> Nice try Bob but I still think they are flogging a dead
> horse with 4/3 system. The system is about two years old
> and the number of takers is, well, Oly and no one else
> except for a few lenses from Sigma. OK rumours of a
> Pana/Oly 4/3 but what's the betting that's a rebadged
> slightly altered Oly? 4/3's will go down in photo history
> as one of those interesting odd balls that never caught
> on.
> The D200/70s/50 shows what can be achived with the APS-c
> sensor in the various price brackets and you really don't
> need to go much smaller than the D50 body wise or the
> operation of the camera becomes too fiddly.
> For the non dSLR market imagine the D50 without the need
> for a mirror assembly and fitted with a 24-200mm f2.8
> fixed zoom and a EVF. That would, could, should be the new
> D3. The average punter does not need interchangable
> lenses, I know lots who have a SLR and a wide range zoom
> which they never take off the camera so why they went to
> the expense of a SLR I'll never know.
Hi Tony,
Maybe that dead horse is only taking a nap.... The E-500 is apparently out selling a bunch of its competators. As for Panasonic, we'll have to wait for Sunday, when Ian flashes us the substance of the joint Pany/Oly meeting. The Sigma contribution this week will be the five DC lenses they have but not yet in 4/3rds mount (the 30/1.4 might be intesting).
Your D50 morph is Sony's R-1 and maybe Nikon's replacement for the CP8800. I bet Canon eventually (or maybe tomorrow) has one, too.
What I like about the LC-1/D2 is the analog control layout and I hope they continue that concept. I can see a possible two Pany cameras, one the LC-2 and the other a FZ-30/E-500 combo. Like Ian, I think it makes good sense for Leica to do a D3, but if they have seen the MTF charts for that ZD35/3.5 I put in the picture, they might shy from the inevitable comparisons with the Summicron M50/2 (the Gold Standard). It and the ZD50/2 are close to the sharpness of Leica's best. They might fall a bit short for Bokeh, but then they are macro lenses.
Tomorrow is supposed to be "Camera overload day" and at least we'll see 5 new P&S thingies from Olympus, who are supposed to be cutting back on P&S stuff Then there might be Canon's 35D and Fuji's S4. An auspicious day in Roman times called Feralia, their Day of the Dead, a day to pay the ferryman...
Bob