eddie y.

"I'd lose 1 stop but that can easily be rectified by changing ISO"

 

 

I never understood this reasoning to be valid.

 

The advantage of bumping up the ISO can also be applied to the 1-stop faster lens (your statement implies that it can't), which would make the 2.8 lens even more useful. ISO adjustments are an equal advantage to ALL lenses, so how does this negate the advantage of the f2.8 lens over the f4 lens?

 

If that was the case, then one can use the same reasoning in preferring a f5.6 lens over an f4 lens because the slowness "can easily be rectified by changing ISO".

"Omegas are all Swiss made and use modified movements from Valjous, who make movements for all the best brands. The quartz movement is also a Swiss and not cheap."

 

Ray,

 

Sorry to offend you as an Omega owner, but quartz movements are cheap (whether made in Switzerland or China) - no jewels, regulators...they run on batteries for goodness sake.

 

Also "Valjoux" supplies movements for many expensive watch companies, but not the necessarily "best brands". The highest regarded watch manufactures use their own in-house movements. Many watch companies like IWC do refinish, replate, modify their Valjoux movements - Omega does not.

 

I'm not knocking Omega. They are a good watch company but not in the same league as Patek or even Rolex (as the original poster compared to).

I don't really understand the whole comparison of a camera to a watch. High-end watches (e.g. Patek, Lange, Audemars Piguet, IWC, Jaeger LeCoultre) are worn more for jewelry and adornment than for their utility. Owners take pride in their in-house movements, detailed finishes. A watch is a watch afterall. Cameras are for photography, not status. For Leica to market themselves this way is retarded.

 

Someone compared Leica cameras to Omega. Omegas are mass-produced. Many models use a cheapo quartz movement, and all their automatic movements are outsourced (some 'high-end' companies do the same). Leicas are still hand-made for the most part, and all their parts are designed/made in-house. They don't use Nikon/Canon parts. So I don't see the similarities with an Omega - Leica comparison.

 

Rolex and Leica. Rolex dominates the high-end watch market - not because they are the best engineered watches, or because they look the best. Their movements are a joke compared to Audemars Piguet, Patek, Lange. They are successfull because of marketing. They have 10x the marketing budget than practically all other high-end watch makers combined. And yuppies eat that stuff up. I'm not saying they are a bad watch - they are durable and reliable. Just that due to marketing, uneducated watch buyers think Rolex is the best watch. Maybe Leica can hire the Rolex marketing department.

 

It's even sillier to compare cars to cameras.

Just an FYI... The 40mm Nokton is M-mount (it was implied that all CV lenses are LTM). In fact all the newer CV lenses are M-mount (35mm Pancake II, 35mm Nokton, 40mm Nokton), and I'm sure there will be more to follow.

 

I never really understood why people would say 1-stop isn't a big deal. It is. Previously, the only reason why someone would not go for f1.4 is because of the significantly higher cost and bulkier size. So they could justify it somewhat - the f1.4 isn't worth xxx dollars. If 1-stop isn't a big deal, then why not buy an Elmar instead of a summicron? Answer: Because the summicron offers incredible performance wide-open, making f2.0 very useable, making it a good value. I see no difference with the 40mm Nokton. Seems to be very sharp wide-open at f1.4, is ergonomically better than the 35mm pre-asph lux, has a great vented hood available. If the 40mm cron is preferred because of the signature, color rendition, boke, that's great. But other than that, IMHO the 40mm Nokton is practically a 40mm cron + an extra stop thrown in free of charge.

Question to all you leica users who also scan your film. I remember

reading that some users have been doing this. My questions are:

 

1. Are you comfortable enough scanning your negs and printing them on

your (HP,Epson,Canon) printer or use an online print website to give

up traditional enlarger printing?

 

2. How are your results? Would scanning (as an example) Tri-X using

a Canon FS4000 or equivalent produce comparable results to a dSLR (as

far as sharpness, detail, tonality)?

