervening 14 years. Of course, a few people will prefer the color output of a CCD sensor.
 
ptpdprinter said:
Will it come as a surprise to you, or anyone, if a 2022 Pixii II with a 26MP sensor performs better than a 2008 Leica M8.2 with a 10.3MP sensor?
Click to expand...

I am quite happy with images from the M8,2 and its CCD sensor. It produces good color and famous B&W. I did not say I wanted to see which was better. Those are your words, not mine. I just want to compare the images from each camera whose FOV is pretty close. Do you understand now? Please re-read my post to be sure you understand what I have written. That is the least I deserve. Thank you.
 
boojum said:
^^^^^ I'm with you: I bought this camera to please myself and no others. I am happy with that, thrilled actually. From Burling's posts and Ranger9's the camera can be trusted to reproduce well what it is pointed at. I will test mine against the M8,2 when it gets here. I like the M8.2's images and as many have suggested it might even be cheaper than a Pixii I want to t see how they compare.

G., good luck with ours and your new lens. K&S in PA?
Click to expand...

Keeble & Schuchat Photography closed its doors for the last time somewhere around 2015, IIRC. Yet another B&M brought down by changing times, the movement to online commerce. 🙁

The other camera I was considering instead of the Pixii was a Leica M typ 246 Monochrom or M10 Monochrom. I may yet buy one of those if time and finances permits at some point in the future. I chose the Pixii as it is perfect complement to my CL ... interchangeable lens, M-mount, APS-C, 24 Mpixel, and simple, minimal controls, with optical coupled range/viewfinder rather than EVF. It's about the same price I paid for the CL body too.

Pixii adds value nicely to my Leica M-mount lens kit. 😀

G
 
Godfrey said:
Keeble & Schuchat Photography closed its doors for the last time somewhere around 2015, IIRC. Yet another B&M brought down by changing times, the movement to online commerce. 🙁

The other camera I was considering instead of the Pixii was a Leica M typ 246 Monochrom or M10 Monochrom. I may yet buy one of those if time and finances permits at some point in the future. I chose the Pixii as it is perfect complement to my CL ... interchangeable lens, M-mount, APS-C, 24 Mpixel, and simple, minimal controls, with optical coupled range/viewfinder rather than EVF. It's about the same price I paid for the CL body too.

Pixii adds value nicely to my Leica M-mount lens kit. 😀

G
Click to expand...

K&S was dreamland. The Leica and Alpa museum on the second floor always dazzled me. And the folks there were professional and folksy at the same time. I do remember they were shaky and then some fool(s) broke in and stole everything but the paint off the walls. They were apparently unaware that most of what they stole, aside from the paint, had serial numbers which meant selling it would be at greatly depressed prices. Let's hope K&S did not take a bath on that one.

I wish you had spent today with the Pixii. I'd say, "Soon enough" but that is not true. Too late applies. OTOH you know you will be making me quite envious with yours so there is something to be said which is positive. ;o)

I will not have the complimentary lens thing going as I will probably leave the Leicas alone for a long, long time when the Pixii arrives, too late. It is kind of like Christmas with the anticipation. There are some parts of childhood which do not have to be abandoned entirely.
 
If I buy a Pixii, and I’ve come close a couple of times, I would use it with my Voigtlander 40/12 pretty much exclusively. I quite like that field of view with this size sensor. It’s a little different and gives a unique vibe, often.
I wouldn’t buy this camera and then worry about wide angle lenses. There are probably better cameras for that anyway. It seems like the Pixii is built around that “sorta wide” lens group, 28-35mm, much like the M3 was pretty much a 50mm camera.
That’s ok in my estimation…I don’t need a “do-all” camera anymore. I know what I want to do.
 
Does anyone know if the 35mm f/1.2 Nokton III (the newest version) blocks the rangefinder patch? I’m giving up on the wides!
 
The Voigtlander Nokton 35mm F/1.2 Aspherical III dimensions are ~61mm diameter and ~50.5mm long. To my eye, that puts it past the point of no return according to the diagram that one of the folks on RFF who has the camera already distributed:

pixii-friendly.png
It's an approximation, of course, and how much it occludes of the rangefinder patch is hard to say, but I'd say anything greater than a 55mm outside diameter is likely to cut off at least some of the RF patch.

G
 
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