There is no question that Sony NEX7 may be a great camera. But there are few areas in which dedicated module could be much better:
1) so far all the lenses that NEX has are poor optical quality, In fact this was the main reason why I stopped using NEX5. Ricoh has couple of great ones.
Takes quite a few years and a lot of effort to get a range of new lenses for any new mount that is introduced. Obviously the first essential is to produce lenses for the popular market and cheaply as well. Consequently all the new mounts have their consumer level lenses first and gradually work towards the more esoteric end. With accompanying rage that the lens that one might really like is really too expensive.
Sony were smart enough to realise that it made some sense to encourage users to instal a variety of manual lenses via adapters. To a greater or lesser degree users of EVIL type cameras can get their rocks off lens-wise with an older manual lens or two whilst they wait and save for an exotic oem one.
Meanwhile Ricoh said "you have our modular lens packages or nothing". All the while sweating away in the back room trying to keep up a supply of new modules that might supply every taste. Meanwhile when they do make a module they simply go for the traditional best and do it properly as they always seem to do.
Obviously when you adapt any new lens mount to an older mount the essential purpose of the new mount is to fit the oem designed lenses for that mount. Therefore at best the adaption is a kludge and any functionality between lens and camera is more an accident of the lens' mechanical design. If the lens has electronics then function is lost.
Not only this but the internal shape of the mount is dictated by the contraints electronic or otherwise of the new oem lenses with little regard for any non-oem internal protrusion. Unfortunately the very manual wide angle lenses that seem to drive popular demand are the least likely to fit in one of the new mounts.
However Ricoh is joining in the effort to assuage the demand for an almost instant wide range of great modules. As usual they take the novel approach of making a "true" manual camera mount. None of this kludge business and we might expect all M mount lenses to fit on an M mount camera properly designed. We might also presume that the firmware will not bother us over-much with redundant features that simply are of no use in driving a manual lens. Something that has not had any real airplay is the amount of features that a M mount module might not need from the GXR firmware. I have not thought much about it but the exercise might be interesting.
I have previously mentioned my NX10 and manual lenses from the point of view that I feel I can as the camera is so much different in character to the GXR as to be hardly a competitor. The NX10 works well with manual lenses simply because it is simple. With a Samsung oem lens it utilises them as one might expect but the firmware is nowhere as deep and sophisticated as that of the GXR. However this very simplicity is a real asset when you instal a manual lens. Hardly anything changes except you can no longer use "P" & "S" modes, and auto focus of course. The NX10 is in many ways just a tiny legacy slr camera updated to current manufacturing standards in actual use. Just added a lcd screen and ... well not much else, if you discount the march of electronics versus mechanical. Firmware sweet and simple and not much of it.
Therefore I guess the GXR-M might also work and feel like a legacy rangefinder camera with an lcd out back. No bad thing and if the redundant firmware is kept safely out of sight with the M mount module attached then there might be little to distract from the simple enjoyment of the camera.
I think I am going to love it. Back to the future and a smile all over my face.
What a breath of fresh air when point'n'shoots are not complete without GPS, face recognition and a database of friend's faces (including your own dog and cat?), hi-res video, and all so sweetly automatic that you dare not even think lest you overide the auto composition-control and auto-find selection of venue and spoil the image.
However a database of all the points of interest will be sadly lacking and therefore the user will unfortunately be deprived of many duplications of the best loved tourist images. Drat!
Someone has to make serious cameras.
2) like most digital cameras that are using M mount lenses with an adapter, NEX5 suffered from artifacts related to rear element being too close to the sensor. This makes it impossible to use some lenses - mainly wide angle ones. If Ricoh could solve this issue optically or in processing this would make it a much better platform for M lenses.
3) Ricoh can incorporate ability to read encoded leica lenses. Perhaps this could be used for focusing. I am not sure NEX plans to do that.
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Eugene
http://fratkinphoto.com
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Tom Caldwell
