Friday, April 25, 2014

Leica T (Typ 701) too much, not enough, both?

I've been looking at various first impressions like this one at DPReview.

Each time Leica introduce some new piece of equipment, everyone who can't afford it and those who can but won't buy it comment about what a piece of crap it is.  Does it matter?

I'm impressed that they've done what Apple (and HTC) have done with a solid block of alumi(num/nium) and carved out a product.  I'm even more impressed that they could make their little block even more expensive than the big blocks that Apple produce through their third party manufacturing partner.  I'm typing this blog entry using one of those 15.x inch MacBook Pro machines.

The feel of my MacBook Pro is interesting, so I can imagine how the new Leica Typ701 feels.  Since I replaced my hard disk drive with a solid state drive, it feels as though I could toss the whole thing to someone else and, being caught, there would be no problems.  That wouldn't be the case with the older machines, even with an SSD in each, I'm sure.  Actually, the MacBook Pro still has fans and an optical drive, so there are moving, motorized parts remaining.

I can't speak for the image quality of Leica's latest machine, nor would I dare to buy one.  It's not something I would feel comfortable using, similar to how I'd feel driving a Jaguar car.  I'm sure they will work on the firmware and it will work so smoothly, people will not think to want something else.  To me, the only Leica equipment I would want is the S medium format SLR and it seems to be wrapped around adapters to be able to use lenses from other medium format systems.  When you get into the hallowed ground of medium format, does the name Leica shout "expensive" when you can easily spend US$80,000 on a camera body and digital back and maybe, get a lens?

In any case, I think those who regularly buy Leica equipment will buy the Typ 701 in due time, and enjoy it as they do their others.  Hopefully, they'll get something really satisfying.  There is more to a camera than just a sensor and pixels.

Update 2014.05.04: I saw something about embedded lens profiles with raw files--a forced correction.  I can't blame them, if their customers want a very quick, very smooth way to a finished photo.  I doubt people buying this certain model will care as much for photographic precision or extremely high image quality.  The whole thing about forced correction sounds so Panasonic to me, but it's particularly sad that the Leica name is associated with lower quality lenses.

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