I just got a newsletter from Erwin Puts, who writes about all things Leica on a
pseudo-weekly basis. In the current letter, he reveals that Leica will soon
release a 10 MgPixel digital back for their manual focus R8/R9 SLR line. It
will be an APS-sized sensor and have a 1.37x FL multipler.
They's dodged the issue of light ray parallelism by throwing away the outer
edges of the film, using the small sensor, as did all the other digital SLR
makers. It was supposedly in development for 3 years.
So, if this product actually comes to market (which I think likely, given the
source), It shows that it IS POSSIBLE to craft a digital back for an existing
SLR without resorting to Kodak's Franken-cameras, countering the argument that
Olympus gave a few years ago that it was practically impossible. Perhaps it
was then, but since Leica doesn't have any bets to hedge on a high-end digital
camera, this was a way for them to remain viable. Their SLR line has been
sliding into oblivion for several years now. The R8/R9 bodies are actually
very nice, but offer little in the way of real new technology or features for
most buyers to make a committment. Their lens line is arguably the best in the
world, but it only fits their cameras. So perhaps this will revitalize their
SLR line and spur the sales of lenses. The modular APO system of big glass has
consistantly gotten marks for the best long glass in the world, but again, the
big users, sports and wildlife "guys", are wedded to N!
i*kon and Ca*non.
He was also a big skeptical whether Olympus could prove that their 4/3 system,
with it's specially designed lenses, will be able to compete with the N/C
dynamic duo of competitors. Only time will tell there. I've seen a couple of
reports on the D10 recently which said that the users preferred the color and
overall quality of images from their E10 or E20, given a choice, over the Canon.
Skip
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