Zeiss Viewfinder debate for the WATE

[jackal]

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the viewfinder is a BEAST

but strangely it doesnt seem to matter

 

i just look like even more of a twit with the camera although it doesnt bother me that much

[AtelierM]

Bob,

Thank you for the response--I've used the "nearly" method myself, but while reading all the comments about the issues/problems of using different finders I somehow come back to the thought of why doesn't the M8 allow a live view? In most cases it would negate the need for the viewfinder. I haven't seen/held the new Universal Viewfinder, but from the photos it appears to be about the size of a small lens--significant--plus one needs to further adjust it for the distance [in addition to the lens being used].

 

My next lens acquisition will be one in the 15-16mm range. If it is the WATE, I would be more inclined to purchase the 21-24-28 viewfinder because of the size/simplicity.

 

I would appreciate any recommendations for this direction, but I'd still like to know why "live view" can't be an option for the camera. Perhaps Guy Mancuso has better insight from his communications with Leica?

 

Thanks,

Mikeual [Michael]

[Guest guy_mancuso]

Hmmm we never talked about live view on the M8 but certainly we can toss this around for future product. personnally if they did it i would like the ability to go either way with a simple switch . it would take some reengineering i would imagine to get the image off the sensor to the LCD. obviously it has been done with P&S cameras but not sure what leica thinks about this option as a pro level camera.

[Stan Yoder]

Hmmm we never talked about live view on the M8 but certainly we can toss this around for future product. personnally if they did it i would like the ability to go either way with a simple switch . it would take some reengineering i would imagine to get the image off the sensor to the LCD. obviously it has been done with P&S cameras but not sure what leica thinks about this option as a pro level camera.

 

How are you going to get the image past a closed shutter to the sensor? P&S cameras don't have shutters so they can do it. They simply gate the sensor on and off for exposure.

 

Maybe it could be done somewhat like the old Zeiss Ikon Contaflex SLRs which had interlens Compur shutters: winding on opened the shutter and iris for viewing via the mirror and prism. Exposure first closed the shutter, set the iris, lifted the mirror, then opened and closed the shutter for actual exposure. Pretty complicated and noisy, though RF cameras don't have mirrors and prisms to contend with.

 

Some of the Oly dSLRs have a separate sensor in the prism-to-eyepiece path to gather a pre-exposure image for the screen.

 

Stan Yoder

[lars_bergquist]

Hmmm we never talked about live view on the M8 but certainly we can toss this around for future product. personnally if they did it i would like the ability to go either way with a simple switch . it would take some reengineering i would imagine to get the image off the sensor to the LCD. obviously it has been done with P&S cameras but not sure what leica thinks about this option as a pro level camera.

 

You will never have live view for two good reasons: 1) no battery life, and 2) sensor heat-up. Remember, we are not talking of a little-finger-nail size chip here. Large sensors that work continuously, as in an airborne FLIR (Forward-Looking Infra-Red) system have to cool the sensors with liquid air in order to get a useful signal-to-noise ratio. Dragging a net cord and a big Dewar, anyone?

 

The insufferable old man from the Age of Physics

[nryn]

Why bother with a rangefinder if you have a live LCD view? A few smaller DSLRs already have this feature (Oly).

 

I hope they never bother with this feature, at least for the M. It's hard for me to imagine a bunch of people holding their Ms at arms length, looking at the back of the screen.

 

They'd have to supply some better batteries, that's for sure.

[AtelierM]

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Some additional thoughts: This was targeted towards the extreme wide angle lens where the additional attached viewfinder has some issues/where live view would provide the actual photo frame that would be taken. It doesn't change the basic concept of the camera--focusing and other controls would still be the same. There are limitations, and most likely this would work best with a tripod, say shooting architectural/landscape scenes.

 

As for the physics/heat problem, doesn't the Digilux 3 have [in essence] live view? Seems I recall Olympus took a different approach with an additional sensor for the monitor.

 

Battery life--when the monitor is used, whether for review, checking the focus, or in this instance when composing the photo, it consumes power--certainly adding the sensor increases the consumption, but it doesn't need to be on all the time. Having to retake the photo additional times also depletes the battery. An additional battery could possibly solve this, and would certainly be smaller and less expensive than a Universal Viewfinder, but the basic concept remains--improving accuracy of the composition.

 

If Leica is not already well into the development of the next generation M8 I would be very surprised. We won't see it for a while, but if this concept has merit this is probably a good time to express thoughts on such issues--let Leica work out the technical problems.