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Current State of Leica T


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pros:

very good lenses

simple and intuitive user interface

nice display and solid camera body

excellent image quality

 

cons:

high price

AF and camera is fast but not as fast as EM1 or Sony A7II

delay in viewfinder after taking an image

only one native prime available at the moment

wheels turn easy, can sometimes change by accident

no real image stabilization

no weather protection

 

I like it better than I had expected!

I am surprised there are not more people using it. I thin some make the mistake and believe it handles like a smartphone and is not made for real photographers. But I believe thats not the case.

Edited by tom0511
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Well, I like the T very much, easy to use, very good IQ. The AF could be faster, but it's quite ok. The touch screen is really great. I don't really like the 18-56mm, but the 23 mm is nearly perfect. I'm interested to buy the tele zoom, but I haven't seen any pictures yet except Leica's. I think I will take a M 75mm or M 90 mm instead of the zoom.

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I like it better than I had expected!

I am surprised there are not more people using it. I thin some make the mistake and believe it handles like a smartphone and is not made for real photographers. But I believe thats not the case.

 

In addition to what Tom said:

 

Pro:

  • USB charging - this ends up being how I charge it most of the time. It is great in the car or when I'm backpacking and so much easier than 12v.
  • light and small

 

Con:

  • the aluminum is a tiny bit soft. I have a couple of minor dents/scratches now.
  • The live view CMOS sensor is a bit of an Achilles Heel with the current firmware.
    [**]Though firmware 1.3 improves the sleep wakeup time, it is still not quite fast enough to really do good shoot from the hip photography because it has to wake up the sensor and put it into live view mode before it responds to a shutter press even if you are using MF, completely manual shutter, aperture and ISO. So you sort of have to keep the camera awake which burns batteries otherwise it is about 4s from initial wakeup shutter press until the camera will activate the shutter.
  • I find that it gets sensor dust frequently. Others don't seem to be affected as often as I am. I think it may be related to how I often times toss it in a pack. It would be nice if they closed the shutter when it turns off like the M.
  • The iPhone app is a good start but it needs a lot more work.

 

Before you go on understand that I really really really love my Leica T. This is my full list:

 

Software

  1. More frequent firmware updates to build interest and momentum and show people that this is an innovative project. "Predicting the future is hard, I prefer to make the future what I would like it to be."
  2. Defer initializing the lens and the screen when waking up in MF mode. Just activate the shutter. Allows shooting from the hip and zone focusing. (1/30/2015)
  3. DFD licensed from Panasonic to improve autofocus speed
  4. Tracking AF
  5. Focus scale in AF mode when you have focus lock (10/29/2014)
  6. Make 2s self timer stay on for multiple shots. (10/29/2014)
  7. Feature: (low) Write to both SD and internal memory for data protection
  8. UI: make the ISO selection a matrix rather than a scrolling list
  9. Bulb mode. Hopefully live bulb mode.
  10. Feature: (high) WiFi Authentication on web browser
  11. Bug: WiFi Browser access doesn't work on firmware 1.2 (10/29/2014)
  12. Feature: (high) WiFi Use https rather than http for browser so that data can't be sniffed.
  13. Feature: WiFi automatically phone home and download new firmware.
  14. Feature: WiFi Use GPS position from iPhone app to fill in EXIF data when viewfinder is not attached. Might be better if they used bluetooth for this in real time which would reduce battery consumption. However I don't know if there is HW. An offline mode that records a track and then updates all the photo's EXIF data might be a good option. (1/20/2014)
  15. Feature: WiFi IPv6
  16. Bug: No cursor when entering network passwords
  17. Grab current almanac for GPS over WiFi (1/20/2015)
  18. Set time and date via NTP (1/20/2015)
  19. Download tzdata over WiFi and set local time. (1/20/2015)
  20. Feature sunset and sunrise at location - golden hour
  21. Local time & GMT so that travel doesn't jumble the picture order
  22. Feature: Ability to disable video button or reassign it to a different feature.
  23. Feature: Ability to rename Profiles to something specific like a person's name or a use case
  24. Feature: save and load profiles from SD card like on M.
  25. Feature: (very low) some way to see the gps position of a photo when playing it back.
  26. Feature: focus bracketing. This is particularly useful for macro photography.
  27. Feature: time lapse mode.
  28. Spend some serious effort on video to bring it up to the level of the LX100 - license from Panasonic. If you are going to do it, do it right.
  29. A camera feature which may be a nice heuristic while not taking away from Das Wesentlisch would be to have the camera recall its last location and when it gets an GPS position from the EVF that would put it in the new timezone, have it prompt the user and ask if they would like to set a new timezone.

