New EVIL Body for R lenses?

[georg]

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"Given the fact that Leitz previously formed a partnership with Minolta in order to manufacture the R3 based on the Minolta XE"

 

That's exactly what scares me: the simple and cheap way. They replaced the Leicaflex with a mediocre Japanese SLR - it ruined the image from Leica for years ( Leica M = real, Leica SLR = fake, most photographers I met still thought the R8 and newer R-lenses are actually rebranded Minoltas), it destroyed jobs (the typical logic: we cut costs by laying off 1000 people in Germany and outsource the work to save 100 jobs by better competitivness) and know-how (they stopped developing shutters for example),

 

Maybe they convinced Panasonic to make a full-frame-solution for them, but they are not partners on the same level and never will be. Whenever they can make profit on Leicas back, they will do it (like selling the "R10" for half the price with a Panasonic-logo) Panasonic and the others will always have the cheaper solutions, the bigger sales numbers. Their weakness lies within their size and ideology. They HAVE to cut costs with every generation, they HAVE to ruin engineers-solutions by cost-cutting and compromises based on consumer-surveys ("photographers WANT smile recognition, they want superzooms with IS, they want more plastic, they want HD-video"). They end up with a compromise that fit's the needs of 99 million customers somehow, but what's with the other 1 million? They don't want the cheap and easy way, they're looking for something special, a system that can do certain things better because it's not such a compromise. They will never achieve that with a Panasonic-made system. NOW is the chance, they can re-establish know-how, everything is there, high-end suppliers with unique solutions are right behind the corner - something that cannot be achieved by the even smaller niche players like Phase or Hasselblad.

 

The very some situation occured in the digital cinematography market:

The famous film-camera-maker Panavision created a digital camera with the help from Sony ("because they can do electonics much better...") - they were succesful but now Sony implemented this technology in their own camera and ended the corporation - Panavision has to start all over again by themselves (luckily, they have other advantages within this market). Their opponent ARRI didn't do that. They had no know-how for a digital camera as well but they invested the money and developed one. Now they have the second generation with superior sensitivity and DR and even an HD-viewfinder unlike any of the "big three"...

 

I think Leica can learn from that.

 

I really hope for a Leica-EVIL I can use my Apo 180 as well as my M-lenses with! Of course not this year but a hint for the future on Photokina (like with the S2) would be nice.

 

Anyway, the decisions were made already, so let's hope for the best.

[janki]

Speaking about Leica R3. A few days ago I went trough som old photo-magazins.

Amog the magazins I found a more then 30 years old brochure of the R3 camera system.

When I was a teenager, I had a big dream one day to become an owner of that camera system.

Now the R-system is history. The future is digital. In Norway it is almost impossible to buy a film. Not even at the photo dealer.

The “deep” digital camera sensors, requires lenses designed for each particularly camera system.

I suppose the wide angel R-lenses, designed for film based cameras, would never give an akseptabel corner quality.

What I have seen so far from the S2- 35mm lens (aprox 28mm FF), the corner quality is excellent.

In a few weeks, I guess we will know what kind of digital sollution that will replace the R-system.

I hope it will be a kind of “FF mini S2-system” with lenses particularly designed for that new system. Of course it will be nice if the system can have an adapter R-sollution as well.

 

Jan Erik

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[wildlightphoto]

I suppose the wide angel R-lenses, designed for film based cameras, would never give an akseptabel corner quality.

 

Aside from mirror clearance with some combinations of camera and lens, the R wide-angle lenses are fine on full-frame Canon, Nikon and Sony camera bodies.