Off to See the Wizard -- FREE shipping world wide

[CameraQuest]

I am off to see the Wizard's new toys, Mr. K's newest Voigtlander stuff at Photokina. Afterwards I will tour the Leica factory and historic Wetzlar with the LHSA tour group. I will be back and start shipping again and answering emails about October 9th.

Free shipping world wide on orders placed and paid for while I am traveling. Details on my site at http://www.cameraquest.com

Will report from the road if possible, but I doubt I will have internet access.

Talk to you when I return,

Stephen

[back alley]

have a good trip!

looking forward to your return.

[haagen_dazs]

wow stephen
you are so lucky to get all these tours and speak to the top top top management :)

[flashover]

What no internet access. Don't you carry a pocket satellite system to keep us informed of new products.

[rover]

Have fun Stephen, can't wait to hear the news.

[peter_n]

Ditto. Have fun Stephen!

[BrianPhotog]

Free shipping worldwide? Cool! Last year I only got a discount :p

[Stephanie Brim]

Have fun, Stephen. And yes, if at all possible, do keep us posted on what he has in store. I'm curious...very, very curious. ;)

[lmd91343]

Stephen,

Enjoy. Let us know what you see.

Hmm. I am looking for a 24/25 finder. Free shipping to Northridge. That's almost five miles. :)

[dostacos]

well hmmm. wait and free shipping or now and pay shipping.... glad I did NOT wait hehehehe.

just got my 21 today, thanks Stephen

[mc_vancouver]

Ask him to make a decent lens hood for the 35/1.7. And tell him he's the greatest thing since BARNACK as far as I'm concerned: quality rangefinders for the rest of us! Sausage and beer!

[haagen_dazs]

please ask Voigtlander to make a DIGITAL BESSA !!!!
that would be great to compete with the market out there

[Chris Lynch]

BESSA-D haha

can't wait for your news upon the return to RFF.

[RyanG]

I'm making the move (in my head) toward placing an order. But as eager as I am I also have a (mostly irrational) cautious side, which in this case forces me to wait until after photokina before making the decision (why? just in case. Just in case what? I have no clue.). It's difficult to wait, but oh well, more research never hurt anybody. Unless we're talking about, like, research into electric shock treatment. That stuff probably hurt somebody. Or at least a monkey. And a monkey, I believe, constitutes a somebody...

In any case, I need to use my ordering through the internet skills to place the order after Stephen Cameraquest has liveblogged photokina (do it, man), but before he gets back. Only then can I order in full conscience and also still snag that no shipping costs deal.

On another personal note:
I'm new to these boards. But the last few days of searching the archives has taught me a lot. At the moment I'm aiming toward a r2m with the heliar. 2 - because I'd like to eventually go wider than 40mm, and because I wear glasses. M - because lately I've been doing "street photography" with a bronica sq-ai with an handheld incident meter, and I feel comfortable, and very much enjoy, managing all those little aperture/time details on my own. My next step is to have a potentially unpleasant conversation with my bank account.

Oh man, I feel like I have a million things to do once I get my bessa.
I'll put aside that bronica for when I'm doing landscapes and such, and I'll dive deep into the bizarre mining towns that are surrounding me. An unassuming rangefinder will work so much better at these places.

-RyanG.

[rpinchbeck]

Stephan,

Looks like now is as good a time to place that order for a VCII Meter and a Skopar 25/4 in Contax mount. Hmmm.... maybe a 28/3.5 too!

Cheers,

Russ Pinchbeck

[ClaremontPhoto]

A Voigtlander-made Fuji Natura sort of thing would be good. Fast wide lens on a small body.

[BrianPhotog]

please ask Voigtlander to make a DIGITAL BESSA !!!!
that would be great to compete with the market out thereLet me guess. You want a dirt cheap digital camera, right? Cosina does chassis and mechanics. Once Cosina outsources the sensor and electronics, your hopes are gone.

Sorry. :rolleyes:

I can't think of any other reason anyone would ask for Cosina to make a digital RF. You like the "feel"? There's already an Epson with the same chassis as an R2 and same sensor as a Nikon D100. Why *exactly* do you think a company that doesn't have the slightest desire to produce a Voigtlander-badged digital RF should?