 

Hardware

  • More subtle physical design - thumb grip & index finger overhang
  • Slight texture difference between left and right thumb dials.
  • Charger that takes USB (or 12v) as well as AC.
  • Faster processor to allow more FPS
  • M-Adapter with cam to record focal length
  • Built in EVF rangefinder style
  • Weather & dust sealed
  • Harder alloy of Aluminum

 

App

  • Feature: (low) Transfer full res images over WiFi
  • A key feature needed to be able to quickly review pictures is the ability to swipe through them. The current way that the app works is, you have to return to the gallery view and then select the next picture to view. This interrupts the flow especially when trying to show people the pictures you have just taken or when you are trying to select which version you are going to post on social media. Please add a feature to allow you to swipe left and right through the images without returning to the gallery
  • From the gallery view, please add a feature that allows you to select multiple pictures to download into the camera role. It would also be nice if there were a "Select all" feature
  • Because the EVF makes the camera so much more difficult to carry in a case or a coat pocket, I don't always use it. I primarily use it when I'm going to be needing to use the camera in bright light when the screen is difficult to read. However, it would be nice if the camera could geocode images even when the EVF is not connected. A way to do this that other camera vendors have done is to hit a button in the app and the smartphone starts recording the track in the smartphone. Then when you connect to the camera to the app, it compares the date and time of the pictures to the positions on the track recorded in the app and then sets the location metadata for the photos. This feature could also be a boon to those who would like geocoded pictures but who don't have an EVF. A variation of this which might not be idea might be to maintain a connection to a smartphone using the Personal Hotspot feature and fetch the position from the phone at the time that the shutter is pressed.
  • When it is connected to the smartphone app, fetch the current timezone so that when you are traveling, the metadata can be correct for the location that you are traveling in. That way the an event doesn't get split into two days when imported into lightroom just because it happened to span midnight in your hometown and you forgot to reset the clock for local time.
  • When the EVF is connected, I notice that it seems to take a rather long time to acquire its position. I suspect that this probably has to do with getting the initial rough approximation of position as well as the almanac for the satellites. There are several ways that you can speed this up. One is to store the last known position as well as the latest almanac in the camera that way the GPS can find itself more quickly. When the camera has a WiFi connection to the internet, it can also download the current satellite almanac to upload to the camera. This is the technique often used by watches and smartphones. If you don't want to add this to the camera firmware, a convenient place to add it might be have the Leica T app fetch the latest almanac over the internet and share its current location and set those in the camera for the next time that the EVF wants to find its position.

 

Lenses general

  • Generally faster zoom lenses
  • Macro lens
  • Weather and dust sealed
  • Aperture ring on the lens with scale
  • Manual focus tab.
  • Stops at minimum focus-infinity focus length rather than free spinning. Quoting: A second glance: two takes on the Leica X: Digital Photography Review "When compared to other focus-by-wire systems, this camera does things well. The focus ring has hard stops at minimum focus and infinity within less than one 360-degree revolution (something Olympus has also got right on a handful of its Micro Four Thirds lenses). This solves two major problems with focus-by-wire systems. First, it means minimum and infinity are always where you left them. There aren't any sort of algorithms calculating how fast the focus mechanism should move based on how quickly the ring was turned, and it means that infinity isn't going to be anywhere from 1 to 16 turns away: it will always be within one turn of the wrist. Plus, this system enables Leica to paint on a pretty distance scale instead of forcing you to stare at a screen to estimate focus distance. Combine this easy to use manual focusing with focus peaking and finally there is a compact camera with fast, simple manual focusing."

 

Requested lenses:

  • Summilux-T 35mm f/1.4 (50mm equiv)
  • Summilux-T 57-60mm f/1.4 (85-90mm equiv) f/1.2 would be nice.
  • Macro-Elmar-T 60mm f/4-22 (90mm equiv) The tiny f/22 is handy when doing close macro work. Diffraction be damned.

