Chuck Albertson
Well-known
Wow! They certainly came in under the radar with this one. They must make the reviewers sign the NDA From Hell.
John Rountree
Nothing is what I want
Before you jump
Before you jump
Something to consider before you (plural) jump over to digital. All digital files can corrupt for no apparent reason. I am sure that everyone on this board has a music CD that will no longer play, or a word file that will not open. I bought a Seagate external memory about three months ago and loaded about 1,200 digital pictures on it. I plugged it in last week, and it will no longer fire up. There is a real possibility that all those files are lost and/or some are corrupt. HRd drives crash and burn with no warning. Film can be stored safely for a very long time with minimal effort. Digital files of any type may not be retrievable, for a variety of reasons, rendering them useless. This is still the Achilles heel of any digital system.
Before you jump
Something to consider before you (plural) jump over to digital. All digital files can corrupt for no apparent reason. I am sure that everyone on this board has a music CD that will no longer play, or a word file that will not open. I bought a Seagate external memory about three months ago and loaded about 1,200 digital pictures on it. I plugged it in last week, and it will no longer fire up. There is a real possibility that all those files are lost and/or some are corrupt. HRd drives crash and burn with no warning. Film can be stored safely for a very long time with minimal effort. Digital files of any type may not be retrievable, for a variety of reasons, rendering them useless. This is still the Achilles heel of any digital system.
FifthLeaf
amateur
I did not see this announcement coming at all, but after reading the article, I can understand Leica's reasoning. Designing a system that's digital from the ground up will help eliminate the problems they've had converting the R and M cameras. Nor will they cannibalize existing dSLR sales because there aren't really any to speak of. And because Leica is known for high end 35mm gear, it makes sense to target the professional market by giving them something that neither Nikon nor Canon delivers.
Going for the consumer market like with their 4/3 cameras was a flop and Leica should head in the other direction. My concern is that the new mount won't make sense in the near future. If digital MF backs become more portable, then this new Leica mount will seem kinda pointless. Or maybe the sensor quality of the full-frame Nikons/Canons will be so good that a 50% jump in size is irrelevant.
Going for the consumer market like with their 4/3 cameras was a flop and Leica should head in the other direction. My concern is that the new mount won't make sense in the near future. If digital MF backs become more portable, then this new Leica mount will seem kinda pointless. Or maybe the sensor quality of the full-frame Nikons/Canons will be so good that a 50% jump in size is irrelevant.
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Tuolumne
Veteran
It's a business model metaphor - often used in the technology industry, but obviously derived from the shaving industry. It means you want to sell one thing (a camera body for example - usually relatively cheaply - or even give it away free) so you can get people to buy lots of something else (a lens) that only works in your razor and that you can sell lots of at a high price. Once they buy into the razor (body) they have to buy the blades (lenses).
/T
peter_n
Veteran
I understand. Equivalent would be a printer and toner cartridges presumably.
Tuolumne
Veteran
This is Seagate's new business model. They let you buy a large disk cheap, and then charge you a fortune to recover the files when it crashes. Happened to me last month.
/T
FifthLeaf
amateur
That seems the way it was in the film days. But now there's a new digital camera out every year that is "1000 MEGAPIXELS IMPROVED, IT'S WAY BETTER THAN LAST YEAR'S, YOUR OLD CAMERA IS WORTHLESS SH*T." Kinda like "OUR NEW SHAVING SYSTEM NOW HAS 6 RAZORS, 2 MORE THAN OUR COMPETITION! YOUR SHAVE IS 50% BETTER."
CK Dexter Haven
Well-known
No, i haven't had any issues with cds or dvds, aside from scratches. My files all open.
Either way, the issue with the Seagate drive is unfortunate, but could have easily been prevented. It's far easier to make exact digital copies of digital files than it is to have a redundancy system with film. You have RAID options, and the option to have online storage of files, and the option to have multiple hard drives in multiple locations. With film, theft, flood, fire, or other natural disaster will ruin your day (or career).
