Leica developing micro Four Thirds Mirrorless Camera???

Leica Mirrorless Camera based on Panasonic GM1 by using Adobe Photoshop

Leica is going to develop micro Four Thirds mirrorless camera….???

Actually the rumor has been around since micro Four Thirds came out and when GF1 came out, lots of people expected Leica version…. but it did not happen and they brought out X1 with fixed lens. I remember when the scoop photo came out, we were expecting to be micro Four Thirds.

Then, there was another rumor said they were developing APS-C mirrorless… at that time, I predicted Fuji X-pro1 brother… then, it did not happen.

When we heard about “Leica Mini M… ” again we were expecting some kind of mirrorless camera… then, it did not happen again.

I can see Leica is struggling in this market due to their technology level.

M series are way over priced and there is nothing between X series.

From my experience, Leica Digilux 3 was a quite good camera, but there was nothing to replace that position.

At least they have been making Panasonic OEM point & shoots until today,  It is very good idea to have micro Four-Thirds mirrorless. They already have several Leica lenses in this series.

Last year, Leica was saying they did not want to make “Compact camera body with huge lens like Coke can”.

I guess at that time, they were trying to do with bigger APS-C… but as you see the result of X-Vario, they recognized it was not possible to have APS-C with reasonable compact zoom lens. Then, they stopped the project of APS-C mirrorless and came back to micro Four-Thirds… I guess that was the story.

Well… I did not have chance to replace Digilux 3 and now, I am using Pananonic GX1, but if micro Four Thirds comes out, It will be a good replacement for me this time.

Go Back>>

SONY α7, α7R 35mm full-size mirrorless camera!

Sony officially revealed full-frame mirror-less camera.

The rumor had been around quite a while… but it is surprising to me.

First of all SONY NEX always had problem with poor lens design.
Due to the short flange-back and small mount diameter, always the image quality was not impressive especially around the edges.

Then, even with the unimpressive lenses, those were quite big for the size of the body.

If they try to make good lenses, they got huge and had bad balance with tiny body.

If they make compact lenses, the image quality was not impressive at all….

Even with APS-c format was like that… and how can you expect the full-size could get any better?

This time, the body looks like SLR…. well….. it will look better with those huge full-size lenses.

What funny to me was… α has been the brand for A mount and NEX has been for E mount.
But why are they calling it α　this time?

To me, it is obvious that they are trying to make slow selling  A mount  retire and shift everything to E mount.

Until today, there were quite a few companies to run 2 lens mount systems.  They always said at the beginning , they were going to continue the old system as well….

But remember Canon FD system, Minolta X system, Olympus OM system and four-thirds system….. all of them announced that they were going to keep both system, but none of them kept the words.

Do you remember Olympus was keep saying they were still developing four-thirds system?

That is how things happens in this world.

To me, full-size mirror-less does not mean a lot. Maybe they are smaller…but still the lenses are huge and expensive for its compact body.

I would say, they are just trying to get rid of A system…. that is all.

Go Back >>

Vancouver BC, Canada by film

Those were taken in Vancouver B.C. Canada by film in 2005 summer.

When we use digital cameras today, we are quite satisfied or think those images were way better than film days….but when we look back old photos, they are not bad at all… or we can say, they have more “information” compare to digital.

It is similar to difference between CD and record. When CD first came out, we were surprised with the noiseless clear sound….but soon noticed it was tasteless.

Due to the poor film environment, it is not easy to go back again.

Those were the day, I was using full-mechanical camera and adjusting everything manually. It is not that long ago and Canon F-1 did quite good job….but the skill has been lost now…,

Canon F-1 New FD20-35mmF3.5, 50-135mmF3.5, FD200mmF2.8

Panasonic LUMIX DMC-GX7

Panasonic LUMIX DMC GX7 + 40mm

Finally,  successor of Panasonic GX1…which I has revealed.

Last Octorbar, there was rumor of its new model “GX2” and tell the truth, the market distribution was getting slower and slower.

Actually, quite a few internet shops stopped selling GX1 at that time and that was how the market price which was keep coming down recovered due to the limited supply.

But, the new model did not arrive to market and we had to wait for another year.

The Biggest sales point is….the built in view finder with Rangefinder looking body shape.

This was what lots of people were waiting for….

Another big thing is the body side image stabilizer which is first for Panasonic.

Panasonic is the pioneer of image stabilizer and they knew Lens side one works better.
That was how even in the same micro four-thirds group, Panasonic was using lens-side image stabilizer and Olympus was body side.

In fact….especially for video, body-side one is just useless and Olympus video is not really impressive.

But with the body-side works for any lens including old lens with lens mount.

Brand-new sensor, Variable angle monitor, dual dial operation…or etc….I think this camera is quite well designed.