 

Leica please make a Type 702 quickly. It can be basically the same camera just put the EVF into the camera, you can forget the flash if space is a problem. Then weather seal it and I'll be happy.

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Ben, I see you put some extensive thought in how you want to use the T and how to improve it already.

 

I mostly underwrite your conclusions, although you have clearly a different style of photographing with, I suspect, a preference for shooting moving things, hence the wish to make te T having a faster AF, and in general, faster electronics.

 

For me improvements in startup time and the AF-motion are always welcome and I think will come certainly in next iterations of the T. But perhaps this lacking in overall fastness and capacity in the electronic departement is something which all camera's (certainly Leica) suffer from. Although fast improvements in processor and electronics quality are being made in the cellphone front, it seems that camera manufacturers are 2 generations behind when it comes to processing speed and memory capacity. It is a shame really, because the T ( often compared with the I-phone) is because of it's UI, somewhat more dependent on electronics, than for example the M. So Leica should put some extra effort in it to make the T really shine.

 

I would like to add some additional suggestions to improve the T more to my liking;

Hardware (not in a particular order):

1. Use the contacts of the M-adaptor to pass the lens-information and use the lens-profile for CA and distortion compensation, like you do on the M. (and include R-lenses)

2. The EVF works fine (but please keep improving it). Somehow integration in to the body makes no sense to me. I like the ergonomics of the position of the EVF and the size of the T. The T would get bigger (certainly thicker), or get a lump on top, or they have to compromise in the quality op the optics of the EVF, if they integrate it. Both I don't want to happen. They should implement the GPS-module in the body though. Perhaps this makes the EVF somewhat smaller.

4. The connection of the EVF to the camera should be sturdier.

5. Make a lock on the diopter-dial on the EVF

6. I have the EVF on the camera all the time, so using a good flash in TTL (or of camera) is a problem. A bluetooth connection (with TTL), to trigger an improved flash would be welcome.

7. The S-26 flash has an awful restrictive manual setting. Improvements have to be made there.

8. Keep the in-house flash, it can (optically) trigger of-camera flashes. This is useful for the moment.

9. Improved battery. Although I hardly need more than 2 batteries on a day for normal shooting, when using WiFi or using the self timer for macro, the battery is going down fast. The capacity of the M-240's battery seems attractive.

10. Provide lugs for alternative straps etc as standard (the lug system is great by the way).

11.Give us a R-T adapter. The combination R-M/M-T is a bit much and there is a bit of movement between the two. Doesn't keep the camera horizontal for instance, although the quality doesn't suffer. The novoflex gives us different settings on the dials, I don't like that.

 

Lenses;

1. Review the manual mode for the T-lenses (especially on the primes). I don't like it at all. A detailed distance scale on the lens (and in the EVF), with minimum and infinite stops is a bare minimum demand. Degree of turning depending on the focal length or macro-mode. Smoother turning would be nice. Something to learn from Fuji-method, or (for the zooms) more preferable like the X-vario.

2. Keep aperture on the dials, I like it and I'm used to it now. (It is like the X1 and X-vario). And it will keep the size down, I think.

3. Compact primes,compact primes, fast compact primes. Build a quality range (14-23-35-50-60-macro) !

 

User Interface/Touchscreen (UI)

1. First I like to say, I like this very much!

2. User profiles should be stored on the internal memory, also when updating firmware.

3. Locking the screen (swipe up/down) on the right should stay in place, when shutting down/starting up.

4. Improve speed/tactility of the touchscreen (It is working fine, but the Iphone is better)

5. Give us the ability for turning, in-camera compensation for lens CA-distortion, on/off in DNG.

6. Give us an electronic spirit level.

7. Focus aid in manual mode in left dial in a loop, not a linear choice.

8. Give us the choice in magn. levels (2x/4x, 3x/6x and 5x/10x).

9. Make Bulb-mode possible.

10. There should be a info-mode where all information is showed (the right one including the "rule of third" lines), or make it programmable.

11. The App can be expanded in filetransfer and usability, but priority is for me to add the focus aid, with magnification. This would be very useful for macro and night shooting!

 

The price is (for Leica standards) acceptable, you know what you are in for when you buy Leica.

 

I really like this camera!!.

 

I am looking forward to future lenses and cameras in this line, it looks promising. But I am happily shooting this one for a foreseeable time.

