hadji_singh Posted February 13, 2004 Share Posted February 13, 2004 I bet it will have back-focus issues with Leica lenses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patrick_jelliffe Posted February 13, 2004 Share Posted February 13, 2004 What theoretical/heretical back focus issues are you referring to? IF they existed, they would be apparent after a few exposures or two because of the histogram. Pulllease let's not start a whole compatability issue when none exists, (nor does the camera for the moment). V/C makes LTM lenses that focus properly on LTM bodies of various manufacturers and, with an M adapter, work perfectly on M bodies. Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hadji_singh Posted February 13, 2004 Share Posted February 13, 2004 Sorry. I was trying to be funny. My point was that even if it worked, the Leica crowd would shred it to pieces. That being said, it's an interesting development. I'm eager to see if this thing is for real or just vaporware. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patrick_jelliffe Posted February 13, 2004 Share Posted February 13, 2004 Whew! After the Hexar-M wars I got worried ;^). For sure, this Bessa-D won't be for the fondlers. Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markci Posted February 13, 2004 Share Posted February 13, 2004 <i>He could probably qualify for MENSA membership!</i><p>Not if he actually thinks this thing's going to have a live LCD display. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yochin Posted February 13, 2004 Share Posted February 13, 2004 Jeff Rivera said, "My only reservation is that this has not been reported on dpreview's site..."<br><br> It is reported on the dpreview site: <A HREF="http://www.dpreview.com/articles/pma2004/Epson/">dpreview</a><br><br> It says more information coming in March... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peter_n1664876959 Posted February 13, 2004 Share Posted February 13, 2004 Pictures too... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrew robertson Posted February 13, 2004 Share Posted February 13, 2004 You folks should all read about it. It says right on the first page linked that the thing has rangefinder patch focusing. Happy now? A good EVF has the potential to focus way more accurately than a rangefinder, anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joshroot Posted February 13, 2004 Share Posted February 13, 2004 Well I'm getting less and less suspicious about it being a joke or a hoax. No it just has to pass the "vaporware" test. Lots of cool ideas never make it to production, even if they are announced at trade shows. But has anyone noticed this. It's like a fuel gauge. how cool would it be to have analog dials to tell you things like how full your CF card was? I'm sure a production version will have an LCD like everyone elses digicam. But still. I like the "empty-full" needle idea.<div></div> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shambrick007 Posted February 13, 2004 Share Posted February 13, 2004 "But has anyone noticed this. It's like a fuel gauge. how cool would it be to have analog dials to tell you things like how full your CF card was?"<p>That's prob for the battery.<p>"I'm sure a production version will have an LCD like everyone elses digicam."<p>I wouldn't be so sure....Seiko rember ;-). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joshroot Posted February 13, 2004 Share Posted February 13, 2004 Ahhhhhh, The battery makes 100% more sense than the CF card. Who knows, maybe they will keep it like that. Anything that needed more info could be displayed on the LCD. Would keep the camera looking "RF" unless you hwere using the LCD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yochin Posted February 13, 2004 Share Posted February 13, 2004 Andrew Roberston said, "A good EVF has the potential to focus way more accurately than a rangefinder, anyway." I'd rather not deal with little LCD finders if I don't have to. As a side note, if you look carefully at the shutter speed dial on the digital Bessa you can see an aperture priority auto exposure setting along with +2 to -2 exposure compensation. And Josh, I think the outer dial is meant to be the picture counter dial (you see, it goes up to over 500 and it has an "E" mark, probably to mark if the card is empty or not, though I'm not sure how that'll work, I mean, does it pop to "E" even on a smaller card where it won't have space for over 500 pictures to record or does it pop to "E" when the pictures run out meaning the amount of space left is zero? Really, I mean, how does that work?). The little empty full dial is probably a battery strength indicator. The little dial on the left side is most likely a white balance indicator (it has "A" at the top followed by a blank circle followed by a circle cut in half with the right side filled in followed by four other settings which are too blurry to make out in the photo I'm looking at). The little dial on the right has three distinct settings: "R", "H" and "N" (I don't know; maybe it stands for Raw, High and Normal; We'll find out soon enough I'm sure). Also, I was looking at the LCD screen and was trying to figure out what the buttons were. From the top it looks like: "Display", "Manual or Portrait or Mode", "Return", "Rotate" and "Select" (Although "return" and "select" sounds redundant). For a while I was also wondering how one was supposed to navigate the menus on the LCD but then one person earlier or maybe on another thread mentioned that the Former film rewind knob had no physical function and so it sort of occured to me: that was what one used to navigate the menus or change any of the settings. Also, the switch on top next to the shoe is probably a frame selector like in the R2; and the switch next to the shutter button is probably an On/Off Switch; and the switch on the back in the upper right is probably for the quality or white balance and that button is probably another mode button or to switch the function of the switch. Again, take all of this with a grain of salt as it's pure speculation. And again, note that in about a month more actual information is going to be revealed by the companies themselves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yochin Posted February 13, 2004 Share Posted February 13, 2004 Oh, maybe the "E" on the outer dial means Empty as in, No card inserted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrew robertson Posted February 13, 2004 Share Posted February 13, 2004 Regardless of whether YOU would deal well with a little LCD finder, it still possesses a potential for greater accuracy than the rangefinder (not extremely accurate, worse if you don't have perfect vision). Not that it matters, as this camera apparently has a conventional shutter assembly, making the point moot. I am pleased that Cosina has the balls to make this move. It may spur a rangefinder renaissance. I know I'm very interested. Mr. Kobayashi is indeed a perceptive individual. