What difference will Steven Lee's Departure make?

[M. Valdemar]

Why do you think AF is so important for a niche market?

I LIKE focussing lenses myself. I enjoy the whole process of using an old camera sometimes.

 

[newsgrunt]

But why can't Leica maintain parallel streams ? They have to keep the film M's but they also need to run a concurrent program where geniuses think digitally.

 

[ferider]

Unless the M mount can be adapted to autofocus, like the Nikon F mount, then I doubt this will fly.

It will fly just as well as the recently rebuilt (from scratch) SP and S3 and new S mount 50/1.4 and 35/1.8 lenses.

 

[Ade-oh]

It will fly just as well as the recently rebuilt (from scratch) SP and S3 and new S mount 50/1.4 and 35/1.8 lenses.

I seem to recall that those were very limited editions.

Why do you think AF is so important for a niche market?

I LIKE focussing lenses myself. I enjoy the whole process of using an old camera sometimes.

I also like focusing, I like using film, I like setting exposure etc etc etc, but people like us are in a minority amongst camera users. I do really hope that Leica survive and continue making M film cameras because I love using them. But I think the fact is that unless they can come up with something new which grabs them at least a small share of the market, then they aren't going to make it. A manual focus rangefinder camera, even with a full frame digital sensor, will be nothing more than a curiosity for the vast majority of photographers, including pros and enthusiasts.

 

[Tuolumne]

"This weekend I saw about 10 Japanese GIRLS in NYC with old film cameras.

(HERE is your market for a reasonably priced digital camera that accepts M lenses)"

I don't know how to break this to you but the woman on the right is shooting a quite sophisticated digital RF kit: R-D1s, wide angle lens with a CV external finder, a double hot shoe mount with the second shoe dedicated to a CV bubble level. (Wow!!! Ninja Japanese lady shooter.) The other young lady is chimping on some sort of digital P&S.

/T

 

[akptc]

(snip)

This is a bit OT but I must ask - what lens did you use for this (awesome) shot? Was it the standard Leica lens that comes with the L1? I really like it, color, sharpness, OOF areas, the whole thing.

 

[MikeL]

I'm still unclear what everyone believes about the future of a digital rangefinder. Please continue.🙂

 

[M. Valdemar]

1) Yes, I know exactly what camera she was using. I also have 2 RD-1's. Her daughter did have a cheap P&S. The mother was using the 12mm Heliar lens with some sort of custom shade. She was also Korean, not Japanese. I took the photo after we had a conversation about her camera, and I sent her a several copies via email. She was visiting NYC for one week. I very often see visiting Asian young people with exotic and/or classic cameras. They are also enthusiastic buyers of same at flea markets.

2) It was the standard "Leica" kit lens on the DMC-L1. I used offset fill flash since she was standing slightly backlit in the shade.


.

 

[Al Patterson]

I think we just watch that happening. With current dSLRs implementing LiveView in one or another way, I think we see the end of the Reflex Mirror.

It may take another five or ten years, but there is a trend.

I'm not sure we really need the reflex mirror in the digital age. There has been talk over at www.dpreview.com of an "EVIL" camera design, with an Electronic Viewfinder with Interchangable Lenses. I think this can replace the DSLR if done right. It would be great if Leica went back to the drawing board and invented it, but I'm not sure they have the vision of the experience.

And I would still hope to see something like this in a shorter timeframe than five or ten years, but we shall see.

 

[ferider]

There are a couple of problems with the EVF - the most obvious being the resolution vs critical focus issue. This is where rangefinding (electronic) is still very useful. The split screen can be duplicated electronically and then superimposed on an optical VF. I use helmet-mounted electronic rangefinding and it's delivered as an overlay on an optical device - essentially a viewfinder that sits over one eye. 15 years ago it was sophisticated, now it's not. Time for the camera designers to catch up. Hybrid technologies are the way to go.

If I remember last year's rumours of the possible upcoming digital Nikon RF, this is what it sounded like.

 

[veraikon]

Some remarks on the new Leica CEO at Handelsblatt :
"Der leidenschaftliche Leica-Liebhaber"

http://www.handelsblatt.com/News/Ka...px/der-leidenschaftliche-leica-liebhaber.html

 

[Tom Diaz]

Imagine a business plan that does not include dealers in new products and that old products can become current products via a direct relationship with a customer bypassing the dealer? I'll wager the upgrade program got him removed. What is the most powerful part of any corporation? If the sales department thinks you are a loser then you are gone.

I also wager he had plans to built the next R digital in Japan and that was the last straw. (just speculating).

Your speculations could be right--either or both of them, although that does not mean this decision is good for customers or good for Leica.

Yes, the sales guys can be powerful but they are looking out for themselves.

Most warranties that are highly attractive to customers involve a direct guarantee from the company that you might say is "bypassing the dealer." I bought a really nice 1992 Ford Taurus SHO and I bought an extended 100,000 mile warranty on it, from Ford, that allowed me to get the car serviced by any Ford dealer. Dealers do not seem to like those long warranties because they would like to be the ones charging you market rates for everything that ever goes wrong, but sometimes they do not get their way. Sometimes it is more important to the company to establish (or reestablish) the loyalty of their customers.

On the upgrade policy--which was still on their web site the last time I looked--Leica should do its damnedest to live up to the promise, including the promise that an M8 customer has an upgrade path to a full-frame sensor if there is one. On top of the point I just made above, there is another one: The board selected Lee as its CEO, and he committed the company publicly, and they should not back away from that commitment.

If suggesting the R series be built in Japan got him in trouble, I am even more sympathetic to Lee (or less to Leica's board). I agree with some other posters that Leica is mainly about the lenses. The next thing it's about is the M body, which still has some intrinsic practical advantages (focusing fast lenses, etc.) and is quiet and rugged and so on. But the R body has nothing going for it except being a platform for R lenses. Yes, there's the DMR capability, but if I were into digital SLRs I would want Leica lenses in a Canon mount and/or a 4/3 mount.