 

Just my thoughts for the moment

Edited by AndrewAM
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Ben, I see you put some extensive thought in how you want to use the T and how to improve it already.

 

I mostly underwrite your conclusions, although you have clearly a different style of photographing with, I suspect, a preference for shooting moving things, hence the wish to make te T having a faster AF, and in general, faster electronics.

 

Thank you and I agree with you as well. You brought up a few things that I hadn't thought of. On this one point, I just wanted to expand on it just a little bit and explain how I got here because I think it matters in overall perception of the T.

 

Another camera that I have, sort of my previous camera but I still have it and use it from time to time (Mostly for macro or when the weather is bad) is the E-M1. As is well known the E-M1 has lightning fast AF and it does a pretty good job with continious auto focus and even focus tracking. When I got the T I found the slow AF a big problem. It kind of took some of the lustre off of the shiny silver.

 

One night it was really clear and I decided to try astrophotography. The E-M1 sucks for astrophotography (I can explain why but won't explain here) and I wanted to try the T. One of the first things that I noticed was the focus scale and how it was calibrated for distance. It wasn't just a line with a flower on one side and a mountain on the other side. It was calibrated and this made all the difference.

 

I had been reading up on the M and how people zone focus. With the upgrade from m43 to APS-C I also became more aware of DOF. Somewhere along the way, I started playing with zone focusing on the T. I realized a handful of things:

1) I tend to shoot in bursts and in most cases the shots within these bursts have about the same focal distance. I'm working composition or trying to hit a moment or somethng like that. There are actually very few cases where I need to refocus within a burst of photos.

2) In many cases, if I choose a reasonable aperture like f/5.6 on the 23mm everything in my target range is in focus anyway.

3) When I do have moving subject changing their distance rapidly, most of the time they are either out in infinity or they are roughly within a zone that I can use zone focusing with a narrower aperture. I think that I have had to pull focus on a moving subject maybe twice. It has become a game to mentally work out which aperture to use for a situation given my subject.

4) (This is more about drive mode and FPS than AF vs MF but it is important to make my point.) I had a lot more fun trying to hit the shutter at The Decisive Moment rather than picking through a huge number of images. Using AF in these situations didn't work as well because there were many cases where I would miss it as the camera hunted for focus. Alternatively, holding the shutter half pressed for >10s got tiresome. The solution was pre-focusing and MF. The camera is already set anticipate the shot by some extremely small interval click. The T has pretty minimal shutter lag especially when you have pre-set the shutter and the exposure.

 

So manual focus became more of the norm for me rather than the exception. I sort of came to realize that you either need amazing lightening fast AF or good support for MF in the camera. I will admit that using MF requires more of the photographer but it is kind of more fun.

 

So for the T, is Leica going to be able to invest as much in amazing AF systems as Canon or Nikon or even Sony, Fuji, Panasonic or Olympus? No. Leica does not have that kind of resources. Instead Leica is more about a thoughtful kind of photography, taking time to figure out how to make the shot at some point in the process. Some times that might mean figuring it out right then in the moment from first principles, other times it might be have been figured out for that situation months or years ago. e.g. Street Photography mode day - SS 1/120-1/250s A f/5.6 ISO Auto, MF focus set to 1.5-2m depending on the conditions.

 

Final thought: It was the T with its laggy AF which forced me to reconsider how I did photography. I kind of believe by learning to use MF more and being much more aware of my aperture DOF and where I was actually focusing in the frame, it made me a better photographer.

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2. The EVF works fine (but please keep improving it). Somehow integration in to the body makes no sense to me. I like the ergonomics of the position of the EVF and the size of the T. The T would get bigger (certainly thicker), or get a lump on top, or they have to compromise in the quality op the optics of the EVF, if they integrate it. Both I don't want to happen. They should implement the GPS-module in the body though. Perhaps this makes the EVF somewhat smaller.

4. The connection of the EVF to the camera should be sturdier.

5. Make a lock on the diopter-dial on the EVF

6. I have the EVF on the camera all the time, so using a good flash in TTL (or of camera) is a problem. A bluetooth connection (with TTL), to trigger an improved flash would be welcome.

 

My problems with the EVF are:

1) it looks like an after thought and interferes with the beautiful lines of the camera

2) it makes it difficult to put into a camera case with it on.

