Leica's new MF system Options

[flashfredrikson]

got an email today from german dealer network pcp with an invitation to leicas booth @ photokin, where they will show their newest secret weapon, codename Afrika (no kiddin')
it's supposed to be something totally new, new camera, new lenses, saviour of all our lost souls. unfortunately no specs or nothing.
so just a week and we all will know more...

[heinrichvoelkel]

codename is AFRika, some are suggesting A Fullframe R

I had a invitation in the mail some days ago. There was a VIP-Pass attached and it had a picture of the camera on it....

Looks like a normal 35mm digital to me....but we will see

[simplify]

got an email today from german dealer network pcp with an invitation to leicas booth @ photokin, where they will show their newest secret weapon, codename Afrika (no kiddin')
it's supposed to be something totally new, new camera, new lenses, saviour of all our lost souls. unfortunately no specs or nothing.
so just a week and we all will know more...

This would explain why the M8.2 is such a poor example of updating and improving a camera. They are spending all of their time and money on this new camera.

This post has been edited by simplify: Sep 16 2008, 02:29 PM

[Rob C]

why is the only camera i ever cared for the Leica m6? all other cameras are just tools...

That, of course, is something YOU should be able to tell US!

Rob C

[foto-z]

Leica will be reporting live on this special forum from Photokina starting Monday evening 19.00 at Photokina, about the as yet unnanounced product news :
http://tinyurl.com/4bqj7e

[Mitchell Baum]

The Leica Digital Forum has a link to flickr photo page that shows the new Leica S system.

37 megapixels

30x45 mm sensor

weatherproof seals

autofocus faster than Hassey

9 focal plane and leaf shutter lenses, including 24mm and 30mm tilt shift

records in DNG format

size between Canon 5D and EOS 1DS MK III

The technology from the S system will trickle down to other Leica systems. "The R is far from dead."

If this is all true, (if not someone went to alot of trouble) I hope this works for Leica. Seems like a big gamble. I think I still want a Sinar with WLF.

Best,

Mitchell

[woof75]

The Leica Digital Forum has a link to flickr photo page that shows the new Leica S system.

37 megapixels

30x45 mm sensor

weatherproof seals

autofocus faster than Hassey

9 focal plane and leaf shutter lenses, including 24mm and 30mm tilt shift

records in DNG format

size between Canon 5D and EOS 1DS MK III

The technology from the S system will trickle down to other Leica systems. "The R is far from dead."

If this is all true, (if not someone went to alot of trouble) I hope this works for Leica. Seems like a big gamble. I think I still want a Sinar with WLF.

Best,

Mitchell

I want it I want it I want it.

[Geoffreyg]

anybody say "Contax replacement?"

[bcooter]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29782425@N08/...015170/sizes/l/

[EricWHiss]

Wow! Looking good! Wonder what it will cost?

[heinrichvoelkel]

Wow! Looking good! Wonder what it will cost?

on the leica forum some suggest 30.000 euro

[EricWHiss]

on the leica forum some suggest 30.000 euro

Yeah but who would buy it at that price and still have to buy a whole set of lenses. I'm hoping the price is more competitive with other digital backs.


Very curious to know about the ISO performance and AF. Really hoping the AF has more than 3 points too.

[revaaron]

http://www.engadget.com/2008/09/22/leica-d...ship-s2-camera/

[bcooter]

Yeah but who would buy it at that price and still have to buy a whole set of lenses.  I'm hoping the price is more competitive with other digital backs.   
Very curious to know about the ISO performance and AF.    Really hoping the AF has more than 3 points too.

30.000 euro. by the time leica releases this camera and all the lenses, canon or nikon will have a camera that is 50megapixels shoots holographic video is powered by hydrogen cells and costs 3.000 euro.

you have to smile about the hasselblad quote. is hasselblad the benchmark.

you have to smile that leica talked to photographers. i wonder if they talked about price.

[EricWHiss]

30.000 euro.  by the time leica releases this camera and all the lenses, canon or nikon will have a camera that is 50megapixels shoots holographic video is powered by hydrogen cells and costs 3.000 euro.

you have to smile about the hasselblad quote.  is hasselblad the benchmark.

you have to smile that leica talked to photographers.  i wonder if they talked about price.

Well I'm sure that the 30,000 euro figure was presented by some fanboy who is only guessing. Let's wait to see what Leica announces tonight.

[Christopher]

Well I'm sure that the 30,000 euro figure was presented by some fanboy who is only guessing. Let's wait to see what Leica announces tonight.

Give us the thing for around 15.000 and we can talk. ;-)

[Ignatz_Mouse]

Some first rumors talked about a price slightly above 10.000 euros. If Leica intend to position this new system between MFD and 35FF something far from 10.000-15.000 euros is out of the question. But, we're talking about Leica so you never know... Best news for me is: "The R system is far from dead". Great.

[narikin]

shame its in 2:3 format, most MF pros are using 3:4 ratio, and no publication format fits 2:3, so they're going against the trend there. I hesitate to say its a legacy carry-over to match their traditional format, but could be regarded that way.

a 60mp Phase P65+ or 50mp H3 Hassie, in 3:4, is a lot bigger usable file than 37mp cropped down to ~33Mp in real world use. That's close to double in the P65 case - and double is a big difference, if it costs the same.

Great to see an MF sensor in what was 35mm packing though - we have lacked choice in the market place, so its very welcome
as will be the response Canon makes - I doubt for a second they will come back hard on this.

[foto-z]

There will be an official Leica live feed broadcast to this thread, starting in one hour from now:
http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/...okina-news.html

[James R Russell]

Give us the thing for around 15.000 and we can talk. ;-)

I'm bored with this more megapixel stuff. It's fine, allows an art director more cropping, or maybe the retoucher a little more data to work with, but there is nothing that amazing by this camera, other than it has a Leica logo.

I'm sure the lenses will be sharp and the build quality will be excellent, but if the m8 is any indication the lenses will need calibration and it will be 5 firmware updates until they get the color right.

But to be fair, I and others should wait to see what the official announcement is.

I spoke to a camera retailer the other day on a lighting purchase and mentioned the new announcements coming out at photokina. The salesperson said it's a shame that all of these cameras are so expensive, but what can a photographer do, their clients demand the very biggest and very best.

Well, I was kind of taken back by that because it's been three years since any client has asked me the file size or type of camera I use and even then by the time I explained it was obvious they really weren't that concerned.

So I asked the sales person, name me the client that demands more megapixels and she kind of stopped and said, well, uh I've heard it from a lot of photographers.

Well, I've heard that the moon is made of cheese but that doesn't make it so.

I'm not really dissing this camera and in a strange nostalgic way I hope it has success, but in reality, just reading that flicker announcement I don't see what this camera really does that is any different than what we presently have.

But, if Lecia is gong to have success with this camera, they need to hit a decent price point and most importantly they need to meet all of their delivery deadlines on lenses and software because if they don't it will just become an interesting footnote.

JR