[Leica] The End of Bayer Sensors Is Nigh, But What’s Next? or use your A7R while you can

[roark.paul at gmail.com (Paul Roark)]

I would expect Leica would improve things, but the increase in MP also
probably makes it more difficult to even stay even.

Of course, as a B&W shooter, the smearing of the edges is what I'm really
most interested in.  That is not going to be simply a software fix.

It looks like Sony-Zeiss are pursuing both the sensor design approaches
(including micro-lenses and making the sensor as thin as possible) as well
as going to optical designs that reduce the angle of incidence for the wide
angle lenses.  However, Sony clearly opted to go for high MP and write off
legacy M optics less than 50mm for critical shooters.  I suspect there are
many times as many potential customers who are interested in only their SLR
optics' compatibility, and those people are easy to satisfy.  Also, whether
they thought about this or not, it forced people like me to use their OEM
35mm and discover how good it is and what all the totally integrated system
can achieve.

Leica, I would assume, feels more pressure to make a sensor design that
works acceptably well with its legacy lenses.  Thus I assume Leica will
maintain it's lead on edge performance with their legacy optics.  I
suspect, however, that they will compromise their designs in that direction
only enough to slightly improve the edge, while concentrating on a path
that looks at ultimate performance down the road with the new optical
designs it'll be coming up with that reduce the light angles.

For both I would think holding down the size of the optics is a major
factor.  Both the Sony A7 and M appeal to hand held shooting and compact
designs.  The huge old retrofocus designs are not very appealing.

I don't know enough about optics to know what the Sony-Zeiss 35 is,
design-wise.  They call it a "Sonnar," which seemed a bit random to me.
 Now I think it's probably tied to the fact that it is designed to perform
well wide open and it's light.  (At
http://www.sony.net/Products/di/en-us/products/lenses/lineup/detail/sel35f28z.html
they
have a diagram of the design.)

It's going to be fun to watch the competition for the high end, mobile
shooters.  We will all benefit from in.

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com