Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/09/22
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Mark Rabiner <mark@rabinergroup.com> asked: > I wonder how Leica was able to make it so all the lenses, the 12 and so on > could be used with the M8 while Epson was not able to do so with its R1D1? Well, y'see. . . You've heard of the Gnomes of Solms? Leica got hold of a microminiaturization machine, via a long-time Leica employee whose East German cousin had contacts with somebody in the old Soviet Institute for Research into Molecular Elasticity Named After Alexei Pushinkrushchskii. Leica shrunk a bunch of volunteer gnomes to 15 microns in height. Then they set them to work on the periphery of each M8 sensor. The micro-gnomes walk between each line of pixels, pushing the microlenses slightly outward. The closer the pixel is to the edge of the sensor, the farther out they have to push the microlens. The miniaturization wears off after approximately six hours, so they take the gnomes out of the camera after five hours, 45 minutes. One time they cut it too close, and result was a ruined M8 and a gnome who needed 74 sutures, luckily covered by German workers' excellent health insurance. The gnomes do QC work for the remainder of the 7.5 hour workday. Every so often, a Leica owner will find a hot pixel in the shape of an elfin footprint with a curled, pointed toe, proof of the fairy-tale origins of their beloved digital camera. --Peter