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CEO Alfred Schopf and future products


hoppyman

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Agreed, from the technical side interesting.

But would it be bought in numbers?

The production of Ms suffers from either narrow tolerances or manual work.

Shouldn't Leica convert to a simple camera maker at low(er) costs per unit?

Jan

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Oh yes, I have been thinking. This is an old, narrow mount.

 

Where would these contacts be situated? Not in the flange - that is full metal to metal and there needs to be (retro-)compatibility with existing lenses, so it has to be an internal contact strip, like the R ROM.

 

There is simply no space.

 

Like Canon, they had to switch to EOS.

 

We might also wildly speculate to the significance of the letter “T”.

 

R is SLR, S is DSLR - What can the sequence signify? OM-D style?:confused:

 

 

Jaap, don't be obtuse (or rude). Let me put this more simply. The Nikon F mount (or G mount, I think it is on my D800) still takes traditional Nikkor manual focus lenses.

 

The mount (not the electronic gubbins) can be designed to take AF and MF lenses - no reason the M mount can't do the same.

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Yes, as I tried to explain, there is a reason. Because of its age (1938 on the Leica IV) the M mount is too narrow to allow sensible incorporation of electric contacts. The Nikon SLR mount -much more recent- was more generously proportioned to start with. The Canon mount was not, so Canon made a drastic switch. Not appreciated at the time, but developments proved them right.

 

I don’t know what you think I am saying, but I am saying that I think Leica must have a new mount for AF lenses and will need an adapter for older lenses. Adapting the M mount seems to me to be close to impossible.

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Yes, as I tried to explain, there is a reason. Because of its age (1938 on the Leica IV) the M mount is too narrow to allow sensible incorporation of electric contacts. The Nikon SLR mount -much more recent- was more generously proportioned to start with. The Canon mount was not, so Canon made a drastic switch. Not appreciated at the time, but developments proved them right.

 

I don’t know what you think I am saying, but I am saying that I think Leica must have a new mount for AF lenses and will need an adapter for older lenses. Adapting the M mount seems to me to be close to impossible.

Perhaps they could just develop the R mount further -- it seems to have plenty of room for autofocus contacts. At least one could then use the R range of Leica lenses with it.

 

Nick

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We’ll speak again when your miracle M mount appears. In the meantime I’ll stick to common sense.:) As for innovation - postulating a new mount as opposed to clinging to the old one….

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We’ll speak again when your miracle M mount appears. In the meantime I’ll stick to common sense.:) As for innovation - postulating a new mount as opposed to clinging to the old one….

 

I quickly thought of several designs for electrical contracts that would take up very little space inside the body. I'm sure any good designer could come up with numerous solutions. It could be as simple as a small protruding plug that makes contact at the end of the rotation of the lens. Look at how small a micro USB plug is or the contracts for a clip on EVF. That's not to say a new mount would be a bad idea.

 

Back to my suggestion for a more "professional" type action camera... there is nothing filling that market at the moment. A fraction of GoPro's profits would be larger than all of Leica's income. Of course Leica is not the kind of company to think as creatively as the founder of GoPro did.

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I quickly thought of several designs for electrical contracts that would take up very little space inside the body.

 

As the rangefinder is no longer needed, the new M mount could use "a co-axial electrical connection, with a plurality of radially spaced contacts" in place of the cam on the lens ( at least that's how the patent would describe it ;) )

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An M mount would sell the body to current lens owners but a range of lenses with autofocus that only cover APS would protect the sale of M bodies but leave open the option of M lens sales for the new body. The S software is already autofocus. Don't expect cheaper M lenses.

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A "better" A7®, RF alike form factor, better build, superior materials and finishing, more manual controls some Leica quality AF primes, a few excellent zooms, a M mount adapter would make me interested. RFs will always be a niche and Leica has to try to compete at the top some other interesting market segments. Aps-c and mft milc offerings are plenty and the market crowded. Definitely not a place for Leica to go. A high end USD 3-4k Leica FF milc with premium lenses will sell.

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A "better" A7®, RF alike form factor, better build, superior materials and finishing, more manual controls some Leica quality AF primes, a few excellent zooms, a M mount adapter would make me interested. RFs will always be a niche and Leica has to try to compete at the top some other interesting market segments. Aps-c and mft milc offerings are plenty and the market crowded. Definitely not a place for Leica to go. A high end USD 3-4k Leica FF milc with premium lenses will sell.

 

Is that like a F/F XPro-1 then?:)

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Yes - but it would make no sense as it could not take M lenses, even with an adapter.

 

Maybe that is exactly the plan, keep the M line untouched, re-use the R Mount with AF enhancement, would that make sense T AS sucessor oft R?

Then everyone who wants M feeling needs to stay in the M line, new customers with AF demands will take the T series and existing R customers would be able to re-use their MF R lenses...

Ah, Kind of dreaming ;-)

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