The angle is getting better. It's not really been a hot research topic. Existing sensors are already good enough for small sensor DSLRs, so progress only happens when companies try to improve large sensor DSLRs or rangefinders.
LOL
And you think in a precision optical range-finder, that somehow digitises the range data, processes it, giving instant feedback to the VF to allow MF is going to be cheap?
kind of a catty comment, joe! why pick on dentists[not that i'm a big fan of them]? anyway, i am acquainted with a couple of dozen pros of various stripes, and nearly half of them have either a rangefinder or some other piece of quirky and somewhat expensive gear. they use them for their personal work, or as a refreshment from their daily grind. matbe the pros in my area [balto/wash corridor] ar very different from those in your area.
Hmmm.... I wonder how well this will hold up with sensors having relatively high resolution (70lp/mm and better).
Sure, but you could always mount a secondary optical viewfinder on a digital.
Show me an accurate OVF. Rangefinders exist today.
To be honest, I don't know how well it would hold up with such a high-res focusing sensor. What I do know is that there are, at least for me, some disadvantages with automatic focusing, especially in low-light situations. All the resolution in the world doesn't really help when one is trying to focus a slow-ish (say f/3.5 max) lens in a fairly dark room without a decent focus assist lamp. A mechanical RF should have the same focus speed in such a situation whether it has an f/1.5 lens or an f/3.5 lens on it. An electronically focussing camera might be slower with the slower lens.
No 'fraid not as it would have to be a hybrid system and you would still need the mechanical range finder, my guess is a leica with your system would be 3-4 times the price due to the complexity of the RF-digutal interface.
LOL a Bentley at $20K would interest me! but if you want you can have a used M for the prices you quote. the trouble is that RF is useful for only a small subset of photography that guarantees that the amount sold will be less than 10K per year even if they were only hundreds of dollars as RFs main feature is it's 'manualness'.
You're probably not the only one who would like a zoom on such a camera, but in my other posts, I'm suggesting that a large percentage, if not a majority, of rangefinder users and potential buyers wouldn't want a zoom, as the main reason they're using an RF camera in the first place is to pursue quality via simplicity. They're using an RF because, among other things, they don't want to use a zoom.
