New Leica in september part two: Leica M-P titan version. Why not in regular production.

[Paulus]

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It's nice to make an M-P Titan, solid Titan.

 

But why not make it as a productionmodel without the lenses. It would be the perfect camera IMHO.

 

price: € 22.000 minus the lenses 50 and 28 which are included now.

 

As a production model it would get even cheaper. Say € 10.000.

 

Would this be possible?

 

 

 

 

 

[lm_user]

Yes possible. Leica must think it can make more money doing things their way...

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[edwardkaraa]

Titanium is not a practical metal to be used on cameras. It is easy to scratch and the scratches look ugly. Such camera is meant for collectionneurs in my opinion.

[Paulus]

Titanium is not a practical metal to be used on cameras. It is easy to scratch and the scratches look ugly. Such camera is meant for collectionneurs in my opinion.

Titanium is  wonderful; easy to scratch but also easy to polish, as strong as steel, as light as aluminium.

[Chuck Albertson]

Titanium is tough to work with. Titanium sponge (base material) has a habit of bursting into flame, and welding it has to be done in a vacuum. Casting pieces of it is no fun, either. I once spent a few days in a plant that casts titanium parts for jet engines and the like, and it's as much art as science. Did I mention that it's expensive? When Lockheed was building the SR-71 (whose fuselage was made of titanium) in the early 1960s, the Soviet Union had a lock on the market for the metal; the CIA had to set up a dummy overseas corporation to buy it from them.

[jdlaing]

Titanium is tough to work with. Titanium sponge (base material) has a habit of bursting into flame, and welding it has to be done in a vacuum. Casting pieces of it is no fun, either. I once spent a few days in a plant that casts titanium parts for jet engines and the like, and it's as much art as science. Did I mention that it's expensive? When Lockheed was building the SR-71 (whose fuselage was made of titanium) in the early 1960s, the Soviet Union had a lock on the market for the metal; the CIA had to set up a dummy overseas corporation to buy it from them.

You are fast reaching the limits of too much information. Someone is always watching. :-)

[bencoyote]

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Titanium is  wonderful; easy to scratch but also easy to polish, as strong as steel, as light as aluminium.

True but you must design for it to get the real benefit. So the dimensions of parts must change to make use of the strength to weight ratio.

[bencoyote]

Titanium is tough to work with. Titanium sponge (base material) has a habit of bursting into flame, and welding it has to be done in a vacuum. Casting pieces of it is no fun, either. I once spent a few days in a plant that casts titanium parts for jet engines and the like, and it's as much art as science. Did I mention that it's expensive? When Lockheed was building the SR-71 (whose fuselage was made of titanium) in the early 1960s, the Soviet Union had a lock on the market for the metal; the CIA had to set up a dummy overseas corporation to buy it from them.

This information is EXTREMELY out of date. The titanium design and fabrication industries have advanced substantially since this was true. Now it's used frequently pretty much everywhere from bike parts to select parts on even mass produced vehicles.

 

The challenges is that you have to design parts around the mechanical properties of the titanium alloy that you're using to get the best benefit of titanium's extremely good strength to weight ratio. When Leica just takes brass magnesium and aluminum parts and substitutes titanium it's highly unlikely believe that they are going to redesign the parts and change dimensions to take advantage of titanium's better mechanical properties.

[jdlaing]

Titanium A L L O Y.