Leica M8 - is the lens mount THAT expensive?

Apparently there's a new Leica M8 that was just announced.
http://www.electronista.com/articles/06/09/14/four.new.leica.cameras/
What the heck? Why in the world would a rangefinder camera cost as much
Nikon's flagship digital SLR and almost as much as Canon's top of the
line camera? The only thing I can think of is that it must be the lens
mount. It's almost like Leica took the price of their regular M7 and
added on top of that instead of starting from scratch. Granted their
cameras are probably hand made (not always equating to better) and
you're basically paying for one worker's monthly salary when you buy a
camera, but damn, $5647US is a LOT of money for a rangefinder. Then
again, to put things in perspective a Patek Phillipe men's watch STARTS
at $12000, but a Leica isn't made of gold.

Nathantw

Re: Leica M8 - is the lens mount THAT expensive?

either
in
The owner of my local 1-Hour joint, was always one
of those "always wanted a Leica" guys. Problem was, he couldn't see thru an
"M" and the "Rs" lost their resale values. His solution: buy the "M" and
take pictures with the old Nikon. Very inscrutable. Bob
Hickey

Bob Hickey

Re: Leica M8 - is the lens mount THAT expensive?

In article <2006100322373016807-notreallymeNOSPAM@ixnetcomcom>,
Yes, but the analogy was wrong. Range finders are much more like motor bikes
if you want to compare SLRs to cars.
A motor bike can be a lot of fun, does have some advantages over a car,
but as a general purpose transportation device, the car is more practical
and more convenient.
It's the same thing with RF and SLR. RF does have its advantages, but the
system supports only a limited range of focal lengths. (And an SLR tends
to warn you that DoF is going to be an issue).
Once you get outside that range, the SLR is the only sensible option.
--
That was it. Done. The faulty Monk was turned out into the desert where it
could believe what it liked, including the idea that it had been hard done
by. It was allowed to keep its horse, since horses were so cheap to make.
-- Douglas Adams in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

Philip@ue.aioy.eu (Philip Homburg)

Re: Leica M8 - is the lens mount THAT expensive?

On 2006-10-03 19:21:57 -0400, philip@ue.aioy.eu (Philip Homburg) said:
On the other hand you could look through the Hubble Telescope and
that's more of an experience than your 300 f/2.8, though I must admit a
300 f/2.8 has a lot of style to it. Nevertheless, photography is not
all about telephotos, and the rangefinders have never been about more
than moderate telephotos. They have their own appeal.
--
Michael | "He's dead, Jim."

Michael Weinstein

Re: Leica M8 - is the lens mount THAT expensive?

In article <7xbqp6kmj7.fsf@ruckus.brouhaha.com>,
Last weekend, I spend most of the time looking through a 300/2.8.
I sort of doubt that any range finder is going to provide anything close
to that experience.
--
That was it. Done. The faulty Monk was turned out into the desert where it
could believe what it liked, including the idea that it had been hard done
by. It was allowed to keep its horse, since horses were so cheap to make.
-- Douglas Adams in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

Philip@ue.aioy.eu (Philip Homburg)

Re: Leica M8 - is the lens mount THAT expensive?

I'm sure you'll return to it as soon as you can find it.

Alan Browne

Re: Leica M8 - is the lens mount THAT expensive?

In article <1159215743.233853.159900@b28g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>,
Looks like our dear friend UC and his fook filled vocab is back...
Obviously his meds have run out.

Stewy

Re: Leica M8 - is the lens mount THAT expensive?

Sometimes it's just to get something that's made right in a sea of
junk......For example, I looked far and wide for a cassette deck that used
three motors, (like all the decent reel to reels did around 40 years
ago).....I finally found one made by Sony about 20 years ago....The RX 606
ES. I snapped it up for about $400 as I remember, and it has been performing
flawlessly for the last 20 years or more, just as I expected it would.......

William Graham

Re: Leica M8 - is the lens mount THAT expensive?

Hello Bart,
Yes, the Canon L lenses are less status symbols, though I know a few
photographers who present them in such regard. The main think about why
I threw those into that short listing is that the volume of L lenses
sold is much less than the volume of more common Canon lenses. You can
find a similar situation at Nikon.
Ciao!
Gordon Moat
A G Studio
<http://www.allgstudio.com>

Gordon Moat

Re: Leica M8 - is the lens mount THAT expensive?

Sinar was family owned and ran for a long time, and mostly produced
large format cameras. The family still controls some stock, though now a
deal through Jenoptik involving Leica shifts some of that balance. There
are some interesting development contracts with Franke & Heidecke
(Rollei medium format mostly) and still more development cooperation
with Jenoptik.
I have assisted an advertising shooter who was using a Sinar monorail.
Really nice construction, more like machine tool equipment than a
camera. Next closest camera I have personally seen like it was an Arca
Swiss, though I understand their quality control was not as good.
Sinar is definitely high end, just look at the prices. The Sinar M
system is cool in that it can be customized in several ways. If it is
anything like their view cameras, this stuff should last a long time of
hard usage.
Their digital backs are more of a question mark. Most of the rental
places I have seen, or photographers I know who own high end digital
backs, are using either PhaseOne or Leaf. I have also only used those
two systems. Supposedly the Jenoptik and Sinar digital backs are quite
good too, but my few inquiries to either company did not impress me at
all. I did not get the feeling that either company knew how to approach
the market in North America.
Sinar digital backs should be somewhat similar to PhaseOne, since they
are using Kodak CCDs. However, the recent short term Jenoptik
cooperation means some usage of Dalsa CCDs, which are also in Leaf
digital backs. At this high level, customer service and support can be
more important than outright results; they are all so incredibly close
it would be tough to pick out images from one back over another, and
even tougher to identify what was used.
Leica could become more involved in medium format and medium format
digital backs. I would be surprised to see Leica medium format lenses,
or Leica large format lenses. I currently doubt whether much technology
exchange will happen, other than software development. Professional
imaging is expected to grow by 10% in the next five years, regarding
equipment needs, and Leica might be quite smart in exploiting that niche
with Sinar.
Ciao!
Gordon Moat
A G Studio
<http://www.allgstudio.com>

Gordon Moat

Re: Leica M8 - is the lens mount THAT expensive?

It could be a partially retrofocus design, more like the Leitz 21mm,
or even a full retro design, like the ones on the Mamiya RB or 645...
With these the size/weight may actually help hand-holding. Some
cameras, like the Rollei twin and the Fuji wide (it isn't all THAT
wide...) are surprisingly hard to hand-hold steady (maybe they are
*too* light, or hard to grip properly?).
This works, but reduces the "wide-open" stop to about f11 on the
Fuji. You may better just stop down to f11 and get the overall
performance and DOF improvement along with the even illumination
at that stop (and graduated ND filters are expensive...).
--
David Ruether
ruether@verizon.net
rpn1@cornell.edu
http://www.ferrario.com/ruether