[Leica] Intro

[jean.louchet at inria.fr (Jean Louchet)]

Hi Chris,

I wiuld say that the obvious answer to your enquiry is the
Epson-Voigtlander Bessa RD-1 which is (for the moment) the only digital RF
with interchangeable lenses.  A good camera with good old fashioned dials,
it will accept most (if not all) Leica M lenses and the cheaper while
still very good Voigtlander glass (and LTM).

One of the issues with digital RFs is how the CCD sensors deals with the
oblique rays coming from non-retrofocus wide angles. This tends to result
in significantly higher vignetting than with the same lenses used on a
film camera, in spite of the cropping factor. Vignetting can be digitally
corrected to some extent. For an excellent review of wide-angle lenses on
the digital Bessa, see:

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/lenses/rd-1-lens.shtml

Another issue (which is THE issue that is keeping me from digital) is
coding and compression. All digital cameras, even the Epson, are several
years behind state-of-the-art technology. The well known old JPEG/JFIF
(*.jpg files) standard has been officially superseded five years ago by
JPEG-2000 (ISO standard *.jp2 files) and all the corresponding software is
freely available, but no camera maker has built it into their cameras as
yet. Jpeg2000 allows typical compression rates of about a factor 100x to
200x with no perceptible loss (to compare with old JPEG, in average 10x
with important loss, visible square artefacts, nasty graphics and
difficult post-processing): see an example on

http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG19991228S0028

My own position is to stick to film until I can find on the market a
digital camera with built-in jpeg2000 (or a camera that is upgradable to
jpeg2000). The only reason why camera makers stick to obsolete jpeg is
commercial, not technical. I hope the announced digital-M will open the
way to state-of-the-art digital ... as nearly 100 years ago Barnack opened
the way to small format.

On the other hand, full scale release of jpeg-2000 will probably mean real
hard times for film...

Another (less important) issue with current digitals is the ASA setting.
Inventing an ASA setting for a digital camera means losing the biggest
advantage of digital sensors: their naturally huge dynamic range. I think
switching to jpeg2000 will make this limitation unnecessary.

In your case my advice is to look at the Bessas, film or digital, while
keeping in mind that once jpeg2000 is actually launched, old-fashioned
digital cameras will sell for about nothing. Film Bessas are very good
value.

Jean

 > 
> Message: 1
> Date: Sat, 1 Jan 2005 10:03:50 -0800
> From: Christopher Driggett <driggett@mac.com>
> Subject: [Leica] Intro
> To: Leica Users Group <lug@leica-users.org>
> Message-ID: <7DA45E1C-5C1F-11D9-BE6B-000D932F570E@mac.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed
> 
> Hello,
>       My name is Chris Driggett and I have been doing photography on a 
> semi-pro basis ever since I purchased my first camera a Konica TC.  I 
> just joined this group because my wife keeps complaining about me 
> lugging the Nikon D2h and lenses around with us on vacation. We have 
> now 3 small kids and it is getting to be a hassle. I was looking at 
> getting a rangefinder system because that would be smaller and yet 
> produce the same excllent results. I am looking to get a Leica M7 
> camera but was wondering when Leica was going to produce a 
> interchangeable lens digital rangefinder.  I have looked at the 
> Panasonic DMC-L1, and the Leica digilux 2 cameras but the reviews have 
> not been stellar. Anybody with experience with these that can shed some 
> light? Also does anybody know when Leica will produce interchangeable 
> lens rangefinder?  I do not like the digital point and shoots currently 
> because  I prefer setting the exposure controls via good old fashioned 
> dials.
> 
> Thanks,
> Chris
> 
>