Re: japanese rangefinder

[David.Bernard@Central.Sun.COM (Dave Bernard)]

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>From leica-request@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us Tue Jan 26 17:11:31 1993
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 15:30:32 -0500
From: Greg Parkinson <glp@fig.citib.com>
To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
Subject: japanese rangefinder

> From: James J Dempsey <jjd@spserv.bbn.com>
 > 
> In the editor's column in Shutterbug a couple of months ago, the
> editor mentioned that he knew of a major Japanese camera company,
> known for their pro SLR equipment, that was going to be coming out
> with a new pro-oriented 35mm rangefinder camera with interchangeable
> lenses.  I seem to recall he said it would be within a year.
> 
> It will be interesting to see who it is, what they build and how
> affordable it is.  And what effect this has on Leica.

I've read other reports on this and as I remember
it was Nikon and that they were planning on making
it compatible with their existing lenses.

Greg Parkinson
Citibank
glp@fig.citib.com




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It seems like this discussion occured recently, I don't know if it was
in this particular alias or not...

I don't see how it could be compatible with the existing Nikon lenses,
unless the rangefinder lenses were made gigantic (for a rangefinder).
Although a 35mm lens on a Nikon might seem compact, a 35/2M is positively
miniature by comparison.  That is, a rangefinder lens, to fit on an SLR
body, would be way too big for a rangefinder lens (not to mention the
elements would be too far from the film plane, because of the mirror box;
you'd give up automatic aperture...).  And who would want to put something
as large as an SLR lens on a petite rangefinder body (not to mention, where
are the rangefinder cam guides?).

If there is anything to this, what I see is an autofocus P&S body that
can take Nikkor SLR lenses.  Kind of an entry-level way to enter the
Nikkor lens family.  But it wouldn't be a true optical rangefinder camera
in that sense.  But what do I know?

	Dave