[Leica] A digital camera without.....

[drodgers at casefarms.com (David Rodgers)]

Digital cameras have many features. I'm wondering if some wouldn't be
better off with fewer. For instance, what if there was a digital camera
without an LCD preview screen? It'll probably never happen. And maybe
it's not realistic to think it ever would. But if anyone could have
bucked the trend it would have been Leica. What if Leica hadn't put an
LCD on the M8? We'd have screamed, for sure. But might not the M8 have
been a better camera for it? Here's why.

1) no chimping. My first reaction after snapping the shutter on any
digital camera is to look at the screen to see if I "got it"! The irony
of that is that if I didn't get it I probably just wasted a second
opportunity because I was too busy looking at the LCD. And so what if I
didn't get it? What are my options? Unless I can fly around the world at
the speed of light and turn back time, it's too late. What time I might
have had I just wasted...chimping. 

Consider the case of someone having closed eyes in a shot. It takes
longer to verify that there were no closed eyes than to shoot 5 frames,
which was the old cure for closed eyes. With the M8 we shoot 5 frames in
2.5 seconds. That's less time that it takes to analyze the LCD. Not to
mention, "Sorry but Uncle Bob had his left eye half shut. Everyone line
up again!" or "Sir could I please get you to walk back under that bird.
I see in my preview window that you didn't have quite the expression I'd
hoped for when it crapped on your shoulder."

Perhaps we need to see images so we can delete the bad ones and save
card space. Yet isn't that one big benefit of digital cameras over film?
Each frame is essentially free, and I'm less constrained by the roll of
36. Why not just delete bad images later, after they are downloaded?

2) save space inside the camera. I don't know how much room the LCD
takes up, but I'm sure it takes up some. Do away with the LCD and you
can make a smaller camera body. Or better yet, allocate that space to
sensor electronics. (Apart for the M8 place more emphasis on a good
viewfinder. Heck, on many a P&P the LCD has replaced the viewfinder). On
the M8 I'm sure having an LCD meant having a fatter camera. 

3) Longer battery life. That's not a big issue, but it could be in
certain circumstances. Sure I can turn off the LCD. But it's still
there. 

4) Longer camera life. Might the LCD be the first thing to go? OK, so I
might be reaching here. I guess we don't really look at cameras long
term today. 

5) Less fear of pressing nose up to back of camera. No explanation
needed.

OK, I'm sure by now everyone is saying that we still need access to the
menu. After all we've got options to deal with. A simple shutter speed
dial and aperture ring may have been satisfactory way back when, but now
we need to toggle through a thousand and one configuration choices.
Today a simple situation calls for
"Shades-Down-Red-22-Right-Bleed-Dive-Trips-All-Go" when yester-year the
most complex situation we had to deal with called for
"Sunny-16-and-Hail-Mary"? 

The ability to immediately see results has detracted from the discipline
it takes to make sure we get it right in the first place.
"Polaroid-like-instant-view-ability" is very
un-"Leica-M-and-the-decisive-moment"-like.

For those who absolutely must have a preview device here's the solution.
Leica could have offered an LCD as an accessory. Not on the camera, but
a small monitor you could put in your pocket. It would have its own
battery pack, control buttons, and it would easily plug into the M8.
Best of all, just like bright-line finders it could easily be misplaced
allowing Leica yet another source of ongoing revenue. Someone on the
selling side obviously didn't think through all the advantages.

daveR