I see it very differently,Bryan.
What did panny do wrong?
if they struck an agreement with leica allowing leica to intentionally upstage them with a 'better' firmware version, that would be a betrayal of trust to the user base, imho.
otoh, if its not a 'better' thing - just a sideways 'different' thing, fine. I will only complain if they FIXED the image or somehow made it clearly BETTER, not just different. I wish they used diff words instead of 'leica tweaks for leica people'. that really adds more confusion than anything else.
Leica needs to make their version different,to make folk buy
it,over the Panny FZ50.
why do they NEED to, that's my point? if the camera was designed right, why 'fix' it? if it was not done right, why should one get a better fix than the other?
Panny didn't cripple the FZ50 in any way,compared to the Leica,IMHO.
we can't tell yet! we're going on language, alone. we do have to wait and see - but the language they use is very suspicious.
Leica just makes claims that it's better,or more'Leica-like',than
the Panny model.
If dpreview does a side by side on both,I bet the differences will
be subtle.
phil said they don't plan to actually review (critically) the leica version. I dont' know if that is time limits or having both cams at the same time or even contractual obligations to NOT show the exact details between them and keep us in a 'mushroom state' ;(
I just want to cut thru the marketing BS and get a straight answer, either from those in-the-know at DPR or panaleica. so far, its all weasel-words, IMPLYING that one is better tuned or more refined than the other.
Maybe color tone...but I don't think Leica knows much about
firmware,as do Panny.
if its done right, you don't even know to know about firmware! perhaps the color saturation or tint or WB (etc) is controlled by a few simple integer values (say). and suppose you can view a picture in one windows and have a slider in another that monkeys with that value. then you watch a bunch of pictures and find the 'favorite' slider value and then write that one to the flash 'numbers' area. tuning the firmware could be as simple as that - not actually WRITING code. and so while they might not change whole algorithms (that would be a huge diff) - even if they just twiddle numbers that goe into the ve3 processing - that is very possible and almost sounds likely, at this point.
Leica is known for it's glass,and quality build.
I've never heard their name and firmware,electronics,sensors,and
the like,to be anywhere close to home,for Leica.
I would guess leica helped design the camera along with pany. a company is a bunch of people and its not inconceivable that there are people at ALL companies, these days, that can pull off actual firmware devel. if I had an development environment, all the test gear that they had access to, I could probably 'do development' on their camera. you don't have to be a 'leica employee' to be able to write software - but also writing software isn't something that a 'lens maker' would NOT be able to do. many companies have a huge skill mix and so leica could very easily have done ALL the firmware or even NONE of it. impossible to say without inside info
Leica probably had panny treak the firmware,as they no nothing
digital,if I had to guess.
I'm not sure that's how it works. I'm pretty confident that even a college hire could pull this project off, at least the firmware part. NOT the silicon engine part or the physical lens making - but once you have an engine and are told 'here is the page of 20 numbers that control its image quality' - yes, even a colledge hire could probably tweak those easily enough.
the Leica versions have the same CCD,same glass,and is probably
manufacturered by Panny,too.(Panny can mass produce such a camera
WAY cheaper than a small(but honorable) company like Leica.
I agree with that.
Panny makes Leica glass in house,but to Leica specs.
that's what they say and I believe that, too.
Panny mentions this in past press releases,as if THEY manufacturer
the lenses... Leica branded,doesn't mean Leica made.
correct! these are NOT the uber expensive (heh) german made glass that leica is famous for. these are DARNED good lenses on the pany, but I am not so sure the TRUE leica guys (like the ones paying $5k for a new leica..) will really consider the panaleica lenses as true-blue leicas.
--
Bryan (pics only:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/linux-works )
(pics and more: http://www.netstuff.org ) ~ 