And again, don't say price.

[jmilkins]

I bought my R3a from Stephen last time he made this generous shipping offer - it came all the way to Australia in great shape.

[jaapv]

I have an order for you, and I might run into you in Köln.;)

[sharpf8]

Greetings to all! I am new to RFF, even though I have been a "LURKER" all this years, even in its infancy stage. I read all RFF's THREADS on a daily basis, like a creme cheese to a bagel. :)

I called Stephen and placed an order for a pancake lens shade, last Monday. I thought, it would be mailed when he comes back from his trip. Totally elated when I GOT it in the mail, a couple of days later. It made my day!

I like the camarederie and civility of RFF members. I am a chicken, for the feisty atmosphere of the "other" forum. :) I also have learned a lot, from reading all the threads, during the usually cordial and informative exchange of replies in this forum.

Cheers to all!

Sharpf8

[wlewisiii]

I can't think of any other reason anyone would ask for Cosina to make a digital RF. You like the "feel"? There's already an Epson with the same chassis as an R2 and same sensor as a Nikon D100. Why *exactly* do you think a company that doesn't have the slightest desire to produce a Voigtlander-badged digital RF should?

And again, don't say price.

Digital RF? Sure, they'd be silly to make one. OTOH, if they took that old SLR body that they built in damn near every manual focus mount for the respective manufacturers, and popped a RD-1 level sensor in it, I can just about guarantee them a couple of years of double their current sales level. There isn't any easy way to use FD mount lenses on a digital camera. A digital T-60 would solve that. But it's the _same_ camera as it was for many other manufacturers. Do that 10mp back once and you have a dedicated body for damn near every 35mm manual focus camera ever made in real quantity.

And if, major impossible if, Mr. K made a deal with Canon rather than Sony for the sensor, it might just hit a couple of economy of scale levels all of a sudden. And then the idea of using my FD 50/1.4 at full frame might not be quite so silly after all...

Nothing is ever as simple or as complex as those invested would have you believe.

William

[BillBingham2]

Mark's point (that has been echoed by several folks on the CVUG list) is that there is a market for manual DSLR that would be available in a wide range of mounts. Interesting that Cosina has built SLR cameras for a wide range of mounts (has the tooling and experience). The Bessa line came from the very same basic unit (the Bessaflex is a fine example of what Pres K can do).

Full frame would be great, but I think there is a market for folks who want a reasonable focusing screen, full manual control, a very basic LCD (just to display a histogram, no jpgs) and shot raw so we can develop/control it on a PC.

Build it in Canon FD, Nikon F (perhaps AI), Olympus OM, Minolta, Pentax K and Classic Screw and I think you have the majority of the market.

The solution would not be simple, but rather basic. And yes, priced reasonably but with enough margin to fund putting the next generation of sensors in it.

B2 (;->

[rxmd]

Actually they can't use most of these mounts, because they're patented, except Classic Screw and Pentax K. They built the other bodies under a license, but I doubt that would automatically extend to a digital T-60 or OM-2000 or FM-10. That said, I consider it a pity that it's that way.

What they could do, and that would be pretty revolutionary, would be to put a very short, strong universal bayonet (say, 40mm lens register) on the camera and produce a series of adapters from that universal bayonet to various bayonet mounts. A bit like Tamron did with their T and T2 and T4 and Adaptall mounts, but the other way round. But I'm not sure what the legal aspects would be. And yes, lots of people would buy this.

[rxmd]

Actually they can't use most of these mounts, because they're patented, except Classic Screw and Pentax K. They built the other bodies under a license, but I doubt that would automatically extend to a digital T-60 or OM-2000 or FM-10. That said, I consider it a pity that it's that way.

What they could do, and that would be pretty revolutionary, would be to put a very short, strong universal bayonet (say, 40mm lens register) on the camera and produce a series of adapters from that universal bayonet to various bayonet mounts. A bit like Tamron did with their T and T2 and T4 and Adaptall mounts, but the other way round. And I guess lots of people would buy this. But I'm not sure what the legal aspects would be.