 

Don't want to start a digital/film war, but interested in reading

about your honest experiences with this.

Correct...I was just about to add the correction about the sensor size. Either way, the point was that the SD500 has the newer, larger sensor than most other P&S cameras.

 

Wesley, I'm not really sure about going one end or the other. Isn't it ideal to find the best of both ends? The Panasonic FZ20 gets great reviews, is SLR like in function and lens range (38-420mm or so). They go for the $500 mark. You can get a FZ15 (4meg instead of 5) for under $400.

I'm not sure how great a deal that is. Includes 2 el-cheapo Sigma zoom lenses.

 

I'd look for a D70 with the Nikon 18-70 DX lens, instead.

Actually, I think the poster was inquiring about the SD500, not the S500. The SD500 has the better 7mp 2.5" sensor.

 

If I was in your position and for your needs, digital P&S might be better for you. But I might skip the SD500 and save some cash and get the slightly larger A95 (same sensor size, but 5mp). The A95 gives you some more creative control than the SD500 but is a little bigger. I believe the A series also takes conversion lenses as well.

 

I personally wouldn't buy any film camera NEW, with the great deals on used film cameras now. Have you considered a used DSLR setup for approx $600 (used d-rebel with kit lens)?

I'm guessing 1200 CDN is about $900 US. I've seen mint Hexar RF + 50mm Hexanons go for $800-900. Add $350 for the 90/2.8 lens. Then again I've seen G2 + 45mm lens go for about $600 USD.

 

Either way, I don't think it's a big price difference between the G2 and Hexar RF. I prefer manual focus but as you mentioned, if this was for my wife, I'd prob get an AF camera (though more likely a Nikon 35TI or T3).

"if it gives less vignetting with the Summicron on digital sensors"

 

I'm probably misunderstanding this statement, but where is a summicron available on a digital sensor?

Instead of the FZ10, I recommend the FZ15 ($375 at Butterflyphoto). It's basically an updated FZ10 with the newer Venus image processor.

Benjamin,

 

If you plan on selling it soon, I wouldn't bother with the CLA. I would shoot a roll in various conditions and see if everything checks out ok (shutter speeds, film advance, rewind, vf/rf, etc). If everything is OK, I'd leave it up to the buyer to get a CLA if they want it (some people just want a user camera for as cheap as possible - just as long as all functions work properly, they'd rather not spend the extra $$$ for a CLA'd camera.) If I was you, I would also get a new leather covering for it (pretty cheap upgrade), it'll make a big difference to the cosmetic appearance of the camera, and increase it's value when you sell it.

Well how do you expect Leica to develop this wonderful new DSLR? They can't even put together a digital back, let alone a complete ground-up DSLR. Where do you expect them to get money for that development? I'm not saying that digital P&S cameras are what saves Leica, but they need a cash cow, and high volume digital P&S cameras is probably their best bet right now. What else is there? How many people actually buy their NEW Leica MP's, M7's, Digilux2, R9, CM's ??? It's a drop in the bucket really. As mentioned before, Leica doesn't really have efficient manufacturing.

 

Also Hermes ownership won't save Leica with their marketing of high-end products. Selling a $3000 bag and $500 scarf (which costs them about $50 to make) isn't the same as technology products. You have to sell enough volume to recoup your R&D, manufacturing costs + have more for future projects. It's pretty obvious Leica has little to no R&D budget, especially for giant projects like a DSLR and Dig-M.

In order for Leica to get out of the red, they need to focus on more mainstream products. For example, rebadging more of Panasonic's digital cameras (e.g. their FX line is very good). This reminds me of how many car companies started building SUV's because they not only sold well, but also had a high profit margin. Basically every car manufacturer now has an SUV (even Porsche!) Now, like Porsche enthusiasts, the company might be accused of 'selling out', but the reality is that Porsche sales have increased tremendously since releasing their SUV and has basically saved them from financial troubles. Their SUV was also co-engineered with Volkswagen.