And, yes, one can digitize the film and thus have multiple copies of a 'hard' format. But, if the initial argument were valid, those copies are worthless anyway. The more significant issue is of digitizing. Who really scans EVERY frame of film? Lab CDs are fine for emailing or posting to the web, but it's prohibitively expensive to get archive quality scans of an entire roll of film.
We also have to imagine that with digital taking over the industry, file security will be the next priority. I have no doubts that this will not be a concern in the near future.
BillBingham2
Registered User
Not what I would be looking for, but there is a market for her. I think there may be a large market if Leica has the software right (and ir filter) this time.
Should keep cash coming in the door till they can get the DRF thing better.
B2 (;->
Should keep cash coming in the door till they can get the DRF thing better.
B2 (;->
Bill Pierce
Well-known
This is an absolute necessity. I'm amazed that folks are amazed when a hard drive fails. It's inevitable - although, if you are lucky, you will have to be as old as Moses to see all your hard drives fail.
Even if you are just starting out and don't yet need a full RAID system buy three hard disc drives - two twins on your computer and a third stored at a friends in case your house is burned, flooded, robbed, whatever.
That way, when one discs goes nuts, you copy the remaining one to a new hard disc. Not that expensive when you consider what you are insuring.
Bill
Disaster_Area
Gadget Monger
True.. but I've also had a fire wipe out a box of my negatives. Archiving and possible loss of pictures is a liability of every photographer no matter what kind of system you use. On the plus side of digital it's VERY easy to make multiple backups. I have all my photo's archived in triplicate, on my home PC, a back up drive and on an online storage space so unless zombies take over I think I'm good for backups. Also with the online storage I can access my photo's all around the world.. something I can't do with film!
amateriat
We're all light!
Bill: Just an FYI, but it appears that Flickr link you provided has disappeared. Wonder what that's about... 
Edit: Never mind...the info is all over the place now...
- Barrett
Edit: Never mind...the info is all over the place now...
- Barrett
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Harry Lime
Practitioner
Harry Lime
Practitioner
I also recommend some form of online storage space like Photoshelter. for a small monthly fee you get a decent amount of storage space that is constantly backed up and can be accessed from anywhere there is an internet connection...
Harry Lime
Practitioner
http://www.s.leica-camera.com/
20,000 euro for the body.
Take a look at that viewfinder. It looks like a Nikon F3HP on steroids.
According to Herr Kaufmann the R10 is on the way and it sounded like there may be another DSLR below that.
Very exciting.
20,000 euro for the body.
Take a look at that viewfinder. It looks like a Nikon F3HP on steroids.
According to Herr Kaufmann the R10 is on the way and it sounded like there may be another DSLR below that.
Very exciting.
MacDaddy
Certified Machead
According to Michael Reichman, the new S2 is the end result of a new and close collaboration with Phase One! If you look at the positioning of this system both size and money-wise, it slots neatly between the high end DLSRs from Canikon and the MF big boys like Hasselblad. With Phase One heavily involved, this could be a seismic shift in the MF market. I can't even begin to afford one, but this camera system will be VERY interesting to watch going forward. Just my 2 cents!
kshapero
South Florida Man
I assume, one starts all over again buying glass. Damn the mortgage crisis, I could have remortgaged my house to get this. I'll just look and admire.
Harry Lime
Practitioner
Take a look at this blog.
About as close as a hands on preview as we are going to see for a while of the S2 and other goodies introduced at the show.
http://dfarkas.blogspot.com/
Scroll down to the entry titled: 'Photokina 2008 - Day 1 - All things Leica'
Look at the size of the viewfinder on the S2! It's HUGE! ;-)
What strikes me is just how compact the S2 is. Compare it to the Mamiya ZD in a more recent post on the blog. The H3 appears to dwarf the S2.
About as close as a hands on preview as we are going to see for a while of the S2 and other goodies introduced at the show.
http://dfarkas.blogspot.com/
Scroll down to the entry titled: 'Photokina 2008 - Day 1 - All things Leica'
Look at the size of the viewfinder on the S2! It's HUGE! ;-)
What strikes me is just how compact the S2 is. Compare it to the Mamiya ZD in a more recent post on the blog. The H3 appears to dwarf the S2.