[Socke]

Digital RF? Sure, they'd be silly to make one. OTOH, if they took that old SLR body that they built in damn near every manual focus mount for the respective manufacturers, and popped a RD-1 level sensor in it, I can just about guarantee them a couple of years of double their current sales level.

A digital Yashica FX-3? Where can I preorder?

[AndersG]

Actually they can't use most of these mounts, because they're patented, except Classic Screw and Pentax K. They built the other bodies under a license, but I doubt that would automatically extend to a digital T-60 or OM-2000 or FM-10. That said, I consider it a pity that it's that way.


Not that I know anything about patents, but shouldn't some (or most?) of these patents have expired by now?
From what I found on wikipedia it seems the term of US patents is about 20 years and by that standard even the patents on the Canon EOS mount should be close to expiration by now.

Cheers,

Anders

[Grober]

Stephen: you probably won't make it to the door with a purloined M8 under your coat but at least swipe a few batteries for the new digital wonder from Solms.

At approx. $150 for an estra battery, I'll need all the help I can get!

[Terao]

No news from the wizard yet then? ;(

Show has been open for 3 hours!

*taps fingers impatiently* :)

[Kim Coxon]

If you want a MF DSLR with a very good range of high quality glass, buy a Pentax ;) All the have to do is move the AF/MF switch to MF and hey presto you can use the complete range of K mount and M42 mount lenses. If you want the occasional use of AF it is very difficult to beat the Ltd range of lenses and many of the other AF Pentax primes. Most of the other DSLR can take an M42 adapter (hence the price jump in Takumars). In reality then you are looking at a much reduced market for Canon and Nikon mount.

Kim

Mark's point (that has been echoed by several folks on the CVUG list) is that there is a market for manual DSLR that would be available in a wide range of mounts. Interesting that Cosina has built SLR cameras for a wide range of mounts (has the tooling and experience). The Bessa line came from the very same basic unit (the Bessaflex is a fine example of what Pres K can do).

Full frame would be great, but I think there is a market for folks who want a reasonable focusing screen, full manual control, a very basic LCD (just to display a histogram, no jpgs) and shot raw so we can develop/control it on a PC.

Build it in Canon FD, Nikon F (perhaps AI), Olympus OM, Minolta, Pentax K and Classic Screw and I think you have the majority of the market.

The solution would not be simple, but rather basic. And yes, priced reasonably but with enough margin to fund putting the next generation of sensors in it.

B2 (;->

[Bryce]

Kim-
Ever tried to manually focus a 35 F/2 on your Pentax dslr? I find it impossible at f/4, let alone F/2. Need a focus aid and more magnification! And the focus indicator light doesn't help much either.

[Kim Coxon]

I regularly use the 28/2, 35/2 50/1.2 as well as the 31/1.8 with no problem. Normally I find the faster lens much easier to focus than the slower ones because of the brightness and narrower depth of field.

Kim

Kim-
Ever tried to manually focus a 35 F/2 on your Pentax dslr? I find it impossible at f/4, let alone F/2. Need a focus aid and more magnification! And the focus indicator light doesn't help much either.

[Bryce]

With a standard focus screen? Or have you bought one of the homemade ones with a split prism at the center?

[Kim Coxon]

Normal screen. The screens in the LX's have also been changed to plain matte ones. I find the split images and microprisms distracting. I use a D though which has the pentaprism rather than mirror. I know many don't like the pentamirror on the DS2 and DL's for manual focussing.

Kim

[Bryce]

I've got a DS, so it's got a prism. Still, the view isn't nearly as easy to focus on as earlier film bodies (KX, K1000, ME Super). It's useable for longer lenses, just not sub 50mm lenses near wide open. Maybe you've got better eyes?

[Chris Lynch]

i can't wait any longer.... Mr. Gandy needs to get back and update us with the info hahhaha :)

[NIKON KIU]

How about a report Stephen??
tell us what the Wizard had to offer.
Kiu