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What do you use 35mm vs digital

"Hi all. This is my first post to this group, and I hope it does not get lost in hyperspace. Regarding "What do you use? 35mm vs. digital" I use both depending on the situation and what the final product is being used for. For film I have a N**** F3, N****F5. Leica, 2 M6's, 1 M7, 1 R6.2 and a R8. Lenses, to many to mention. I use digital for grandchildren shots, and misc stuff like that that which I want to e-mail without going througd a lot of hassals. I just pick the camera for the job. SLR's for macro, and PC on bldgs and telephoto for long shots. The M's, for what ever else is left, which is a lot. However I am a bit partial to the Leicas. John"
 
The Tri-Elmar-M will become one of the few modern collectors items.

As Jim does, have a non-ASPH Summicron or Summilux available for low light. They are small enough to have in a pocket for back-up.

With the Tri-Elmar-M and a fast 35 you can forget the 28 & 50.

A Leica table-tripod is also an easy solution.
 
Hi all,
I have read several times that current technology does not allow to produce a "digital M".
Could somebody explain that ?
Hugues.
 
Hugues,

IMHO, it is because the Solms engineers and marketing refuses to think outside of the box. It can be done, they are lost in a sea of features an missing the true market for a digital M.

Again, IMHO.

Best regards, B2 (;->
 
[Just my two cents worth, I totally agree. A digital leica made by leica along the lines of either the M system or the R system would be fantastic. Perhaps there'll be an announcement that they've been talking to foveon and have licensed their technology ...but wouldn't hold my breath and will have to continue using a neg scanner for a while yet.

Danny

]
 
To B2, Your assess of Leica Solms is way off base. The are serious techincal problems with designing a digital M camera. The problem has something to do with the direction of the light rays on the sensor. They are working on a digital Reflex camera, when it will appear, I don't know. As for Foveon, I've been watching them since the appeared, and I'm not convinced they can deliver all they claim.
Do you really think, the people at Solms are so inept as not to see the market for a digital M camera?
Happy Snaps,
Sal
 
Digital M? Leica says it's not technically feasible at this time. Something to do with the distance between sensor and lens or somesuch? I think it's far more likely that a more 'progressive' company will develop a system tht will be M-compatible - Konica/Minolta, or Voigtlander, maybe.

The other thing that would probably discourage Leica from pursuing it would be the costs involved. For R&D, on Leica's side, and the end-cost to the user. Would Leica users be satisfied by a camera with a build quality spec that didn't match their film-based cameras? A digital would probably cost more than an M7. But, since it's the camera, and not the lens that is responsible for image quality in digital, and since these chips are evolving so quickly, it would be expected that a digital M could be outclassed by a much less expensive camera almost immediately following its release.

It wouldn't sit well with Leicaphiles to know that their $4000 M-Digital was inferiour to an $800 Canon G4, or whatever's current then.... Besides - I'm pretty sure the whole shebang would be quite dependent on BATTERIES. No mechanical shutterspeeds? Oh, dear. Surely you must be mad.
 
Sal,

I understand the issue. Film is a much more forgiving medium that digital chips. I agree that Foveon may prove out to be yet another DOA technology. From looking at Leica's approach to film based bodies of late, I believe that Solms is going to deliver a feature burdened body that will be obsolete before it hits the market. At 11mp, I believe that a filter could be developed (software plug-in) that could fix any problems with angular nature of light rays at the edges of the format.

If they keep it simple, forget in camera conversion to JPEG, let that be done on a Mac or a PC. Let us shoot three pictures into fast internal cache RAM, then dump them to a stick or a card. Use AA batteries so that we can find them everywhere.

It can be done, the quest for absolute perfection is missing a market that I believe would be happy with the quality of say 20 years ago. Once you have some cash, generated by this the new MD7, then do some R&D the right way.

I fear that if Leica waits till things are perfect, they will be just another bankrupt company.

Again, IMHO.

B2
 
I think the limitation is in fabricating a CCD with enough pixels at a reasonable price. Say at a price that the camera would cost the same as an M7.
Maybe in the next year or two, but not yet.
 
I'm shooting both. However, I have gone back to M4 for b/w because I was so disappointed with the digital. I feel both have their place and you should shoot what you are comfortable with. I must say though that you would have to shoot a hell of a lot of digital images to make all the equipment (scanner, printer, ink and photo paper) pay for itself!
 
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