What's the best camera Leica haven't made?

What's the best camera Leica haven't made?

  • M5

    Votes: 14 11.4%

  • M9

    Votes: 26 21.1%

  • Nikon SP

    Votes: 19 15.4%

  • Other (please elaborate)

    Votes: 64 52.0%
  • Total voters
    123
>>Hello, when I look the other day the new olympus E400 it was little as a M but lighter! and if you use a lens adapter with some vintage pancake lens you have a nice combo for low price.<<

But the E400 is an SLR. Rangefinder users don't want to use an SLR. Most of us pay a lot of money to not have to do so.

EDIT: My Nikon FM2 is also that same size as a professional-grade rangefinder camera (Leica M/Nikon SP) and has relatively compact lenses available. But it's not a rangefinder.
 
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In the rangefinder department, the Hexar RF. I voted with my wallet on that one. Twice.

SLRs? A bit tough. I loved the feel, features and layout of the two early-production Pentax LX bodies I had way back when, but the nightmare of early-prodcution "issues" with those two drove me batty. Yes, Pentax got it sorted out in short order, but not before I ran in a panic to Ken Hansen to trade them in for a pair of Nikon F3s, which I absolutely loved, and may still be my favorite SLR. I also hold a fond spot for the last SLRs I used regularly, a pair of everything-and-two-kitchen sinks Minolta 9xi bodies. Slick and fast and tech-y like all-get-out, but not quite as monstrous in size and weight as a full-on EOS-1 or F4/5. Then I got tired of SLRs and got rid of them, which is where the Hexars came in...(suddenly, I feel like a character in a Pink Floyd album).


- Barrett
 
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SLR: OM 2.

Digital: Vince's idea above is spot on!
VinceC said:
>> Leica users hate change.<<

Maybe Leica should try to get back to its roots of innovation it pioneered in the 1920s-1950s.

An M7 and M8 could be retained for conservative high-end purchasers, but the the company could then innovate with an entirely new digital product line in the $1,500 range ... a Barnack-sized cropped-sensor camera with very small, fast interchangeable primes (plus perhaps a small zoom) that mates up with some kind of zooming viewfinder that still incorporates framelines, and (g-d forbid) perhaps some sort of autofocus.

Emphasis is ability to get DSLR-quality photos out of a very small camera that can be as automated or as manual as the user desires.

Marketing ideas: "A new Leica for the next hundred years." "Excellence comes in small packages" "Capture the world in the palm of your hand" "Big pictures from small cameras (wasn't that Barnack's slogan?" A picture of it next to the UR-Leica.

Nahhh. It'll never happen.
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The Atlas - OK, so it's a digital and only 10Mpixel - but it takes 40,000 images a second and is used to 'photograph' dark matter and black holes. With a lens that's 26 miles long, it's not overly portable...but is probably slightly cheaper than the M8 😉

Otherwise it would have to be the Nikon F3...or possibly the Contax G2...
 
1) A medium format version of the M series. Same camera, only bigger.

2) A new rangefinder for the M series that not only compensates for parallax in X and y, but also adjusts the area of coverage of the framelines, based on the focus distance (z).

3) Lower prices. I purchased two of my M bodies new, back when they were still below $3000. The current prices for bodies and lenses are ridiculous.
 
I'm with Harry on this one - I'd like a real Texas Leica that can produce 6x7 or 6x9 frames, but otherwise built exactly like a 35mm M, and using larger versions of the M-lenses. It would be a brick, but what a beautiful brick...
 
icemendicant said:
I'm with Harry on this one - I'd like a real Texas Leica that can produce 6x7 or 6x9 frames, but otherwise built exactly like a 35mm M, and using larger versions of the M-lenses. It would be a brick, but what a beautiful brick...
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Barring exactly-like-a-Leica build quality/detail, haven't certain Fujis (where the very term "Texas Leica" originated) fit this bill reasonably well for some time?


- Barrett
 
"Originally Posted by VinceC
>> Leica users hate change.<<

Maybe Leica should try to get back to its roots of innovation it pioneered in the 1920s-1950s.

An M7 and M8 could be retained for conservative high-end purchasers, but the the company could then innovate with an entirely new digital product line in the $1,500 range ... a Barnack-sized cropped-sensor camera with very small, fast interchangeable primes (plus perhaps a small zoom) that mates up with some kind of zooming viewfinder that still incorporates framelines, and (g-d forbid) perhaps some sort of autofocus.

Emphasis is ability to get DSLR-quality photos out of a very small camera that can be as automated or as manual as the user desires.

Marketing ideas: "A new Leica for the next hundred years." "Excellence comes in small packages" "Capture the world in the palm of your hand" "Big pictures from small cameras (wasn't that Barnack's slogan?" A picture of it next to the UR-Leica.

Nahhh. It'll never happen."

man they (leica) should ring you up...
seriously
 
I go again for the M5. Well, at least it was the last time they produced more or less the best they could. After that they only made reissues, cheaper versions of older cameras, conservative cameras for those who did not like progress, commemorative cameras. Even the MP and the M8 are not that impressive to me. Had it not be such a commercial failure maybe we would have today an Hexar type film Leica and a real great Digital one.

Just my opinion.

By the way, I don't have an M5...does anyone have one for cheap...

GLF
 
The leica that they should make is a R4M by Voigtlander. It has one of the truly great finders of all time. 21/25/28/35 and 50 (Ok, so the 50 finder is skimpy, but it will do in an emergency). It also has the advantage that you can buy the body, and the 21/25/28/35 VC lenses for less than a used MP!
Now if that could put that finder in a M8M (mono-chrome 16Mp) - I would buy it NOW!
 
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