[Leica] Small digital cameras, APS-C or Micro 4/3

[lrzeitlin at aol.com (lrzeitlin at aol.com)]

My graduate student of 20 years ago, formerly a senior imaging engineer at 
Kodak, now a professor of imaging science at the Rochester Institute of 
Technology, tells me that Kodak found few image quality differences between 
APS-C and Micro 4/3 sensors despite the hype in the media. Most 
manufacturers using APS-C (Sony, Nikon, Fuji, even Leica) do so because of 
the lack of legal restrictions. With APS-C each camera maker is free to use 
its own proprietary lens mount, locking the buyer into that makers lenses. 
Apparently to use Micro 4/3 you have to join the club and adhere to all the 
requirements of the format. But you can use lenses from Olympus, Panasonic 
and Leica interchangablly. Smart Leica has a foot in both camps.


He was less encouraging about the prospect of full frame sensors in the 
lower priced ILC cameras than many on the LUG list. The small lens to sensor 
distance of these cameras tends to produce the same problems of even 
illumination as Leica encountered with the M8 and M9. It can be fixed with 
microlens arrays but it is expensive. It is much easier to use micro 4/3 or 
APS-C sensors. There are few legacy lenses to support with those sizes 
except for die hards like me and Jim Nichols that want to use their old film 
lenses with adapters.?


His prediction is that for the next year or so ILCs will get smaller but 
retain sensor sizes in the APS-C or micro 4/3 size, possibly incorporating 
electronic viewfinders. No affordable full frame digital Rollei 35 for the 
next couple of years.


But then he could be wrong. After all, he worked for Kodak.


Larry Z