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
george_shihanian Posted February 13, 2004 Share Posted February 13, 2004 Around 4 to 6 months ago Leica was still saying "Technically impossible" with regard to a digital M. 2 to 3 months ago Leica backs off a bit on the "impossible" statement and says they'll do a digital M when it can be done right. This month Leica announces a digital M is in the works for the future. Gee, do ya think Leica heard about this Cosina digital M-mount and realized they'd better get going or everyone that is interested in a digital M would just buy the Cosina? Obviously, Cosina will be the first to market. I think Leica announced their intentions in order to try and keep everyone from buying the Cosina and instead wait for the Leica. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrew robertson Posted February 14, 2004 Share Posted February 14, 2004 As Leica had a perfectly functional line-scanning M body YEARS ago, I thought their statement that a digital M couldn't be done was actually them saying "Our new French fashion masters don't have the cash or the will to do a digital M." Now that another company (which is quite reputable, more so every day) has beaten them to it, they are panicking. A little competition never hurt anything. With respect to the Bessas, Leica was happy to let them compete, secure in the thought that the 'superior' M cameras would attract the buyers with the cash to spend on Leica gear. Now, with the Bessa D coming out, and being the only digital Leica M (or screw) mount game in town, Leica is clearly up a Creek ® without a paddle. They haven't even begun the task of designing a digital M yet - their French fashion masters won't even spend the scratch to compete. They have to offer convertible bonds (which aren't all that desirable compared to other types of bonds) to fund this little exercise. Now their years of folly will come back to bite them HARD in the ass. No matter. If anyone deserves rewards, it's Cosina. They had the balls to resurrect a dead mount, compete with Leica head-on, go where Leica never has before, and now are going to reap the rewards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy_piper2 Posted February 14, 2004 Share Posted February 14, 2004 "their French fashion masters won't even spend the scratch to compete. They have to offer convertible bonds (which aren't all that desirable compared to other types of bonds) to fund this little exercise." Ennnnh! Wrong answer! Andrew - IF you had actually read Leica's press release - you would know that the bonds are being sold only to current stockholders. Since Hermes is a 30% stockholder, Hermes (the French fashion master) is coughing up at least 30% of the scratch. Plus Hermes will buy any/all the bonds that other stockholders choose not to purchase - up to and including the total � 15 mill, if needed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yochin Posted February 14, 2004 Share Posted February 14, 2004 Andrew Robertson said, "Regardless of whether YOU would deal well with a little LCD finder, it still possesses a potential for greater accuracy than the rangefinder (not extremely accurate, worse if you don't have perfect vision)." Snottiness of the use of capital letters for clumsy emphasis aside; It's easier to focus a rangefinder camera than it is to focus a camera with a conventional (non-autofocus) SLR focusing screen. With the rangefinder all you have to do is match up the pictures, while with an SLR or much worse an electronic view finder you have to pretty much guess. An electronic viewfinder would be better in general for framing, but it is not a better focussing tool per se, hence the use of "EVF's" for focussing is not inherently better than using a conventional rangefinder even for people with failing vision. In fact, unless one were completely blind it would still be easier to focus a rangefinder than a conventional non-auto focus SLR or Electronic view finder. On the other hand, if some company were to come up with an electronic rangefinder then you might have something, electronic viewfinder wise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy_piper2 Posted February 15, 2004 Share Posted February 15, 2004 Despite my disagreement with Andrew R. regarding Leica's financing - I do stand beside him in congratulating Cosina/Epson on producing a camera while Leica was still producing excuses. And partially on the subject of EVFs. Any proxy focusing system (rangefinder, SLR view screen) can get out of whack and focus incorrectly. With an EVF you are looking at the actual pixels that will make up your final image - if they are in focus, the picture will be in focus. No questions of alignment or calibration. And there are no framing or parallax issues. I do expect my Digilux-2 screen to be harder to focus easily than the snap-together images in a rangefinder, however. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrew_c2 Posted February 15, 2004 Share Posted February 15, 2004 The shutter speed dial looks like it comes right off of a Hexar RF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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