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Mark Norton and the FF m9


scjohn

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I have a secondary consideration: I hope to be able to take one of the first cameras (if&if, I know) into central Africa, and knowing Leica, there will be no spare batteries for a while, which will be a pain.

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Yes - but Leica started designing retrofocus lenses to accomodate the M5 - and there the issue was to avoid the metering cell. It was only later that they went into the design advantage that retrofocus has over symmetrical lenses in correcting aberrations on fast wideangles - that only became possible with the advent of more powerful calculating technology.

 

As far as I can make out all three of the current 24mm lenses have their rear elements about the same distance - about 18mm - from the film plane. This makes me wonder whether even the most recent lenses - the 24/1.4 and 24/3.8 - were designed with "added retrofocus" or "telecentricity" for full-frame digital, or just for the best practical combination of low aberration and low cos^4 vignetting on film.

 

Any comments from the experts?

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I have a secondary consideration: I hope to be able to take one of the first cameras (if&if, I know) into central Africa, and knowing Leica, there will be no spare batteries for a while, which will be a pain.

 

Breaking news Jaap:

 

"...new M9 should retrofit an automatic movement called Oyster-IX, developed with Rolex..." :D

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I have a secondary consideration: I hope to be able to take one of the first cameras (if&if, I know) into central Africa, and knowing Leica, there will be no spare batteries for a while, which will be a pain.

 

Suggested travel litterature:

Joseph Conrad: "Heart of darkness" ;)

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I've said before that I prefer a future digital M to retain the same M8 battery, but I suppose if it could be improved upon, especially if the new battery is smaller and/or more powerful, then it would be a wise choice to change.

 

If the M9 uses a new battery and charger, it would be nice if the new charger would also charge the M8 batteries, even if it required a (small) adaptor. I always carry spares so if traveling with two cameras taking FOUR chargers would be a pain, to say the least.

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Nothing like that. I don't think anyone will guess it without having read the book - one of Shute's best IMHO - but Jaap is old and anglicised enough to have done so.

 

Nevil Shute . . . . Gordon Bennet - perhaps I'll have to re-read them after I've finished with the John Buchan novels :) Just don't ask me to go back to Len Deighton!

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You have only got to look at the latest Canons to see smaller batteries which carry more punch. Personally I fail to understand why the idea of retaining the M8/8-2 battery (an old design) to put into an 'M9' should be any sort of consideration. Its like handicapping a potential design before you start. I also not that Canon have redesigned the 1D series 3 times and this has been accepted (the changes between MkI and II were subtle - ~1mm dimensionally - but the MkIII is substantially different) and I don't see why the M8/8-2 bodyshell has to be retain exactly as is either. (My previous post on this suffered database crash deletion).

 

Well if you have 10 batteries shared between two M8 bodies... it's quite a bit of money you'd appriciate to be able to keep until their life is over.

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I don't think it's the battery, per se.

 

There is no Moore's Law for batteries. There are improvements in chemistry periodically, but any increases in the Lithium batteries (whatever the flavor) have been incremental.

 

What really makes the difference is consumption.

 

My own experience was moving from a D200 (and an S5) to a pair of D300s, shooting the same subjects (99.9% of the time using Nikkor 70-200 f/2.8 and 300 f/2.8 -- so I am pushing some mass around with the AF). A couple of the batteries used with the D300s were the same ones I originally used on the D200. The D300s have a bigger LCD screen with much higher resolution, more sophisticated auto focus, and some other goodies, but I still got significantly more shots per charge from the very same batteries.

 

That tells me that between those two bodies, Nikon made serious efficiency increases in electrical consumption. Nikon may not have control of their sensors, but they are big enough to develop highly efficient proprietary circuits.

 

My guess is that Leica will make improvements to the efficiency of the M9 circuitry. The decision will be whether to get more shots out of the M8-style battery, or get the same (or a few more) shots from a new, smaller battery.

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I've just 'juiced' (Mophie Juice Pack Air mophie - iPhone Battery, iPod Cases, iPhone accessories and more!) my iPhone. It's a Lithium Polymer 1200mAh battery molded into the shape of a very thin, feather light form-fitting protective rear case for the iPhone 3G/3GS.

 

Now stretch the imagination (and the technology) a little and imagine a camera back (or top/side/front/bottom) plate with an integral form fitting battery. I wonder.......

Edited by stevelap
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