Panasonic/Leica, I am upset

The time between new bodys should be less with more camera manufactures useing the 4/3 format and the time a new body is priced high should be short good news for most of us.

Henry

Hi everybody,

Congrat on a great day for Oly, Leica and Panasonic. The L1 from the aliance from three great companies is going to be the talk of the town for awhile, and I think the 4/3 system is alive and well and just been reafirmed.

To me, an ex-Oly user and a currently Canon user, this is a pretty significant news. A camera, with a lens from Leica, one of the best lens maker in the world. A camera body form Oly, a great DSLR maker with its dust buster technology and live view LCD. A brand new sensor, stabilization and processor from a great electonic manufacturer like Panasonic, what is there not to like! It is a camera seemingly with everything in place as a starting point, I can't even imagine its future models! The only thing I would like to know is the new sensor, and its abaility to handle noise in high ISO, if that is a step up from the current generation of sensor, this could be a world class release.

I am excited to follow the camera and its future. Since my first Oly 20 years ago, back in the film days. I have always had a soft spot for Oly, I am using a Canon now, but, may be I am just waiting for the right camera to switch back to the OlyPanLeica world.

Greetings

I think that Panasonic needs to get into the market and it wouldn't make sense to price their first DSLR to high and not have it sell. I think that it will come in less than the E330 of about the same. They need this camera to sell to get their name out there, hope I'm right. Great looking camera.
Enjoy
Roger J.

I still have my OM1 and a few lenses but bought into the 4/3 system and I'm glad to see the new cameras and lenses from Sigma, Panasonic and Leica. This will be fun again like when all lenses were screw mount.
Enjoy
Roger J.

HarjTT said:

I just checked the UK prices for the E330+kit lens and they start
at £680 - 800 inc VAT and I can;t see how Panasonic could sell the
DMC-L1 for much more than that. So hopefully, we'll be looking at
the £700-800UK price range including lens. That should pitch the
cam and lens at around the $1200USD price point which is exactly
what the old Pana LC1 was orginially priced at.

Cheers

HarjTT

Click to expand...

In continental Europe it is;

€ 814,89
€ 900,29 mit Objektiv 14-45mm
€ 944,60 mit 14-45mm und 40-150mm

Slightly more here in Austria (by 20,30 Euros or so), including VAT.

• Sergey

Bill_Turner said:

Boris,
I used the term "revolutionary" because, as far as I can recall, no
other digital camera, be it digicam or SLR, has allowed full manual
control of shutter speed and aperture selection from the shutter
speed wheel and aperture control on the lens. I may be wrong.
I'm aware that most DSLRs have full manual control available via
menus and control wheels but none, AFAIK, offer the controls so
conveniently placed.

Click to expand...

Bill_Turner said:

--
Regards,
(afka Wile E. Coyote)
Bill
PSAA
Equipment in profile.
If you can visualize it, then create it in the camera, finish it
off with the print that matches your mind's eye then you are, most
likely, a master...

Click to expand...

I understand what you say but isn't it funny that "revolutionary" now means putting the controls back where they were 30 years ago. Does this mean the camera people are back in control instead of the technogeeks?

WTF? You haven't learned by now? You have to pay to play. Why should they come out with this spectacular cam and just give it away for pennies? Let's be more realistic here.
--
Travis - E-300

In detail, but not conclusion.

I expected more - an E3 teaser and a new flash system specifically.

And, while I like the look of the Panny, I suspect it will be a niche market over-priced alternative to the E330. And if they want to part me form my money, lovely though it is, I need the two things it is missing - enough MPs to satisfy stock agencies and weatherproofing.

I know very little about PMA - is that IT, or does stuff keep coming?

--
http://www.flickr.com/photos/acam
http://www.pbase.com/acam/

Siuyee said:

The only thing I would like
to know is the new sensor, and its abaility to handle noise in high
ISO, if that is a step up from the current generation of sensor,
this could be a world class release.

Click to expand...

Early photos from the E-330 already indicate improved noise at higher ISO's. No real quantitative tests though. There are some distinct differences planned apparently for the E-330 vs the Panasonic. While they share some fundamentals, they are not the same camera. Panasonic has made references to the speed of the L1, and it does use a different processor. There are "hints" scattered about in announcements that would seem to indicate that Oly is giving Panasonic the mid-range while they focus on the entry level and top level (eventual E-1 replacement). If the cameras had the same internals, there would be no need to have a delay in availability, so clearly Panasonic is looking to do some significant things differently, Again the references to speed.

