[Leica] 24x36mm sensor for the RFDM

[henningw at archiphoto.com (Henning Wulff)]

At 10:23 AM -0700 6/15/06, Frank Filippone wrote:
>Hold on Henning.....
>
>As far as Olympus goes, I have no idea.
>
>I said ( or meant, whichever applies) that the new lenses could and 
>should be smaller.... the 50's, 75's, etc.  The Retrofocus WA
>lenses will need "more" glass.  But making the sensor smaller means 
>that the lens does not need to throw the same image circle.

For lenses to be optimized for digital use, smaller doesn't work as I 
explained. If anything, larger is necessary. If you're going to 
design lenses right now for the film and digital M's, you would 
certainly make sure they work properly on the DM. Therefore...

Have you seen the 35-100 Oly lens? No smaller than the 70-200 Canon. 
Yes, the Oly is f/2, but that is necessary to compete on an 
speed/noise level with Canon et al. An f/2.8 lens of otherwise 
similar quality and specs would not be much smaller, as the exit 
pupil would still be the same size, and that is one of the things 
that is really important in lenses for digital.

The Sigma 30/1.4 is significantly bigger than the Canon 50/1.4, even 
though it covers a smaller sensor and has a smaller entrance pupil.

>That makes the lens POTENTIALLY smaller, lighter, etc.......( I 
>should have said potentially) regardless of design methodology.

IF the lens were designed for film. As it won't be, the lens will not 
be smaller. The Olympus lenses are a good example. I've seen other 
high end lenses designed for digital by companies such as Fuji and 
Zeiss, and the higher the quality they want to achieve, the larger 
they get.

>Will they actually be smaller, lighter, etc?  I have no idea. 
>
>Will they work with a M-Film camera?  Don't know.   Is Leica 
>promising this? Apparently they are.

Yes.

>These are marketing and business decisions.  Engineering follows 
>that marketing choice ..... and product follows that engineering
>choice.
>
>What will we actual mortals get?  We'll see.
>
>Frank Filippone
>red735i@earthlink.net
>
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>Leica Users Group.
>See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information


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