>From: "frank theriault" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >It is, as everyone here says, a lovely looking camera. And, a real >rangefinder, too boot. With manual metering available! And, it takes >m-mount lenses.
>Ironic that Leica said, "The M platform can't do digital. It'll take us >four years to do a digital rangefinder!" I think that it was four years, >anyway - it was some god-for-saken figure like that. There is a difference between a digital rangefinder with a Leica mount and anything like a digital "M" to Leica's standards! The Epson camera is not full-frame, for one thing (although this might be easier to work around with a rangefinder?). While the Cosina cameras appear to be well-enough made, I doubt they have the fit, finish, and feel of a Leica M. Also, one of Leica's claims is that the very small back-of-lens to film-plane distance with some wide-angles will cause light to come into the sensor at very bad angles on the edges. This is already a problem with current full-frame DSLRs. This is only going to be made worse by the need for wide-angles to compensate for the smaller sensor. The mere fact that Epson/Cosina put an M mount in a rangefinder body in front of a digital sensor (kudos to Sony for spooning that now-outdated chip into another camera...) does not mean that it will WORK WELL Leica could be right, and Epson/Cosina foolish or naive. Of course Leica could be misleading us to conceal the fact that they missed the boat big time. I'd like to think that by now Leica could produce an AF system that works to their satisfaction since everyone else has one. Whether they could keep the "Leica feel" in such a system might be a real issue. >Whatever Leica said, Cosina trumped them big time on this one, eh? I'm still looking lustfully at the new Topcon-styled silver Bessa TM thing with M42 screw mount. If it had something better than an MX-style exposure readout I'd probably already have one. If they put the Sony 6MP chip in THAT, I'll be excited! DJE
