Scientific Leica?

[Universalb50]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

Is there any reason why there is no digital counterpart to the Ic, If, Ig, MD or MDa. A less expensive camera without rangefinder/viewfinder may appeal to those using wide angle lens, Visoflex, MIKAS, AUFSU, etc? 

[jaapv]

No market?  There are so many options for specialized demands that it would make little sense to adapt a general camera.

[gyoung]

My optcian used to use some fancy piece of kit with an Olympus OM1 on it.

Now all hs digital kit has digital recording built into it.

I have some interesting 'snaps' of my left eye retina showing scarring!

 

Gerry

[pico]

I would not be surprised if obviating the RF incurs additional expense today,

but it is an intriguing idea!

[earleygallery]

Is there any reason why there is no digital counterpart to the Ic, If, Ig, MD or MDa. A less expensive camera without rangefinder/viewfinder may appeal to those using wide angle lens, Visoflex, MIKAS, AUFSU, etc? 

 

Buy a Leica T.

[LCL999]

There is a market space for a range of image equipment targeted at laboratories. Just schools would be a huge market.

It is best to think of the applications, and only then to specify the equipment. Leitz used to make a huge range of adapters and other bits and pieces. That background is important.

 

Applications. In no particular order and with some comments on requirements.

1) Astronomical. Needs include adapters for telescopes; infra-red capability, especially the Hydrogen line in the near IR; long exposures without long-inter exposure delays.

2) Time lapse. Needs automation. Changing light can present its own problems.

3) Microscopic. Not just the optics, but all the other kit.

4) Triggered exposures. For wildlife. And even for that classic physics experiment to determine the velocity of a bullet.

5) Surveying. 

6) Presenting the results. Video with voice over.

 

Features such as robustness, remote control.

 

Choosing the boundaries. Every application will require an interface to other equipment. I'm not suggesting Leica must provide telescopes, or rifles, or stains for slides, or live tigers.

 

All of the above can be addressed with currently available kit. What I envisage is a package, complete with instructions and details of how to carry out  a range of experiments/demonstrations. The school lab. would be a great initial target, as would amateur astronomers.

 

I'm not thinking of just another camera (like the X-U). It could require a complete department within Leica, or a spin-off. Perhaps even with a separate name and logo.

Edited September 28, 2018 by LCL999

[adan]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

Leica built the scientific Leicas when they were one scientific/optical company, making microscopes. Ernst Leitz GMBH. Those particular cameras were "accessories" for the microscopes.

 

The businesses were split up 21 years ago*. And Leica Microsystems now makes its own microscope cameras. https://www.leica-microsystems.com/products/microscope-cameras/

 

Leica Microsystems (now a subsidiary of Danaher Corp.) owns the "Leica" trademark and tradename, and licenses it to Leica Camera GMBH (and to Leica Geosystems, yet another now-independent company (engineering and surveying optics)) for use on their products.

 

I suspect Leica Camera trying to muscle in on Leica Microsystems' markets would raise - complications. But one would have to read the fine print of the "divorce agreement."

 

Bottom line - once you remove the general-purpose photography lenses and the unique RF/VF, a Leica M is just a vastly-overpriced box, with nothing of substance to offer.

__________________

 

*that's the short version - the long version includes a decade of corporate mergers and reorganizations and rebranding and split-offs and IPOs, at a time when Leica cameras were not the healthiest of products.