Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1996/10/12
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At 08:28 AM 10/12/96 -0600, you wrote:
>I am curious about the electrical contacts in the R8. What are their
functions?
Here's a report by Dirck Halstead - famous Time Magazine Photographer who
is at this very moment covering the presidential election from the inside!
Thought his post on Leica was most informative. I could privately send
other camera maker's news to those interested.
============================
LEICA: Many new products this
year from the Sultans of Solms (that's
Leica's new home town for those of you
who didn't know).
In addition to the silly
commemorative mentioned earlier, Leica
showed a new Elmarit-M 24mm f/2.4 ASPH
w/ finder for the M-camera. (ASPH =
Aspheric) A couple of quick happy snaps
with the lens showed it to be very very
sharp. FYI a new viewfinder showing 21,
24 & 28mm lenses will becoming soon.
On the Reflex side is the new R8
camera. It is a completely new design.
It has Spot, averaging anf matrix
metering, in all modes (manual, shutter
priority, and aperture priority). A new
shutter with speeds from 32 to 1/8000
second. X-sync is 1/250 (FINALLY!!)
First or second curtain sync with the
push of a level. A simple drop-in
loading system with DX coding. Either a
motor winder (2 fps) or a motor drive,
with automatic rewind Hit the button
once the film tab stays out, hit it
twice it rolls into the cassette. TTL
flash metering with the Metz SCA 3000
system, and a built-in flash meter in
the camera. You can flashmeter with any
type of strobe.
About the only thing it doesn't
have is auto-focus, yet. IT is a 90's
camera.
New lenses for the Reflex camera
include a 105-280mm f/4.2 zoom, a
redesigned APO-Telyt-R module system.
With two different lend heads 280mm
f/2.8 and 400mm f/2.8 and three
differant focusing modules you get the
folowing possible lenses: 280mm f/2.8;
400mm f/2.8; 400mm f/4; 560mm f/4;
560mm f/5.6 and 800mm f/5.6.
They also showed some new
finishes for olders lenses and a new
black finish Minilux for the amatuer
market.
Finally, Leica presented a
prototype of a studio camera for
electronic imaging. All Leica M and R
lenses can be used. It is a scanning
camera with a scanning area of 36x36mm,
with excellent 25 million pixel
resolution for "high-quality art"
printing up to A3 format (that a Time
double truck) and covers a contrast
range of 1:4000. It is suitable for PCs
or Macs.
===========
Eric Welch
Grants Pass, OR