When is Zeiss bringing a Digital Camera to the Market?

[mbisc]

if you want a digital zeiss camera so bad, i tell you a secret: there is one, just buy it:
http://www.binocularscanada.com/enet-cart/product.asp?pid=528031

If I read that correctly, that's a 4MP camera for a mere $2,713.99 -- that would be expensive even by Leica standards...

 

[majid]

Sounds like snobbery to me... 😉

Well, I have a R-D1 (Cosina build quality, fortunately the RF patch was only vertically misaligned and I could DIY fix it) and a M9 (poor ISO performance from a Kodak sensor, albeit not as bad as the M8).

 

[jsrockit]

Well, I have a R-D1 (Cosina build quality, fortunately the RF patch was only vertically misaligned and I could DIY fix it) and a M9 (poor ISO performance from a Kodak sensor, albeit not as bad as the M8).

I get it... but many great images are made with each. CV stuff isn't as bad as people make it out to be. Also, the M9's sensor is one of the best out there at low ISOs. It could be a lot worse.

 

[flip]

Someone may come along to do this, but only if they can let Leica do the legwork of R&D and getting the sensor production costs reduced. Once production goes to China, it's only a matter of time before a janky, but functional, alternative to Leica arrives.

 

[jarski]

Zeiss might be interested if they could find someone else todo it based on their specifications, and then have their logo stamped on it. how likely this is, IMO about 91.6% chance that no.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Someone may come along to do this, but only if they can let Leica do the legwork of R&D and getting the sensor production costs reduced. Once production goes to China, it's only a matter of time before a janky, but functional, alternative to Leica arrives.

Have you any basis for assuming that it will?

Cheers,

R.

 

[Adanac]

Zeiss keeps saying they aren't moving forward on a digital Ikon and I believe them. Provided they have enough irons in the fire for lenses made by them or designed by them - and they certainly do seem to be everywhere these days - why would they undertake a riskier business?

I'd love to see a digital ZI and would click on a pre-order link right now if one existed, but I don't think it is going to happen.

What might happen is an electronic viewfinder camera made for M lenses. There already is one, being produced today, and that's the Ricoh GXR with Mount A12. The GXR/M is a 1.5x APS-C crop camera. Could they bring out a full frame version? Possible. But if they don't, it seems unlikely any other maker will.

Instead it seems more likely we'll see accelerated development of other compact full frame cameras once Sony's RX1 proves there is enough interest in this sort of device at the sort of price points that such cameras have to be put at. They'll be fixed lens and interchangeable lens (eventually) electronic viewfinder cameras, not rangefinders. They won't be optimized for M lenses so any success photographers have in using M lenses on such ILCs will be accidental and likely confined to longer focal lengths.

 

[majid]

What might happen is an electronic viewfinder camera made for M lenses. There already is one, being produced today, and that's the Ricoh GXR with Mount A12. The GXR/M is a 1.5x APS-C crop camera. Could they bring out a full frame version? Possible. But if they don't, it seems unlikely any other maker will.

There is this franken-contraption made from a Canon 5DmkII:
http://leicarumors.com/2012/10/07/c..._campaign=Feed:+LeicaRumors+(LeicaRumors.com)