My suspicions are that the E-500 and E-330 will be the lower tier, The Panasonic L1 will be a step above with focus on speed of operation, and of course coming with an excellent OIS lens. I suspect the overall optical quality of the Leica lens will be on par with the Olympus 14-54. However some information references a "very low" distortion, presumably at wide angle and low CA. No figures for that though so it is hard to know if it is a technical or just a marketing reference.

Armed with no real information but just wild guesses, I suspect the Panasonic DCH- L1 will have faster processing, maybe a larger buffer, faster continous frame, less time delay, maybe even improved auto-focus. Panasonic is using their own chips, not Olympuses. Combine this with a low distortion, low CA Leica optic, the aperture ring on th lens and the OIS, and you have a camera that could very well command prices in the area of $1500, if the image quality is good.

I am very intrigued by the camera, and anxious to see production results, but will have to be patient and wait. I also suspect that by the time the cameras reaches production, there may be more Leica optics with OIS available. At least one more.

Then again, I could be completely wrong about everything, but that is okay, it wouldn't be the first time.

--
David
Photos at: http://homepage.mac.com/brdavid/

Louis_Dobson said:

In detail, but not conclusion.

I expected more - an E3 teaser and a new flash system specifically.

Click to expand...

There's a new flash from Leica:
http://dc.watch.impress.co.jp/cda/parts/image_for_link/44548-3303-3-2.html

Though, like somebody pointed out in another thread, it might be merely a rebadged FL-50.

The night is young though - we could still get the rumored FL-39

Louis_Dobson said:

And, while I like the look of the Panny, I suspect it will be a
niche market over-priced alternative to the E330. And if they want
to part me form my money, lovely though it is, I need the two
things it is missing - enough MPs to satisfy stock agencies and
weatherproofing.

Click to expand...

I'm really interested how much it's going to cost. In the past, Panasonic and Leica built some cameras in pairs, and the Leica branded version was the expensive one, while Panasonic-branded was more reasonably priced.

It's not quite the E330. There is no secondary sensor, no A/B modes, and the LCD doesn't come out of the camera body. We don't know if it offers sensor-based metering (which would go a long way to make it the better camera of the two). We don't know whether its AF system is contrast-based, phase-based, or both.

I looked through the flash preview on Panasonic website, but didn't find answers to these questions.

Louis_Dobson said:

I know very little about PMA - is that IT, or does stuff keep coming?

Click to expand...

It goes for a week. Usually the biggest announcements happen before the start of the show, but there might be new things in there yet. A new flash, for example, may not be considered headline news, but it might still show up in Olympus booth.

So, probably we've seen all the big stuff, but there might be some more small tidbits yet to come

Boris

Hi David 247,

I think high ISO noise is one of the weakness in both Panasonic's and Oly's camera in general in the past, judging from the FZ series from Panasonic and the E system from Oly. If this new sensor perform well, in noise and otherwise, as I said, this could be a very interesting release. I am looking forward to more info and review.

Siuyee

Oh really? I read it as having a conventional SLR finder and a second sensor for liveview (just like the Oly). Didn't notice if it has A/B stuff, but I'm not interested in that (Oly should never have included that, it just confuses the stupid, who start banging on about histograms and other irrelevencies).

--
http://www.flickr.com/photos/acam
http://www.pbase.com/acam/

Louis_Dobson said:

I expected more - ...

Click to expand...

me too - this is a bit disappointing after some of the speculation!

Louis_Dobson said:

And, while I like the look of the Panny, I suspect it will be a
niche market over-priced alternative to the E330.

Click to expand...

And, while I understand what some are saying about the shutter dial and aperture ring (having used SLRs since before they had light meters, let alone automation) - personally I think the user interface on the E330 looks much more practical - a single jog dial for either aperture or shutter speed works very well for me.

Francis

Louis_Dobson said:

Oh really? I read it as having a conventional SLR finder and a
second sensor for liveview (just like the Oly). Didn't notice if
it has A/B stuff, but I'm not interested in that (Oly should never
have included that, it just confuses the stupid, who start banging
on about histograms and other irrelevencies).

Click to expand...

Whoops - sorry, I can't really confirm the lack of "preview-only" sensor. It's just an expression I got after looking at Panasonic promotional material online, no good source for it.

Boris