Although the body size is a bit bigger than GX1, but I think it is better size for people with bigger hands.

Before, Panasonic had GH, G, GF….and GX1. There were so many model and that was how, GX1 was a quite good camera, but they did not do lots of things they could because they wanted to sell higher priced GH series too.

But now, It is quite well done and GX7 is going to be a top grade of box-type camera.

I guess Panasonic was planning to launch GX2 last year to replace GX1 and it was minor-change version of GX1…but they cancelled the project due to more competition such as SONY NEX6.

Now, they are starting about $1000 for its body. I will wait for another year and it will be reasonable price by the time…

To me, it is the best camera of the year at this stage….

Leica X vario….Mini M….

As the website said, Mini M, called X vario officially came out today.

The rumour which came out in May 28  was right….it is zoom lens version of Leica X2.

As I said in previous post, the zoom lens Elmar 27-70mm (35mm equivalent) f/3.5-6.4 is a bit too dark if I think the price tag or $2200.

Since SONY NEX came out, the size of the zoom lens and the image quality has been criticized and that was the big reason that I did not go for SONY.

In case of Leica, they could not do anything about the size of the lens.
So,now….What Leica with interchangeable lenses are….redicurously expensive S system, and ancient M series.

Others are X series which has fixed lens and Panasonic OEM point & shoots.

I just don’t understand what they are thinking and where they are trying to go…..

 

Leica mini M…more update…

Now….the box of mini M is a bit more open compare to last post.

Now, we can see more than before.

Well…if I see this…I have to say my previous post was wrong. The image of Mini M was everywhere including news site!! But as far as I see, the lens is not as big as the photo we had before.

At least I still think the body is based on X2…..but talk about lens…I have no idea.

As I said last time, the lens is too big on this photo.

It could be zoom lens with APS-C format….or could be 35mm full-size point& shoot….

From the name, It does not sound like big brother of X2. They are calling Mini M….this means It could be 35mm point & shoot like Sony RX1.

At least those Ads. are quite interesting….but it is not attractive to me…

 

Leica Mini M…more info…

This was the image which came out yesterday….the box from last time is a little bit open and can see something like lens….well…it looks quite big….

Leica Mini M

Then, this is the image which came out this morning…Seems like it is fixed lens camera with APS-C format.

In the other word, it is zoom lens version of Leica X2.

The lens isElmar 27-70mm (35mm equivalent) f/3.5-6.4…well…it is quite dark.

There are some APS-C point& shoot around in this world…but all of them came with fixed wide angle lens. For me, wide angle lenses are useless and that is how I kept staying away from those.

Sony R1…1st APS-c format point & shoot with zoom lens came out in 2005.

There was APS-C fixed Cirl Zeiss zoom lens camera called Sony R1. It was huge and ugly looking camera and 8 years later, the Mini M is much better looking….but I still don’t feel like spending $3,000.

 

New Leica camera is coming in June 11 !!

As the image of website says, Leica new camera called “Mini M” at this point is coming out in 11th of June.

I guess it is going to be the new “Mirrorless camera” they have been talking about…..

First of all, it is between M and X series.

Now, Leica M is about $7,000, M-E is $5,500 and X2 is $2,000 in the United States.
As it shows, Mini M is between M and X….this means the price range would be around $3,500 or so.

Next….what kind of camera is it going to be?
Leica M is good camera for some people…but not for everyone.
S2 is fixed lens camera.

This means Mini M has to be something more reasonable to anyone with inter-changable lens system.

But for Leica, It is too risky to start their own system including Auto-focus by themselves and that will also be quite expensive. That is how, I still think it is going to be OEM model of some Japanese mirrorless camera.

This is something I predicted last year and was based on Fuji X-Pro1.
Back then, they announced that  Mirrorless camera was going to come out soon….but they withdraw the plan later on.

Then, I don’t know what they were doing until now…but at least something is arriving to market soon.

I still believe it is going to be OEM of Fuji X-E1 or future Panasonic GX2.

I bought Leica Digilux 3 five years ago. It was reasonably priced and good camera until today. All I want now is….something to replace the aged Digilux 3!!

Canon…mistery of the beginning

Today’s CEO of Canon is a grandson of the founder…..that is how people say.

But, it is not true.

Canon was originally started a movie camera technician Goro Yoshida in 1933 which is only a year later the 1st Contax came out !!

Mr. Yoshida was a movie camera technician and those days, he visited Shanghai quite often to get parts for cameras. Shanghai was quite international and was easier to get imported items there compare to Tokyo.

One day, an American guy told him

Japanese can make good war ships or air plains, so why don’t you guys make own cameras?

