Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/06/25
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Karen Nakamura wrote: > So Leica has announced their digital back for the R8/R9 system: > > http://www.leica-camera.com/produkte/rsystem/digitalmodul/index_e.html > > Sounds quite interesting! $5,200 for a 10MP reduced-frame digital back, that requires a $2,000 camera to work, and that won't be available for another 16 months. Interesting!?? Let's put this in perspective: Moore's Law operates on an 18 month cycle. The Canon EOS1D was a full-frame 11MP camera that came out in August 2002 ($7,500 @ B&H). The Kodak DCS 14n, a 13.7MP camera, the same month ($4,995 @ B&H). There is a PMA Imaging Conference & Mini Trade Show in September of this year, and the PMA Annual 2004 is in February. The only possibly interesting thing about this is the technical achievement of grafting a digital back to an existing film camera, while allowing its use as either by switching back and forth. But in the Real World, the question is how interesting is that? Especially when you take those $5,200 into consideration. It's perfectly Leica, of course. It's the digital Visoflex answer to a world of Japanese SLRs. Too little, too late. M. - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html