Photokina 2016

[willeica]

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Yep, MF EVF-based (EFC*) cameras seem to be the trend. 

 

 

*  I agree with Sean Reid on his dislike for the term 'mirrorless' cameras, which technically would include the M.  As he wrote on the SL:

 

 Many people use the term “mirrorless” for these cameras but I don’t do that because it isn’t a very good descriptor (it’s actually a marketing term Panasonic invented many years ago for a set of press releases). We define other cameras by the ways they allow us to see and focus the subject: SLR, rangefinder, window finder, etc. We don’t try to define them by what they don’t have. There are reasons why we don’t still refer to automobiles as “horseless” carriages. There are several camera types that don’t use mirrors. The SL is one of them – an electronic finder camera, an EFC.

 

Jeff

 

To this you could add 'analogue' for film photography and 'files' for digital photos and many other examples of what I call 'digi-babble'. All of this is built around a concept of a digital SLR as a 'norm', but we already had perfectly good words many years ago to describe most of these things. The only such 'new term' worth its place is EVF for Electronic Viewfinder because nothing we had before can describe the concept.

 

William

[Jeff S]

To this you could add 'analogue' for film photography and 'files' for digital photos and many other examples of what I call 'digi-babble'. All of this is built around a concept of a digital SLR as a 'norm', but we already had perfectly good words many years ago to describe most of these things. The only such 'new term' worth its place is EVF for Electronic Viewfinder because nothing we had before can describe the concept.

 

William

 

Old habits are had to break sometimes.....while we no longer say 'horseless carriage', we still use the term horsepower for cars.

 

And I agree with EVF....I'd rather simply say what the camera has than what it doesn't have (a mirror).

 

Pet peeves....hard to argue against....just personal taste.

 

Jeff

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[dpitt]

I agree with most of this thread, certainly with the fact that Leica moves are hard to predict. One thing that is not mentioned here to my big surprise is the long awaited R solution.

Since the abondonement of the R range and the DMR in 2009... Actually it would be more correct to say since 2006 because development for future models was probably stopped in its tracks around that date, a lot of R-users have been waiting for a proper digital solution.

 

The M240 provided some hope to give my R lens collection some second life, but it still looked too much like a clumsy add-on. Just like the Visoflex I to III must have felt as an answer to the SLR market. Eventually it was solved by the first SL and ended with the R9/DMR.

 

The Leica SL (Typ 601)...IMO should have been called R10 or at least SL3 to avoid confusion with the old SL of the sixties. But it looks to me like we finally have some body to accommodate my longer R tele lenses, and heavy R lenses in general. As much as I like the compactness of my M9, this form factor would never suit as a DSLR solution for the R lenses. Trying to be all things to all people is probably the worst thing Leica could aim for in a product.

 

I appreciate Leica for its vision to release niche products that are limited in scope, but excellent at what they can do e.g. :

Leica M9

Leica MM1

Leica M-D

Leica M-262

 

Leica SL range = FF form factor

 

Leica S range

... ?

Edited September 1, 2016 by dpitt