Will we ever see luxury digital compacts?

[David Hughes]

Hi,

Hours after the above post I'm walking, with a camera, by the river for my daily exercise and realised that a lot of makers see a lens hood as a frivolous and unnecessary accessory; they could easily give you one with the camera and it wouldn't cost the earth as they could buy them from the Chinese who can sell them at a profit and including postage worldwide for a pound or so. (The camera I'm thinking of cost hundreds new.)

And why do they (the makers) also regard them as a luxury and so think it OK to charge a small fortune for a weirdly non-standard lens hood but won't supply a suitable case with it, nor a case for the camera and lens hood?

CZ Jena solved that problem decades ago with the Werra...

Not exactly joined up thinking is it?

Regards, David

 

[schaki]

Will there ever be a digital T3, with pocketable titanium body, full frame sensor and great lens?

In 2002 there was a pocketable Contax TVS digital with titanium body and sapphire release-button. Small 5mp 1/1.8" sensor of course, which was standard among the good compact cameras back then.
Almost crazy priced when it was new. "[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Street price for the Titanium silver body is $999.95; street price for the Titanium black body is $1,099.95 and is available beginning April 2003[/FONT]"
http://imaging-resource.com/EVENTS/PMAS03/1046571849.html
But it was a superb little compact back then even if the reviews didn't give it creds for good user interface and good iso performance. For most of the time I've found iso 320, which is the next highest value, to be fully useable in low light. Sure it is a little grainy but it is not looking bad.

I bought my used a couple of years ago. Still using it even though I have a Leica X1 as well.
The X1, X2 and X-E which all uses the same 35mm lens is so far what I guess comes closest to a digital T3 so far in terms of size. Sure there is Fujifilm X100 series which have viewfinder but it is not quite as small as the X1.
These are not full frame and I really wonder which of the manufacturers which are going to be first with a reasonably small 35mm ff. It won't exactly be pocketable but not as big as Sony RX1.
As for Aps-c 28mm GR, Coolpix A and X70, a large biggest aperture is not a must for everyone.
As for Nikon I guess they burned their own interest a little by price the Coolpix A too high initially and it is not very likely that we will see a Coolpix A with 35mm. That's unfortunate as I believe there is room for a small aps-c 35mm compact as well.

Ricoh GR is pretty much stuck with 28mm and have been so for years. The only exceptions there is the GR21, the 40mm adapter lens for Ricoh GR digital I and II as for the 21mm adapter lenses which I believe is available for all digital GRD's and aps-c GR.