Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/02/15
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I saw the display in an acrylic tower. Something locked up in acrylic is not going to be available in 6 weeks. I talked to a very reliable source and there is no expectation of a new body in even 6 months. New lens(es) yes, a digital body no. Speculate all you want about how awful Leica is, but there is not going to be a digital Bessa available this year. Could Cosina get one out by very early next year, possibly. Please bear in mind that there are very few foundries that sell chips outside their interest group. Sony, Kodak, Kyocera, Micron, Mitsubishi, Phillips and possibly one or two more. For the most part, production is spoken for, especially on the better chips. Say you want a generic 3MP CMOS then you can buy all you want, especially in the smaller sizes. But if you don't have technology or some other interesting trade then you are not going to get any chips APS size or larger. So, what does Cosina have to offer Sony? A digital Bessa would only be of interest if the magnification factor is in the 1.5 ratio or smaller. That leaves Kodak and Panasonic as suppliers. I don't think there are going to be too many extra 6MP chips available as the D70 is going to suck a whole lot of those out of the pipeline as well as the istD and maybe the Minolta which was also announced. Also please consider that Cosina has a lot of optical expertise and not a lot of electronic ability, just like Leica. Therefore they also need a partner. A more rational thought is that both Cosina and Leica will use the same equipment set: they would both need similar custom low pass filters that also redirect light back to vertical for the wide lenses. Cosina could be the beta tester of similar technology as people would not be as bent out of shape with a $2000 lemon as a $5000 dud Leica. 0.02 Don dorysrus@mindspring.com - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html