3) I worry about leaving it on the camera when I shove it in a backpack or other bag

4) Note that most people who have it seem to leave it on their camera all the time. This suggests to me that it shouldn't be an accessory but rather a built in feature of the camera.

5) It gets in the way of using a flash - if you could stick an included accessory mini flash in the hot shoe to trigger off camera flashes because the EVF was built into the camera rather than having a flash built into the camera wouldn't that be nicer?

 

I would hope that Leica would build it into a new version of the T not in the DSLR configuration that Olympus has with its OM-D line but more rangefinder style Panasonic did with its LX100, GM5 and GX7 and the way that Fuji does with its models. Remember that the parallax problem doesn't exist because you will still be viewing through the lens. Though I do admit that your brain will have to learn to point the camera with a lateral offset to your proprioception. I don't think that will be that hard.

 

The fact that Panasonic can squeeze an EVF into the the GM5 suggests to me that it can be added to a camera body without increasing size too much. It just would take some careful body reorganization. What I had in mind was move the ports for the USB and SD card forward a bit more, then slide the screen to the right and replace that area with the LED with screen, potentially disabling touch on that portion of it when the camera is being held. Then fit the EVF into the top left.

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"So for the T, is Leica going to be able to invest as much in amazing AF systems as Canon or Nikon or even Sony, Fuji, Panasonic or Olympus? No. Leica does not have that kind of resources. Instead Leica is more about a thoughtful kind of photography, taking time to figure out how to make the shot at some point in the process. Some times that might mean figuring it out right then in the moment from first principles, other times it might be have been figured out for that situation months or years ago. e.g. Street Photography mode day - SS 1/120-1/250s A f/5.6 ISO Auto, MF focus set to 1.5-2m depending on the conditions."

 

Final thought: It was the T with its laggy AF which forced me to reconsider how I did photography. I kind of believe by learning to use MF more and being much more aware of my aperture DOF and where I was actually focusing in the frame, it made me a better photographer.

 

Thanks for that.

 

Well, I think we're debating the justification of the original concept of the T here. I agree with you that fast action is not the target in developing the T. And Leica will certainly not want to compete with the other mirrorless manufacturers who want to stay in the race with the DSLR-market.

 

I am also someone who wants to take my time before tripping the shutter. I am more an architecture/(urban) landscape shooter, so the subject is hardly moving anyway. Thus I am not really interested in very fast AF or provisions for shooting action. Manual focusing is something that comes natural for this type of work. The AF of the T is welcome in those moments that the dynamics of the scene demands it.

 

The T is for me representing the M's habitat in a quality compact, for having it around all day. It has a great sensor, an excellent live view and EVF that makes using quality M and R-lenses a joy. That's what I like about the current T, very simple and easy to use, but with refinement and flexibility. Sure I would like a M, but that comes with a budget I don't want to spend on a camera system at the moment.

 

The zoomlenses provide excellent allround flexibility and quality for general use.

The (future) prime T-lenses should cater for real Leica-quality in the APS-C system, that doesn't exist yet. Wide angle lenses in the 12 to 23 and a compact and good mini telephoto lens would make my T-system complete. In my opinion, these primes will keep more serious shooters, like you and me, stay with the T-system. I don't want to be depended on the M- and R-lenses and still use this camera and it's sensor to its full capacity, also in the future.

 

We will have to accept that Leica will not primarily develop the T for the very serious photographer, be it for action or otherwise, But it doesn't mean that the T can't be improved in general or should evolve in future iterations.

Edited by AndrewAM
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Leica please make a Type 702 quickly. It can be basically the same camera just put the EVF into the camera, you can forget the flash if space is a problem. Then weather seal it and I'll be happy.

 

One other thought that I had regarding the T line of cameras. The T type 701 is a beautiful camera and part of that is the design of the case. The way that it is assembled after the case is built is fairly modular. I thought it would be very cool if instead of doing like the Japanese manufacturers did, forcing you to buy a whole new camera with every generation of the technology Leica did something different. They offered the T version of a CLA/upgrade and replaced the sensor and the processor board as new generations of the technology came out.

 

Reasons to do this:

1) It would be environmentally friendly and they could control the recycling of the old parts

2) It would provide an additional revenue stream

3) It would allow them to have a higher volume of circuit boards when they brought out a new product bringing the price per unit down.

