atanabe
Member
With the Nikon - Canon digital supremacy wars going on and the DSLR proliferation from Sony, Pentax and Olympus is it financially wise for a company (Leica) to invest in a brand new DSLR?
Step back and think about it from an objective point of view, the success of the M8 was on two major factors, unique to the market and a large installed base of M owners. The R series never had a large installed base and aside from the lenses, did not have any technical advantage over any other brand.
Would it make more sense for Leica to take an existing DSLR and modify the mount to accept the current R series lenses and most importantly would there be a market for it? It comes as no surprise that a great number of R lenses are being bought for use on Canons via adaptors which show that people are willing to do major workarounds to gain image quality. If Leica were to rebadge a (Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Sony, Olympus, Sigma, Minolta) would you buy it?
Leica has in it's history, rebadged the Minolta for the R3-7 series manufactured by Leica in Portugal. So what would prevent them from doing the same for the digital Rxx? More importantly would it matter to those wanting to use their existing and future R glass? Does the next generation DSLR from Leica have to be wholey developed and manufactured by Leica to be apealling?
Just speculation and musings at this point. I am one of those R users sitting on the fence waiting for news (good preferably) and until September have to wait.
Here is what would be an interesting marriage and why:
Nikon D700 - (very unlikely) because of the ergonomics (shares the D300 layout), full frame and high ISO
Sigma SD14 - Foveon sensor - unique and very nice images but limited because of high current draw resulting in heat and shorter battery life, poor high ISO. On the plus side (maybe) Sigma and Leica have had a relationship with the R zoom lenses (35-70 f4 and 28-70).
Any other interesting combinations and why?
Would you buy a rebadged (insert manufacturer here) and why?
What price premium over the existing body would you be willing to pay?
Have fun with this thread!
Regards,
Al
Step back and think about it from an objective point of view, the success of the M8 was on two major factors, unique to the market and a large installed base of M owners. The R series never had a large installed base and aside from the lenses, did not have any technical advantage over any other brand.
Would it make more sense for Leica to take an existing DSLR and modify the mount to accept the current R series lenses and most importantly would there be a market for it? It comes as no surprise that a great number of R lenses are being bought for use on Canons via adaptors which show that people are willing to do major workarounds to gain image quality. If Leica were to rebadge a (Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Sony, Olympus, Sigma, Minolta) would you buy it?
Leica has in it's history, rebadged the Minolta for the R3-7 series manufactured by Leica in Portugal. So what would prevent them from doing the same for the digital Rxx? More importantly would it matter to those wanting to use their existing and future R glass? Does the next generation DSLR from Leica have to be wholey developed and manufactured by Leica to be apealling?
Just speculation and musings at this point. I am one of those R users sitting on the fence waiting for news (good preferably) and until September have to wait.
Here is what would be an interesting marriage and why:
Nikon D700 - (very unlikely) because of the ergonomics (shares the D300 layout), full frame and high ISO
Sigma SD14 - Foveon sensor - unique and very nice images but limited because of high current draw resulting in heat and shorter battery life, poor high ISO. On the plus side (maybe) Sigma and Leica have had a relationship with the R zoom lenses (35-70 f4 and 28-70).
Any other interesting combinations and why?
Would you buy a rebadged (insert manufacturer here) and why?
What price premium over the existing body would you be willing to pay?
Have fun with this thread!
Regards,
Al