 

Now this doesn't mean Leica should price their cameras into the stratosphere (Digilux, DLux anyone???) But just make minor changes (body design, different image algorithims) and price it *slightly* higher than the Panasonic version. This will give them sales volume, with little R&D costs since it's basically a rebadged Panasonic.

How are you framing using the 40mm lens? Are you using the 35mm or 50m framelines, external 40mm finder, or a R3a/CLE ???

 

If you are using the 35 or 50 framelines, how is that working for you?

Might not be what you are looking for, but just a suggestion. You might want to look for a 90mm M-Hexanon. Compact, awesome build quality, and optically excellent. (approx $350-$400).

Konica Hexar RF + 35mm pre-asph lux + 90mm M-Hexanon

In response to Carlos, I don't really see what you should get all huffy about. John asked about L lenses, and others responded with suggestions. And a 70-200/4L ($575) + 50/1.8 ($100) + already purchased kit lens comes in under budget and isn't a bad setup. I agree that John should pick what works for him (and maybe that will take some time), but it's not like he gave everyone a specific criteria, so the responses given were tuned to what each individual prefers. I don't think the response "first prove that you've tried out what you have and come back in 6 months" is what John was looking for. Also, I doubt he would take any of the recommendations as a mandatory purchase for himself. That's for him to figure out, of course. I just don't see a problem with the suggestions that people made (many were within his budget), and even if it wasn't in his budget, who cares? John's capable of figuring that out and choosing which recommendation (if any) works for him.

I would suggest the Sigma 18-50/f2.8 and a Canon 70-200/f4 or a Sigma 70-200/f2.8 Sell your kit lens and use the cash to buy a 50/1.8

 

This will give you a pretty versatile kit with fast, high quality lenses.

Oh boy...here we go again. Alan, I don't think you are going to receive any more clarification on the issue than what you have already read so far. Basically it's going to come down to you doing your own testing of your own bodies and lenses, since results apparently vary. But I don't recall any issues of Hexanon-M lenses on Leica bodies, mostly it's Leica lenses on Hexar bodies.

If you're on a budget, why not consider the 40mm cron (or M-rokkor)? You can find one for approx the same price as your CV Skopar, and it's F2. Last I checked, kevincameras.com had one available.

I faced the same decision. I went with the SD300 (got it for $310 shipped from Dell - use the coupon codes). The SD300 is smaller, faster, bigger LCD, better video. The S410 may have slightly better edge sharpness than the SD300, but maybe a firmware upgrade for the SD300 will address this. The S410 doesn't comfortable fit in my pants pockets, and finally the E18 (something like that) error messages I read about put me off.

 

The price I got the SD300 for was only $30 more than the S410. Shop around.

Didn't contribute a thing? (those italics really bring out your point, Michael). Well it did bring out your cute, albeit moderately pathetic, "Go Canon team!" attitude, which contributed a lot to this forum. It does feel good being part of a team, doesn't it Michael? Perhaps you can form your own italics users group.

Hmm...interesting stuff. The Bessa 3A sounds like a great body for the CV 40/1.4 and a 75lux. The 1.0 finder should make focusing them a breeze.

 

Does anyone know which framelines the CV 40mm brings up on a Leica M6?

Marcus, perhaps both of us were reading too much into the post, as we might both be presuming the opposite ends of it. But I still stand by the thinking that his comment (or at least the immature style of it) was daft.

 

Michael, why shouldn't I be able to ask a legitimate question? It was stupid remark, that deserved a question of the poster's sanity or at least maturity. And thanks for pointing out that this is an EOS forum...for a minute I thought the "CANON" label on my 10D said something else. Competition? What are you part of the Canon board of directors? Sheesh...this is equipment, not a Redsox/Yankee rivalry. Then again if you're that into the Canon/Nikon rivalry like it's some baseball team, I feel really sorry for you. You should get out more.