I'm not holding my breath either. I think it may materialize one of
these days in the not too distant future... but it won't be a DSLR. It
won't have a mirror.
Chuck Norcutt
On 8/14/2011 11:15 AM, William Sommerwerck wrote:
> When the M-1 was introduced almost 40 years ago, Bob Schwalberg (I think)
> suggested it was small because the Japanese have small hands. (I wonder if
> he could get away saying such a thing today.) But when he and Maitani
> pressed palms, it was obvious their hands were the same size.
>
> Schwalberg quite missed the obvious. The Japanese adore the Leica, but the
> Leicaflex failed to match the compactness and elegance of the M-series
> rangefinders. The M-1 was intended to be the SLR equivalent of a rangefinder
> Leica.
>
> In an era where professional 35mm SLRs had swollen to Brobdingnagian
> proportions, the M-1 actually looked like a camera for a miniature-film
> format. (It is, overall, smaller and lighter than the average $100
> auto-exposure rangefinder camera popular at the time.) I have to laugh when
> Olympus claims that the Four-Thirds system permits smaller cameras and
> lenses. Smaller than what? Four-Thirds bodies are huge for cameras with a
> "sub-miniature" format (13x17.3mm). The lenses are even more oversized (and
> overpriced).
>
> The difference is particularly egregious when you set an OM camera next to a
> full-frame DSLR, such as the Canon 5D2. Good grief! The 5D2 is a lot of good
> things, but "elegant" it is not.
>
> Whether you take pictures with your OM camera is one thing. But keeping them
> in good cosmetic and working order is worthwhile, because people need to be
> reminded that "latest is (not always) greatest". I hope someday someone will
> produce a full-frame DSLR "comparable" in size to an OM body. But I'm not
> holding my breath.
>
--
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