4) It would lead to an ever increasing number of cameras out there and allow them to capture the revenue stream rather than having a second hand market develop. For luxury goods, a second hand market can devalue the original selling price. Which is part of the reason why Leica continues to sell the X-E after releasing the M type 240.

5) it would keep customers interacting with them and provide points of contact to sell more lenses etc..

6) It helps justify Leica as "Investment worthy" but adapts that concept to the for the new digital age.

7) Users like their controls to remain absolutely constant.

 

If the 701 body stays the same and they iterate through electronics periodically, then they could potentially provide other Leica T's which have different body styles and customers could find the body style that they preferred and just stay with it so long as the circuit card attachment points on the inside of the camera stayed constant.

 

Type 701 - internal flash, not weather, sealed lightest smallest

Type 711 (for example) - built in EVF, external mini-flash

Type 721 (for example) - slightly bigger/heavier - weather sealed built in EVF slightly different ergonomics

 

Maybe when upgraded the Type 701 becomes the Type 702 or 701M2 as seems to be the current fashion in the camera industry.

Edited by bencoyote
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I would hope that Leica would build it into a new version of the T not in the DSLR configuration that Olympus has with its OM-D line but more rangefinder style Panasonic did with its LX100, GM5 and GX7 and the way that Fuji does with its models. Remember that the parallax problem doesn't exist because you will still be viewing through the lens. Though I do admit that your brain will have to learn to point the camera with a lateral offset to your proprioception. I don't think that will be that hard.

 

The fact that Panasonic can squeeze an EVF into the the GM5 suggests to me that it can be added to a camera body without increasing size too much. It just would take some careful body reorganization. What I had in mind was move the ports for the USB and SD card forward a bit more, then slide the screen to the right and replace that area with the LED with screen, potentially disabling touch on that portion of it when the camera is being held. Then fit the EVF into the top left.

 

One reason they won't integrate the EVF is that they can use the EVF-module also for the M (future model) and X camera's.

This is far more economical. Secondly, they could update the EVF within the lifecycle of a camera. They haven't done it yet on the M. For this, the shoe-connection should stay the same overtime. This could be the case with the current version.

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If the 701 body stays the same and they iterate through electronics periodically, then they could potentially provide other Leica T's which have different body styles and customers could find the body style that they preferred and just stay with it so long as the circuit card attachment points on the inside of the camera stayed constant.

 

Type 701 - internal flash, not weather, sealed lightest smallest

Type 711 (for example) - built in EVF, external mini-flash

Type 721 (for example) - slightly bigger/heavier - weather sealed built in EVF slightly different ergonomics

 

Maybe when upgraded the Type 701 becomes the Type 702 or 701M2 as seems to be the current fashion in the camera industry.

 

I am all for durability and exchanging old parts for new, but I think this is very wishful thinking.

Leica will want to keep the line-up simple for the customer, without overlapping qualities in camera's.

 

I think the T will need 2 or 3 new versions, as the M needed, before this concept is fully matured and answers to all needs by the customers (i.e. lenses) and is proven to be economical viable. Then we can see if exchanging electronic modules in a high quality body could work at all.

Edited by AndrewAM
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One reason they won't integrate the EVF is that they can use the EVF-module also for the M (future model) and X camera's.

This is far more economical. Secondly, they could update the EVF within the lifecycle of a camera. They haven't done it yet on the M. For this, the shoe-connection should stay the same overtime. This could be the case with the current version.

 

True but depending on how the EVF is constructed, the GPS, optics, and electronic display module could all be the same. The only difference would be the form factor. Would it be mounted inside the camera with the camera's body providing its shell or would it be mounted in a plastic shell that attaches to the hot shoe.

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True but depending on how the EVF is constructed, the GPS, optics, and electronic display module could all be the same. The only difference would be the form factor. Would it be mounted inside the camera with the camera's body providing its shell or would it be mounted in a plastic shell that attaches to the hot shoe.

 

I can imagine standardization of the innerts of the module, although I doubt that the current optics will fit in both M,T or X-formfactor.

But the M and the X camera's will never have an integrated EVF, because of the existence of the rangefinder in the M and the preferred smaller size of the X. I also think Leica wants to maximize the scale of the (outsourced) manufacturing of this item, the T will derive therefore an outer EVF-module.

