digital rangefinder camera

[lay9eggs]

Does anyone know if a new & affordable (around $1,000) digital rangefinder camera will be introduced soon? Voigtlander, Cosina, maybe? Thanks.

[DarkPenguin]

No.

[JohnBrew]

Epson is re-introducing their RD-1, I think as an RD-1x. For a digital rangefinder it will be the least expensive choice. Unfortunately, the $1K digital rangefinder is somewhere on the very distant horizon.

[ndevlin]

Sadly, the technical challenges of creating sensors capable of contenting with the very steep angles of incidence which you get with the rear element of the lens as close to the 'film' plane as is the case with rangefinder designs are very significant.The M8 showed it could be done -- but only on a reduced frame camera, and even then with very serious limitations.

I would kill for a Leica M-like camera with a FF chip (I want my 35mm f1.4 to be a 35mm f1.4, goddamnit!) such as in the D3x.  Surely in time it will happen. Unfortunately, I have a feeling that that time is in the 4-6 year range.

When it happens, it won't be cheap.

Personally, I am quite interested in the forthcoming Olympus micro 4/3 camera which may be modeled on the original PEN.

http://photorumors.com/2009/06/06/picture-...finally-leaked/

It will not, of course, have the same manual functionality of a true Rf camera, but it could be fun and has a 17 (aka 34mm) f2.8 lens, which is promising,

-N.

[lay9eggs]

Sounds like no-go in the near future. Thanks for responding.

[elf]

The soon to be announced Olympus m4/3rds should qualify as well as the current Panasonic G1.

[dseelig]

Give it 2 years or maybe less after a m9 comes out and the m8 will be 1200 to 1800 on the used market.
The Mighty Karnack predicts. LOL

David

[BJL]

The soon to be announced Olympus m4/3rds should qualify as well as the current Panasonic G1.

Yes; my prediction is that the digital future for "mirror-less interchangeable lens systems" will be "video viewfinder cameras" like these, rather than true rangefinder cameras. This preserves many of the functional virtues that distinguish rangefinder cameras from SLRs, like more compact bodies and lenses and shutter release with less noise and vibration, and technological progress is likely to reproduce those virtues, but not by reproducing the particular technological approach that was needed to achieve those goals a century ago. The rangefinder camera's disadvantages like VF parallax, lack of DOF preview, limited telephoto focal length options had already driven them into a small niche decades ago, are are best left behind in the digital era, except perhaps for a few RF camera bodies offering backward compatibility for owners of expensive lens collections.

However, one major performance weakness for mirror-less digital cameras so far is shutter lag, so we should hope for substantial improvements in the lag of video viewfinders (EVFs and LCDs), and in the delay currently required by having to close and cock the focal plane shutter as part of the shutter release cycle.

[AlbertK]

Carl Zeiss has not ruled out the possibility of a digital version of the Zeiss-Ikon rangefinder. Time frame unknown (of course). I keep hoping!  

Albert

[Anders_HK]

The soon to be announced Olympus m4/3rds should qualify as well as the current Panasonic G1.

Having gone through countless compacts and Sigma DP1 and Canon G9 I recently bought the Leica M8 at more money than I had planned. Why?

Simply the M8 is a camera with which I can take photos and not a computer stuck between the lens and my eyes.

Olympus and Panasonic are not rangefinders. Nor do they look or operate same way.

I like the M8. It is not up to image quality of my Leaf Aptus 65, but I do say those are the only two digital products I have felt content with (been through D200, D50, ZD etc). One good thing with both of them is also that colors when opening the raws up at defaults in CS4 are already very good, but colors of both are different, yet both are two different tools. The image quality of M8 is indeed already very high. In film? I used a Canon AV-1 for twenty years, Nikon F100 for five and now a Mamiya 7 and a Shen-Hao 4x5. Look at the M8, no need for M8.2, but... do read up on its limitations including use of IR+UV filters on lenses, and... obvious on what a rangefinder is and how it operates (for those who do not know). The M8 is amazing fast to make settings including ISO, beating any DSLR I used... and a sheer delight to use!

Why buy M8 now and not wait for M9? With M8.2 costing what, how much you think M9 will be???

Anders

[spotmeter]

Does anyone know if a new & affordable (around $1,000) digital rangefinder camera will be introduced soon? Voigtlander, Cosina, maybe? Thanks.

I have to say that I am quite amazed with my new Canon G10. I have sold a number of 16x20 prints from this camera that everyone assumes were made by a full-frame camera. For only $450 it is quite a bargain.

While the optical viewfinder is not really that great, the photos are. And it is quiet and small like a rangefinder, with little or no shutter lag. The autofocus is fast and accurate.

Lensmate makes excellent accessories for this camera.

I use mine on a tripod for landscapes and macros while traveling on business. And I don't have to worry about mirror lock up, which is always somewhat of a hassle with other Canon cameras.

Highly recommended.

[250swb]

I have to say that I am quite amazed with my new Canon G10. I have sold a number of 16x20 prints from this camera that everyone assumes were made by a full-frame camera. For only $450 it is quite a bargain.

While the optical viewfinder is not really that great, the photos are. And it is quiet and small like a rangefinder, with little or no shutter lag. The autofocus is fast and accurate.

Lensmate makes excellent accessories for this camera.

I use mine on a tripod for landscapes and macros while traveling on business. And I don't have to worry about mirror lock up, which is always somewhat of a hassle with other Canon cameras.

Highly recommended.

I have to disagree with the idea there is little or no shutter lag on the Canon G10, it is appallingly slow when compared to a proper camera. Rangefinders are all about lightning speed, not a slow working P&S with a vastly cropped viewfinder.

In purist terms the M8 is the only thing on the market that ticks all the boxes. The new Olympus m4/3 EP-1 (that pays homage to the Olympus Pen concept) looks like it will have a rear LCD only according to the leaked photo's, although an optical finder could perhaps be used or maybe it will have an optional hotshoe mount EVF? This will take all your Leica or other rangefinder lenses in MF mode. I've recently been using my Panasonic G1 with Leica M lenses and the results are superb, but like has been said before, it isn't a rangefinder in ethos or shape.


Steve

[MarkL]

Outside of leica only possibly a digital zeiss ikon but this will probably be hellishly expensive too.

The writing is on the wall for digital rangefinders with the types of cameras being produced for the m4/3s format being the future.