Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/01/15
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Hey All, Got a little info on the Cosina LTM body/lenses today from a press release in the Feb issue of Commercial Photo magazine (Japanese). The two amateur mags should be out in a couple of days, and will probably have more info. As my favorite rumor monger, Ken Iisaka, rumored, the brand name is Voigtlander. The line-up consists of an LTM body and two LTM lenses. The body is called the Bessa-L. It looks to have no internal, integral viewfinder, like the Bessa of old (acc. to the press release). Like an old IG body. Mechanical focal plane shutter with TTL exposure, I would guess AE exposure, but with no finder how do you know what exposure is being set? Looks like a "modern" body, with a film advance lever and rewind crank (ie instead of knobs), swing-open back. Dimensions are 135mmW/78.5mmH/33.5mmD/320g. List price is 33,000yen (US$295). The widest lens is the 15mm/4.5 Super Wide Heliar Aspherical. Compact, 110-deg coverage, 8 elements in 6 groups, 10 aperture blades. 30.7mmL x 49.6mmW (including hood); 105g. List price 65,000yen (US$575), including finder. The 25mm/4.0 Snapshot-Skolar utilizes 7 elements in 5 groups, measures 29.5mmL x 49.5mmW (including hood) and weighs 90g. List price 45,000yen (US$400), including finder. This lens has focus clickstops at 3m/1.5m/1.0m to aid hyperfocal snapshooting. Release is scheduled for Feb 1. The Heliar in the pr photo is chrome and the Skopar is black, but there is no mention whether either lens is available in the other color. No info regarding minimum apertures, or whether the lenses will rangefinder focus on Leica LTM-LBM bodies, or whether they will meter on an M6. I'll send through more info as it comes through. Looks like some fun new toys are appearing on the horizon, though. Cheers, PB Robert Rose wrote: > > You have to get the slide film back uncut and cut it yourself. > > Printing negative film would probably be a custom job for a lab, but I haven't tried that yet. > > Using the Hamrick software for the HP Photosmart scanner I was able to get it to scan both negative and positive panorama strips from the XPAN.