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In addition to what Tom said:

 

Pro:

  • USB charging - this ends up being how I charge it most of the time. It is great in the car or when I'm backpacking and so much easier than 12v.
  • light and small

 

Con:

  • the aluminum is a tiny bit soft. I have a couple of minor dents/scratches now.
  • The live view CMOS sensor is a bit of an Achilles Heel with the current firmware.
    [**]Though firmware 1.3 improves the sleep wakeup time, it is still not quite fast enough to really do good shoot from the hip photography because it has to wake up the sensor and put it into live view mode before it responds to a shutter press even if you are using MF, completely manual shutter, aperture and ISO. So you sort of have to keep the camera awake which burns batteries otherwise it is about 4s from initial wakeup shutter press until the camera will activate the shutter.
  • I find that it gets sensor dust frequently. Others don't seem to be affected as often as I am. I think it may be related to how I often times toss it in a pack. It would be nice if they closed the shutter when it turns off like the M.
  • The iPhone app is a good start but it needs a lot more work.

 

Before you go on understand that I really really really love my Leica T. This is my full list:

 

Software

  1. More frequent firmware updates to build interest and momentum and show people that this is an innovative project. "Predicting the future is hard, I prefer to make the future what I would like it to be."
  2. Defer initializing the lens and the screen when waking up in MF mode. Just activate the shutter. Allows shooting from the hip and zone focusing. (1/30/2015)
  3. DFD licensed from Panasonic to improve autofocus speed
  4. Tracking AF
  5. Focus scale in AF mode when you have focus lock (10/29/2014)
  6. Make 2s self timer stay on for multiple shots. (10/29/2014)
  7. Feature: (low) Write to both SD and internal memory for data protection
  8. UI: make the ISO selection a matrix rather than a scrolling list
  9. Bulb mode. Hopefully live bulb mode.
  10. Feature: (high) WiFi Authentication on web browser
  11. Bug: WiFi Browser access doesn't work on firmware 1.2 (10/29/2014)
  12. Feature: (high) WiFi Use https rather than http for browser so that data can't be sniffed.
  13. Feature: WiFi automatically phone home and download new firmware.
  14. Feature: WiFi Use GPS position from iPhone app to fill in EXIF data when viewfinder is not attached. Might be better if they used bluetooth for this in real time which would reduce battery consumption. However I don't know if there is HW. An offline mode that records a track and then updates all the photo's EXIF data might be a good option. (1/20/2014)
  15. Feature: WiFi IPv6
  16. Bug: No cursor when entering network passwords
  17. Grab current almanac for GPS over WiFi (1/20/2015)
  18. Set time and date via NTP (1/20/2015)
  19. Download tzdata over WiFi and set local time. (1/20/2015)
  20. Feature sunset and sunrise at location - golden hour
  21. Local time & GMT so that travel doesn't jumble the picture order
  22. Feature: Ability to disable video button or reassign it to a different feature.
  23. Feature: Ability to rename Profiles to something specific like a person's name or a use case
  24. Feature: save and load profiles from SD card like on M.
  25. Feature: (very low) some way to see the gps position of a photo when playing it back.
  26. Feature: focus bracketing. This is particularly useful for macro photography.
  27. Feature: time lapse mode.
  28. Spend some serious effort on video to bring it up to the level of the LX100 - license from Panasonic. If you are going to do it, do it right.
  29. A camera feature which may be a nice heuristic while not taking away from Das Wesentlisch would be to have the camera recall its last location and when it gets an GPS position from the EVF that would put it in the new timezone, have it prompt the user and ask if they would like to set a new timezone.

 

Hardware

  • More subtle physical design - thumb grip & index finger overhang
  • Slight texture difference between left and right thumb dials.
  • Charger that takes USB (or 12v) as well as AC.
  • Faster processor to allow more FPS
  • M-Adapter with cam to record focal length
  • Built in EVF rangefinder style
  • Weather & dust sealed
  • Harder alloy of Aluminum

 

