Why can't someone produce an affordable Digital Rangefinder?

[Ara Ghajanian]

The title says it all.

I have an M6 that I absolutely love, but sometimes I want to take great photos and not have to sit in front of the computer for hours scanning and rubber-stamping dust off of negatives. An M8 would be ideal, but I don't feel like selling all my cameras to get one.
Ara

 

[Ara Ghajanian]

because business is about making money and the market for digital rangefinders is so slim that it doesn't make sense to chase it when there is so much more margin to be made on cheapo machines like P&S cameras.

I know you're absolutely right, but can't someone humor me? 😱

 

[RML]

It's just your opinion that they're unaffordable. I had to save for my R-D1 but for me it was well worth it. I paid 2500 euro for mine. Considering that I was shelling out nearly 2200 euro per year for colour film and dev'ing, I was more than happy to get my R-D1 and be rid of the tedious scanning.

 

[pizzahut88]

Try developing yourself

Try developing yourself

Try developing your film at home, then scan.
Developing takes about twenty minutes only.
Not dust, extremely clean.

Outside labs often do a poor job, they reuse chemicals . . . wrong temperature . . . sometimes fail to wash your film adequately leaving water marks. . . use cheap chemical power for soup . . . most labls are dirty . . . they don't wash their equipment which is why you are dusting the crap off at home on your pc after scanning. The guy is hired . . . he is not an artist. He doesn't care most often enough.

AND
It takes about the same time for the M8.
To copy your raw images to the PC, then convert to jpeg from dng.
If you take raw dng files, the time it take for you to tweak each file will almost be the same. Contrast / Saturation / sharpeness / Gamma / bla bla bla / color temperature. Time is only saved when you are satisfied with default jpeg off the camera.

Digital does not have (or could barely manage) two stops of dynamic range.
Not push/pull developing.


Anyhow, I would love to have an affordable RF in M mount.

Cheers,
Manfred

 

[bob cole]

Come on Cosina,Take up the challenge and make all rangefinder users happy!!!

The day you can buy a cup of coffee at The Ritz in Paris or The Claridge in London for 99 cents usd, Leica will sell you an M8 for half price... I guarantee it!

 

[PetarDima]

It's maybe funny - but for Leica M8+ 2 lenses you can almost by apartment in city where I live 😛
RD1/RD1s is good value for money ... I don't know, but it's very sad to hear that
Epson won't go to RD2 with new, popular price - under 1000 $/Euros for body ...
I think that they could earn a lot of money ...