Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/03/11

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Retrofocuspocus was: More is better
From: dante@umich.edu
Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2004 21:58:02 -0500
References: <BC7662CD.16668%telyt@earthlink.net>

Doug hit the nail on the head.

Ask Kodak or Canon just how hard it is to engineer a full-frame sensor that can
handle even the big retrofocus of SLR lenses.  With wideangles, people bitch
about banding on the Kodak with some lenses and edge focus bleed with the
Canon.  This is the price of full frame with today's technology.  Canon has
allowed the full-frame technology to stagnate; Kodak is still slugging through
it.  It's not like Epson is going to come out of nowhere and solve all the
problems - which is why it's a small sensor.

The Sony sensor in the RD-1 is going to a lot closer to the rear end of most RF
lenses, and it will be very interesting to see how a sensor designed for (more
telecentric) SLR lenses will react to the panoply of RF lens designs.  My
speculation is that the results may vary wildly lens-by-lens.

The general move toward DX lenses (which have a lot more retrofocus clearance
than even normal SLR lenses) seems designed to skirt the problems that exist
even in the APS sensors.

Quoting Doug Herr <telyt@earthlink.net>:

> on 3/11/04 5:36 PM, BenMarks@aol.com at BenMarks@aol.com wrote:
> 
> > For my part, I welcome the efforts of any manufacturer who wants to
> increase
> > the options for me to use this glass I love.  Add to that the nudge to
> Solms
> > that the introduction of a non-Leica digital-M will give and I just can't
> see
> > anything to be pessimistic about.  My hat is off the engineers who solved
> this
> > "impossible" technical challenge about which so many electrons have been
> > spilt. Bravissimo! Now let's see the camera.
> 
> 
> I also welcome additional choices... but I don't see that they've solved the
> impossible technical challenge.  They've avoided the technical challenges by
> not using a full-frame sensor.
> 
> Doug Herr
> Birdman of Sacramento
> http://www.wildlightphoto.com
> 
> 
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> 


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In reply to: Message from Doug Herr <telyt@earthlink.net> (Re: [Leica] More is better)