App

  • Feature: (low) Transfer full res images over WiFi
  • A key feature needed to be able to quickly review pictures is the ability to swipe through them. The current way that the app works is, you have to return to the gallery view and then select the next picture to view. This interrupts the flow especially when trying to show people the pictures you have just taken or when you are trying to select which version you are going to post on social media. Please add a feature to allow you to swipe left and right through the images without returning to the gallery
  • From the gallery view, please add a feature that allows you to select multiple pictures to download into the camera role. It would also be nice if there were a "Select all" feature
  • Because the EVF makes the camera so much more difficult to carry in a case or a coat pocket, I don't always use it. I primarily use it when I'm going to be needing to use the camera in bright light when the screen is difficult to read. However, it would be nice if the camera could geocode images even when the EVF is not connected. A way to do this that other camera vendors have done is to hit a button in the app and the smartphone starts recording the track in the smartphone. Then when you connect to the camera to the app, it compares the date and time of the pictures to the positions on the track recorded in the app and then sets the location metadata for the photos. This feature could also be a boon to those who would like geocoded pictures but who don't have an EVF. A variation of this which might not be idea might be to maintain a connection to a smartphone using the Personal Hotspot feature and fetch the position from the phone at the time that the shutter is pressed.
  • When it is connected to the smartphone app, fetch the current timezone so that when you are traveling, the metadata can be correct for the location that you are traveling in. That way the an event doesn't get split into two days when imported into lightroom just because it happened to span midnight in your hometown and you forgot to reset the clock for local time.
  • When the EVF is connected, I notice that it seems to take a rather long time to acquire its position. I suspect that this probably has to do with getting the initial rough approximation of position as well as the almanac for the satellites. There are several ways that you can speed this up. One is to store the last known position as well as the latest almanac in the camera that way the GPS can find itself more quickly. When the camera has a WiFi connection to the internet, it can also download the current satellite almanac to upload to the camera. This is the technique often used by watches and smartphones. If you don't want to add this to the camera firmware, a convenient place to add it might be have the Leica T app fetch the latest almanac over the internet and share its current location and set those in the camera for the next time that the EVF wants to find its position.

 

Lenses general

  • Generally faster zoom lenses
  • Macro lens
  • Weather and dust sealed
  • Aperture ring on the lens with scale
  • Manual focus tab.
  • Stops at minimum focus-infinity focus length rather than free spinning. Quoting: A second glance: two takes on the Leica X: Digital Photography Review "When compared to other focus-by-wire systems, this camera does things well. The focus ring has hard stops at minimum focus and infinity within less than one 360-degree revolution (something Olympus has also got right on a handful of its Micro Four Thirds lenses). This solves two major problems with focus-by-wire systems. First, it means minimum and infinity are always where you left them. There aren't any sort of algorithms calculating how fast the focus mechanism should move based on how quickly the ring was turned, and it means that infinity isn't going to be anywhere from 1 to 16 turns away: it will always be within one turn of the wrist. Plus, this system enables Leica to paint on a pretty distance scale instead of forcing you to stare at a screen to estimate focus distance. Combine this easy to use manual focusing with focus peaking and finally there is a compact camera with fast, simple manual focusing."

 

Requested lenses:

  • Summilux-T 35mm f/1.4 (50mm equiv)
  • Summilux-T 57-60mm f/1.4 (85-90mm equiv) f/1.2 would be nice.
  • Macro-Elmar-T 60mm f/4-22 (90mm equiv) The tiny f/22 is handy when doing close macro work. Diffraction be damned.

 

Leica please make a Type 702 quickly. It can be basically the same camera just put the EVF into the camera, you can forget the flash if space is a problem. Then weather seal it and I'll be happy.

 

 

ok, a T-mod 702. quickly, and people who bought the 701, sell for half price, or thrown away. Great .....

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I would have to concur with many of these lists. For new prospective buyers, any camera that generates lists as long as these clearly has numerous shortcomings that will not be fixed soon. Leica is about as slow as a company can be at producing updates and frequently the updates it does produce only address one or two issues and almost always introduce a few new ones. With over 30 items on these lists, it would take Leica ten years to produce updates that addressed them. If this were a $600 camera body with lenses in the same price range, it might be more tolerable but when body us one lens puts you into the $3.5-$K range it really needs to do a lot better.

 

I'm sure Leica could do better and without a doubt should do better but until consumers speak with their wallets I doubt they will do better. Fashion buyers looking for prestige keep them going hence all of the phony limited editions, fake brassing, etc. Given the near 30% drop in the Euro you would think that Leica would have cut the price by 30% to spur US sales. They have cut the M line and lenses not nearly enough and sales are slow. They could cut the price and still make the same amount of money as they were before the Euro drop.

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