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Konost {merged}


DMJ

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Heh yeah I just saw that myself. I was thinking: Leica T type 702 or something like that. ;-)

 

Seriously though what I would love for the Leica T type 702 whatever the next model ends up being:

 

1) Integrated EVF (and GPS if they can fit it in) rangefinder style.

2) Weather sealed

3) I personally like the original strap but I think that I may be the only person in the whole world who does so I think that they should ship with their version of the Match Technical strap lugs.

4) Faster processor especially for bootup and waking up out of sleep

 

However, if they could do something like Konost appears to be doing and make a hybrid digital rangefinder and then change the M adapter so that it has a cam that reads the lens focus position and feeds that back into the digital rangefinder, then I think they have made a huge step forward toward making a modern rangefinder.

 

Other lens specific requests:

1) make the focus ring have stops rather than being free spinning.

2) also give me a tab so that I can pre-focus more easily. I don't mind about focus by wire vs. mechanical but being able to feel a stop and position by muscle memory matters to me.

3) weather and dust sealed.

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I tend to agree that there likely will not be a finished camera for sale. I can't imagine how it could be really great and also be cost competitive at small volumes. And without a significant discount to a Leica, who would buy it? (It would have to be below $3000 just to compete with used M9s)

 

I can't say if people who have a "drawer" full of lenses will buy it. (Assuming it works well with all or many M mount lenses.) But my understanding of the camera market is that manufacturers make most of their money from selling lenses, not camera bodies. And Konost is not planning to make lenses so they can't subsidize their camera by selling lenses. Whereas Sony can get people who own a variety of lenses to buy into the A7. And once they do, many will also buy Sony lenses for it.

 

If people buy Sony A7 varients to deal with SLR lenses why wont they buy a cost effective M equivalent for RF wide lenses?

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I tend to agree that there likely will not be a finished camera for sale. I can't imagine how it could be really great and also be cost competitive at small volumes. And without a significant discount to a Leica, who would buy it? (It would have to be below $3000 just to compete with used M9s)

 

I can't say if people who have a "drawer" full of lenses will buy it. (Assuming it works well with all or many M mount lenses.) But my understanding of the camera market is that manufacturers make most of their money from selling lenses, not camera bodies. And Konost is not planning to make lenses so they can't subsidize their camera by selling lenses. Whereas Sony can get people who own a variety of lenses to buy into the A7. And once they do, many will also buy Sony lenses for it.

 

It would be a tiny fraction of people who jump camera systems on a now regular basis because of the tempting lenses on offer (particularly as lenses come second in a manufacturers release roadmap). Instead they buy the latest sexy body and then go for the 'which lens' question on camera forums. So all you need is a sexy body.

 

 

 

Steve

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If people buy Sony A7 varients to deal with SLR lenses why wont they buy a cost effective M equivalent for RF wide lenses?

 

Some probably will. I just don't know if they can make a decent camera and sell it at a low enough price. As for the Sony, consider how much R&D must have gone into that and Sony already had most of the technology, software, and development system in place. If Konost can subcontract to a Chinese camera company for much of this, it might work... I can't say.

 

But there are so many "ifs" that we all can come up with I see it as a very "iffy" venture...Too many "what ifs" for me to even try to list.

 

If they have their engineering, testing, manufacturing, and marketing worked out along with a good business plan and financing, then my hat is off to them.

 

Looking at the photos, I have to wonder why the neck strap lugs are vertical. Lenses are going to block some of the viewfinder pretty easily. I can't judge much else.

Edited by AlanG
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If it does RF wides justice

Nothing in the Konost design suggests that it will; actually there is no indication they have given the issues involved any thought. Sourcing an off-the-shelf CMOSIS sensor doesn‘t cut it. They cannot even use lens coding to automatically apply lens-specific corrections.

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I've got to hand it to the Konost people: They have managed to play the "Leica is too expensive, I wish there were a cheap alternative" and the "Leica sensors suck, I wish somebody would stick a 50 MP Fusocanon sensor in the M" sentiments simultaneously...

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Nothing in the Konost design suggests that it will; actually there is no indication they have given the issues involved any thought. Sourcing an off-the-shelf CMOSIS sensor doesn‘t cut it. They cannot even use lens coding to automatically apply lens-specific corrections.

 

That's my feeling too... :o... the best I can whish them is to find someone interested in buying some of thier ideas... personally, I have some doubt (but of course can be wrong) that their rangefinder concept is easy to be engineered/industrialized with their resources.

 

Just to chat... next to my local office there is a small lab that does R&S around sensors used for surveying... they have developed a processing board for a certain sensor, using a certain CPU... (details are under NDA, sorry... :cool:) : some weeks ago I talked with one people of them, and, looking at their experimental system, I proposed them to mount one of my Summicrons in front of their sensor+board+interface... just to see "what comes out from"... : we have made (with a 3D printer) a decent mount (LTM female, so I can use BM or SM lens in case...:)) to position the lens in front of the sensor , and maybe will find the time to try to get an image : I don't think this will result in a tentative to make a M mount camera... :D

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Zeiss and Voitlander were probably falling about laughing in 1923, when they heard that a microscope company was going to introduce a camera using cine film.

 

Sadly however, I don't quite see Konost emulating the success of Leica. They have an awful lot of technical hurdles to jump over, not least raising the money to continue development but they might get it on Kickstarter or similar.

 

Leica might be forced to licence the 6 bit lens detection system to Konost under FAIR regulations, if they don't make their own lenses and maybe Leica should in turn, look at the hybrid viewfinder/rangefinder idea to see if it has possibilities.

 

Wilson

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Actually the idea is to combine the optical viewfinder image with a rangefinder patch supplied by a secondary sensor on the other side of the lens (not the main sensor). It works like an optomechanical rangefinder, only with the patch created electronically (and shifted electronically rather than by a pivoting prism).

 

:confused: I wonder how it can really work... and above all, how it renders in some dark situations, with the OVF sight that is in "natural" lighting and the RF electronic image superposed, with its "artificial" lighting... maybe this contrast can be somewy useful... 80 years ago or so Leitz made the OKARO and ORAKO filters for this purpose... :p

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