[LRflex] Re: New Leica M development
- From: David Young <telyt@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: leicareflex@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 11 Jun 2006 06:52:32 -0700
At 10/06/2006, you wrote:
>A nice concept David, but how about those of us who might consider the new
>digital M, but will have to retrofit some ( or many ) of our precious lenses
>in order to take advantage of all of the features of the new camera? Did I
>see a price of about 95 Euros per lens to retro fit? So....if one has a
>full selection of the M lenses from the past 10 years or so one might expect
>to spend many hundreds of "extra" dollars in order to "fully" use the M
>lenses on the new camera. I think a better approach might be to have at
>least one or two lenses retrofitted without extra charge with the purchase
>of a new digital M body.
>
>One wonders if the Zeiss and/or Cosina lenses can be retrofitted as well.
>
>Rumors concerning the possible price of the digital M body were extant at
>the PMA in Orlando, and the "projected" range seemed to be from $4200 to
>about $5,000. Add in the retrofit, or some new M lenses.... one can see that
>the dollars add up very, very quickly.
>
>Elliot
Good Mornin' Elliot!
You don't need to have any lenses retrofitted. All 'M" lenses made
will fit/work with the new Digi-M.
Despite what Leica says about helping the camera "optimize image
quality", similar claims were made for the ROM contacts in 'R' lenses
doing wondrous things, which turned out to be pretty much false. The
ROM contacts identify the lens and allow a couple of models of Metz
zoom flash guns to zoom to the correct setting. With the advent of
the DMR, the ROM contacts also allow the recording of f-stop and
focal length (prime lenses only, I understand) in the meta-data.
However, none of my lenses are ROM models... in fact, I've gone out
of my way to buy all 3-cam lenses, so that I can use them with the R8
and with my faithful SL. The work just fine with the DMR, other than
the fact that while the DMR records the shutter speed, etc., all
shots are reported with f-stop but without focal length and the max
aperture is always reported as being f1!
I didn't know that the 400/f6.8 Telyt was capable of f1! Did you? :-)
Perhaps (I do not know this for sure) the identification of the lens
allows some post processing to improve colour fringing, on the ultra
wides, where the angle of incidence is rather extreme in the
corners. If this is true, it might be worthwhile to have your 21
and 19 mm lenses converted. Otherwise, all you'll gain is to have
the focal length recorded in your meta data. You'll still get shutter
speed, ISO, etc. Hardly worth the conversion cost, let alone
justifying buying new lenses! (Do your "M" based film bodies record
the focal length/f stop/shutter speed? Have you managed to live with
this serious lack of vital information, so far?)
Buy the body, use your existing lenses and enjoy! If the new Digi-M
takes photos like the DMR, it will be an incredible picture taking machine!
Cheers!
---
David Young,
Logan Lake, CANADA
Personal Web-site at: http://www3.telus.net/~telyt
Limited Edition Prints at: http://www3.telus.net/~telyt/prints.htm
Leica Reflex Forum web-page: http://www3.telus.net/~telyt/lrflex.htm
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