Digital BW, The Print

billdlewis <bill-lewis@...> wrote:

> **
>
>
> I am looking at one of the mirrorless cameras I have about a dozen old
> Nikkor Lenses and know that with an adapter these will fit and can be used
> in manual mode. ...  I am mostly considering using my 20 24 and 35 mm
> lenses ...Time and technology may have made this less of an option compared
> to newer lenses these older at the time high quality lenses may not compare
> well to newer lenses. ...
>
I think mirrorless through the lens viewing has a huge future.  From my
perspective one of the great things about it is that once the SLR mirror is
eliminated, the wide angle lenses can be made much better.  I switched to
rangefinders in my medium format days and again with digital.  I don't
think the SLR retrofocus wide angles can compete at the top level.

I've been following the Leica evolution as well as that of the other
mirrorless approaches.  One of the interesting factors with the Leica is
the importance of the microlenses over the sensor that help reduce wide
angle light falloff due to reflection off the sensor.  Retrofocus designs
also have less falloff.  So, there are some countervailing factors and
trade-offs.  Most of the newer wide angels for digital rangefinders are
somewhat retrofocus, but not as much as was needed for the SLRs.

It turns out that the microlenses over the sensor that, for example, Leica
uses, also have to be optimized for a range of focal lengths.  So, for
example, the soon to be released Leica M CMOS, with live view among other
things, is designed to use the old Leica R optics (with an adapter).  This
has required Leica to take the full range of those optics into
consideration, which is a longer range than they considered for the M9.  As
such, one has to wonder if the new CMOS M will perform as well as the old
CCD (a version of which will be kept in production, probably for some very
good reasons) with wide angle lenses.

A camera that looks very interesting to me is the Sony fixed 35mm full
frame.  If a company can tune the microlenses and entire system for a
single optic, there could be advantages.

Lots of trade-offs.

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com


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