RE: [Leica] Interesting piece on the Digital R

["B. D. Colen" <bdcolen@earthlink.net>]

I may be associated with MIT, Adam, but I am not an engineer, nor am I a
scientist of any sort - I am a writer and photographer, with a degree in
journalism and allot of hours in political science and U.S. History. I
have less than no interest in engineering or boards, other than in what
they allow me to do in my fields. And btw, the fact that they are
showing you that board - which could well be something that was
discarded 18 months ago - tells you absolutely zip about where the
camera is now or where it's going. ;-) For that matter, the current
placement of buttons, in terms of which is which, also tells you
nothing.

IF they want to issue these kinds of interim releases, presumably to
keep the drool flowing, they ought to be doing precisely the kind of
things you suggest in your last paragraph - talking about choices
they're making, why they're making them, their design philosophy,
trade-offs, etc. Now THAT would be interesting.

B. D.


- -----Original Message-----
From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
[mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us] On Behalf Of Adam
Bridge
Sent: Wednesday, February 11, 2004 4:58 PM
To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
Subject: RE: [Leica] Interesting piece on the Digital R


On 2004-02-16 <bdcolen@earthlink.net (B. D. Colen)> thoughtfully wrote: 

>Adam - Your post is really interesting because what we have here is a 
>great example of beauty etc. being in the eye of the beholder - I 
>looked at this same PDF and thought two things: 1 - Why are they 
>wasting my time with a photos of engineers and a board
>- and why aren't they telling me more about what the camera will do if 
>they succeed?

For me it's always interesting to see the "breadboard" layout phase of
any project. I'm an EE so its interesting.

Sometimes it's hard to believe you're even ASSOCIATED with MIT since any
engineer worth the degree would at least find these kind of images
instructive about where a project might be.

Back in a former life I remember following the MicroVAX BY DIGITAL from
breadboard to final formfactor. It was a fascinating project and one I
enjoyed following, even on the outside. This is just the same.

I like seeing the people involved: they're real.

>2 - These controls are weirdly laid out. I was particularly put off by 
>the four buttons down the left side, which struck me as weird 
>placement.

I don't remember if you use an R but if you do, and use the right-hand
side handstrap (as with the motor-R) then you'd find those four buttons
would be well located for left-handed operation. None of the buttons
appear to be needed to routinely operate the camera - which  you appear
to be able to do via the circular rocker panel to the right of the
display with its MENU button. I'm assuming the "ON/OFF" button might be
for the LCD display.

I'm wondering at that "PLAY" button...

It doesn't look like there will be a mode with image AND histogram
automatically shown on the LCD display. Or just the histogram which is
probably more useful for me.

>The other thing that struck me was that this camera will really be 
>quite a behemoth, and that I will at least no longer have to hear 
>complaints about "giant" DSLRs from those touting this particular 
>monster. ;-)
>

It looks to me to be the same size, or perhaps smaller, than a 1Ds.
That's big of course. The unit is, after all, a hybrid add-on.

I have not USED this camera (obviously) but I'm partial, as I said, to
the R8 ergonomics. I like the way the Leica engineers think about
cameras.

I see nothing in this image to make me feel differently.

now I WOULD also like a discussion about the digital back's design and
functionality. I can also imagine why they won't be talking about it in
detail for a while. But if Leica wanted to do everyone a service they'd
use the opportinity to write about the design decisions, firmware
decisions etc that went into the camera.

Adam Bridge
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