That was the moment Mr. Yoshida decided to make his own camera and also it was the beginning of Canon.  At the beginning, he had his brother in low Mr.Uchida as a business partner who was a wealthy financial man and Mr. Mitarai later who became the president was friend of him.

What Mr.Yoshida did was…. completely disassembled bland new Leica and Contax to see how those work.

Then, he decided to make Leica which was much more simply made.
After he disassembled Leica, he took those parts to engineering people to copy….then, replaced with originals.

Seiko….which is known for watches today helped him quite a lot too.

That was how he first made domestic Leica by himself. It sound something stupid….but those days, they could buy a house in Tokyo for 1000 yen and Leica was 600 yen!!
Buy the way, their first product Hansa Canon was 350 yen and that was completely hand-made. They could build 1/week at beginning!!!

There is a copy of famous magazine ad. of early Canon which was originally called Kwanon camera in 1934.

It says

Submarine….I-1
Air plane…..Type 92
Camera…..Kwanon
All best of the world !!
Imports which we can’t re-export is waste for our valuable resource .

When you see the image, you can see a film advance knob in front of the body like Contax.
Although he started as Leica copy, there was already his originality. Truth was….he wanted to make Contax rather than Leica.

Mr.Yoshida stayed at the company for only a year. During the time, he says he made 10 Kwanons…..but nobody has seen them partly because he was the only engineer at that time.

There are total 4 different type of Ads.of Kwanon Camera and later one does not have film advanced knob in front and their 1st product “Hansa Canon” looks quite similar to final version of Kwanon camera’s illustration. This means I think it was nearly ready on the mechanical side by the time Mr.Yoshida left.

Just to mass-produce, they had to borrow hands from Nikon for the optical side.

Today, there is a camera called Kwanon  kept in head office of Canon and it is considered as one of the original Kwanon.

But, Mr. Yhoshida denied that was his project. Also funny thing was….Canon has always in Tokyo, but this Kwanon was discovered in Osaka after the WW2. But, at least he admitted the lens was his….It is funny story again….Kwanon’s Lens mount is original one. This means someone modified a camera for the lens…..

After Mr.Yoshida left Canon, he was keep working as movie camera engineer or helped to start-up “Nikka Camera” which were the dead copy of Leica to supply for army.

But, after the war, he never did anything with cameras and even did not talk anything about Kwanon cameras.

The founder Mr.Yoshida was there for only a year, the business partner Mr.Uchida left in 5 years…..then, that was the time, Mr.Mitarai became a president of Canon.

Even Canon’s history talks very little about those 2 founders and Mr. Yoshida did not talk a lot. Even we don’t find Mr.Uchida in Wikipedia today.

That is how, The beginning of Canon is like Lost history. Nobody who knows about today alive and the history is lost forever unless someone discover original Kwanon!!

Thing is….he did not want to talk about cameras anymore…..that would be the reason he denied about the Kwanon which exist today.

Minolta Maxxum 7000

Minolt Maxxum 7000 suddenly attacked SLR market in Feb.1885.
Even those days, we were keep hearing rumour about new upcoming new models quite regularly. But talk about Maxxum 7000, there was completely no rumor at all.

It was shocking news not only because the camera was well made….but also there was completely no rumor around.

The biggest reason was….Minolta was in Osaka, not in Tokyo.
In Tokyo, all the other manufactures around and they are using same supplyers…..actually, that is where rumors comes from.
It was the first “2nd generation” of Auto focus SLR. First generations came out around 1982, but they were expensive, limited AF lens and not enough performance.

Then, after that, All the manufacture shifted to multi-mode AE SLRs and nobody was expecting AF when Maxxum came out.

The biggest difference on Maxxum was its compact & reasonably priced lens system and all of them were ready for AF.

Before that, AF SLRs had only one or 2 AF lens which was expensive, huge and slow because everything was built in the AF lens.

But Maxxum had everything in body and even AF motor was built in camera body. That was how the AF lens were very compact and the price was about the same as other MF lenses.

Even as multi-mode AE camera, Maxxum 7000 was almost perfectly made for back then.
That was how, AF era suddenly arrived and it completely changed the market situation.

Minolta had brand new Lens mount for AF…..so, we never knew what was going to happen to other manufacture.

That was how, Minolta Maxxum 7000 was extremely popular……and at the same time, nobody bought any other cameras at that time because people were worried about the future change.

I have been using SLRs for 30 years….but I would say Minolta Maxxum 7000 had a biggest impact against the market.

From the point of today’s view, Maxxum 7000’s AF is extremely slow and can see them treated as junk. Or, even Minolta does not make cameras any more.

Time has changed…….

This was the camera I really wanted at that time…..but I don’t feel anything. It is the sad thing about Electronics cameras.

Performance is everything and nothing else……