OK, so the M8 is way out of my price range, and I'm looking for a Leica-like digital camera - small, light, unobtrusive, don't have to turn on and wait two seconds for the lens to open. I also dislike using a screen to compose - it's not natural for me, and would kill the battery, especially if I want to keep the camera turned on all day.
The Lumix DMC-L1 looks interesting, but the lens is too big for my taste. I'm seriously considering buying something like the Lumix LX-2 or that new Sigma with the Foevon sensor and epoxying a voigtlander or leica viewfinder to the top. When the next digital camera comes along, I'd just pry it off and re-use, or simply buy another one and still be a couple grand ahead of the game. I know this sounds like a bad idea, but is it really? If I could match the field of view to the lens, it just might work.
I think you have posed the right question--one that many of us would like answered. The Epson RD-1 intrigues me still, but even if it has come down in price it's still rather a lot. I was hoping Leica would come up with a better version of the Digilux 2 (still small, optical viewfinder, better RAW performance at higher ISO) but the 3 doesn't excite me. All the fuss about the M8 did awaken my interest in rangefinders, and I ended up getting a IIIa and a 50mm Summar, though that's hardly a digital solution.
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
I've got an Olympus 7070 that I use as a range finder camera. Small, light, fast, cheap, and better images than the real digital Leica. What more could you ask for?
Thanks for reminding me about the Olympus. Too easy to forget anything that is not Canon, Nikon or Leica.
There was an interesting feature back in the RG days about a war photographer who swore by Olympus. I seem to remember there was quite an emphasis on how he negated shutter lag. Do you get shutter lag that is noticeable on the 7070?
Tony
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
If you turn off the auto focus, and just have it set to about 6 feet, it's pretty fast. If you have good light, the auto focus is alright, but at night it's really slow. I've used it for a few jobs where I wanted to be discreet, and its worked awesome.
Only 5MP but the f/2.8 Zeiss lens is a fine performer. It looks a lot like a range finder and has a metal body, but don't be fooled, this is nothing but a digicam in sheep's clothing. The optical finder is crude, so I use the LCD most of the time. Still - this little cam has survived thousands of miles of bicycling, and being dropped in the red dust near Moab, Utah. And shutter latency is low!
All the same, I would like to upgrade however to something with image-stabilization, since I do lots of available light work. Looking around I see Olympus has a couple of new image stabilized cameras out, plus they are weather-proof, which is additional icing on the cake:
Linear Mode
