Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/02/20

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Subject: RE: [Leica] Digital Rangefinder in F Mount by Nikon - Rumor Mongering
From: "Austin Franklin" <darkroom@ix.netcom.com>
Date: Thu, 20 Feb 2003 11:50:59 -0500

> proving once and for all how hopelessly behind the curve Leica is when
> it comes to digital.
>
> B. D.

Digital is changing so rapidly, that anyone could start at any time, and be
"up to speed" very quickly.  I believe that until sensors somewhat stabilize
themselves, and come way down in cost, the market is completely open.  It'll
take the under $1k bodies of 14 or so M pixels to really proliferate this
technology, and that's still quite a few years away, IMO.

Now, here's the unfortunate thing for Leica...most people want autofocus
these days, much to my disappointment, but none the less, it's what the
market is moving towards.  That is something that has high capital
expenditure and takes quite a long time...to change over all your lenses to
autofocus.  It would require a new mount, and obviously, new lenses.
Problem is, does it make sense for Leica to make a manual focus only digital
camera?  I don't know, it's an interesting question.  For Leica to have to
invest in both digital and autofocus at the same time, may in fact be
something beyond their financial ability...and would they get their return
on investment...I'm skeptical that they would.

Austin

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