(SR2) Leica to use the new Sony fullframe sensors?
Here it is one of the most unbelievable rumors I ever read. A new source told us that Leica is currently developing a new fullframe mirrorless system with electronic viewfinder instead of the rangefinder system used for the Leica M9. The new Leica cameras could use Sony sensors instead of Kodak sensors. If the rumor turns out to be true those cameras will be certainly expensive (there is a huge extra you have to pay for the brand). I hope Sony will make their own fulllframe mirrorless system using the same sensors and for half of the Leica price 
As I said, it’s a new source and the rumor is rated with SR2 only (20-40% chance the rumor could be correct).
Katsunami
2 years ago |Why would that be bad?
There are some people (like me) who would die to have an M10 with an EVF and peaking feature, at a normal price.
(An M9 does not have to cost €6000. If Ricoh can create half of an M9 for €1200, Leica should be able to make a full one for €2500.)
I’d like full frame M-mount camera with an EVF and Peaking, because using a rangefinder is not an option if you have bad eyesight.
At the moment, I’m considering the NEX-7 with an adapter, and Zeiss ZM 4/18, 2/35 and 2/50 (27mm, 52mm and 75mm equivalent) lenses to start out, but it only works if the NEX-7 fixed the corner color and vignetting issues. The NEX-C3 seems to work fine, according to some threads on FredMiranda (“First impressions of a NEX-C3″).
Bjorn van Sinttruije
3 years ago |Yeah, this has to be about the digital R solution that’s been rumored quite a lot lately. If Leica were to announce the M10 with an electronic viewfinder, they might as well make it out of the cheapest kind of plastic and get rid of the red dot as their logo; they’d abandon their entire heritage and loose most of their loyal customers.
So, time to edit the rumor?
RB
3 years ago |Don’t know what you mean. Okay, Sony’s JPEG engine is crap. Fine. But who cares? When I present the raw data from my a900 to Capture One, I don’t see a lot what could be improved.
PS: I just bought me a a230 as a backup body for some 180 Euros. Took it with me for skiing and got some really breathtaking sunset shots. It is really unbelievable what you can get out of the sensor data (in particular in terms of dynamic range) when you have the right processing software!
RB
3 years ago |Might be true.
Might be the M10, this time with LiveView.
This would allow both, owners of M- and R-Lenses to recycle their glass (the “appropriate solution” as Leica called it).
But first of all, I think Leica is to much a maveric to be reasonable (Leica always needed to do something odd, stupid and cumbersome, just in order to be different than other children in order to justify the high price). And second, My Sony-Zeiss lenses give a two classes better image quality than my Leica glass (sic!).
So, no interest from my side.
Dulaney Ward
3 years ago |If you charge three times as much as the A900, you can do a lot of things to optimize your camera!
mochapaulo
3 years ago |Whatever the sensor made by Sony, she is not the one who can fully utilize the potential. The obvious example should be Nikon D3X vs Sony A900/850. Sony’s Bionz Engine never out performance the Expeed from Nikon. There is really strange that the original manufacturer knows the hardware not better than the third party user. I can’t guess anything if Leica is going to use Sony’s sensor in the future, but I am quite sure she will not use the ND filter as S2 to produce the ultimate resolution resolving power. Glad to hear about this but no money to have one. lol
Carl
3 years ago |Manually focusing with a rangefinder is very easy, though. Not everyone out there wants to use AF. By comparison, manually focusing with the NEX is a pretty clumsy process.
Ideally someone will make a camera that can do both well, but no one has made one yet.
EE
3 years ago |The bottom line:
If it is true that Kodak sensor development is stagnating and falling behind, then it makes strategic sense for Leica to go with Sony as supplier of FF sensor’s….for a future M9/M10 iteration. I mean, where else would they go?
The official announcement of such a deal by either Sony or Leica will no doubt bring pressure to Sony to develop a compact FF of its own. If Sony never had plans for a FF compact before, an “NEX 9″, it will now be much harder to ignore those voices after such a deal.
EE
3 years ago |Second that, JB.
JB
3 years ago |I wish Sony would give us the new FF mirrorless system.
Camaman
3 years ago |Sony for half the price? better bame that 1/4 the price of M9…
And Leica: AF this time… its the 21st century!
Adam Maas
3 years ago |Not exactly news, this will be the R replacement and rumours have been floating around since last summer. It’s expected to support R lenses as well as a new AF lens system and be at least partially based on the Micro-4/3rds system (most likely a different mount but similar lens protocol).
brandon
3 years ago |The current M9 is fullframe, but the lenses are much smaller…my understanding is that an EVIL would not allow for the same lenses. With Leica more than any other brand, the lenses are the point. They already started fresh with the S2, can they really afford another reboot? Yes, they have another mount besides M and 2, R I believe, but that is hardly up to date…
David
3 years ago |What does the picture of the lens have to do with the article? I’m confused…and wow…what a stupid rumor.
Mog
3 years ago |This makes sense..
In a recent interview with the Sony engineers that designed the full-frame 25MP sensor in the Alpha 850/900, they say that the sensor actually uses offset pixels which is basic requirement for Leica mounts being that short focal flange distance of an M-mount means that lenses are less telecentric (light is hitting the sensor at a more oblique angle at the peripheral of the sensor).
http://nao.sonyelectronicscommunity.com/blog_post/?contentid=9030182354974308234
Either way, Leica really needs to update their sensors. The current CCD sensors in the M9 has been severely overtaken in dynamic range, noise, and image quality compared to modern CMOS sensors.
Sony EXMOR sensor even double sample a pixel (CDS), so that it gets twice at much signal information, which improves dynamic range and low-light. This is how modern CMOS sensors get five-six digit ISO ratings.
Eric
3 years ago |I think it would be very wise of Leica to do this exact thing with the M10. They could make two versions of it. One traditional rangefinder, and a second version with the basic AF system from the S2 and an EVF. The traditional rangefinder would keep all the purist happy, and EVF version would solve all the shortcomings of the M system. Leica could finally use lenses over 135mm’s and wider then 28mm’s without the need for external view finders. Leica could even make a zoom for it if they wanted to.
No "R" solution at Photokina! - Seite 5 - Leica User Forum
3 years ago |[...] R solution from Leica | Leica News & Rumors 2011-01-21 – Mirrorless Rumors | Home 2011-01-22 – sonyalpharumors | Home __________________ Best Regards! 2011: One Year, One Camera, One Lens Ultimate Exposure [...]
Peter
3 years ago |http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/digital-forum/161537-r-solution-more-details.html#post1583022
Carl
3 years ago |The idea that Leica would use a Sony sensor rather than a Kodak one for the M9′s successor is hardly farfetched given the latter’s lack of serious R&D in improving their sensors of late.
But dropping the rangefinder for an EVF? That’d go down even worse than the M5 did.
tkowalcz
3 years ago |The Leica X1 already has Sony APS-C sensor.
Jacco
3 years ago |Well, the M9 is fullframe already and so are their lenses.
It would solve one of the largest complaints when it comes to noise in that camera. But only if it has similar or better performance as the current Exmore sonsors.
Sky_walker
3 years ago |Unbelievable? I always thought Leica would be the one to make first protable full-frame mirrorless system cameras. Nice to hear it gets closer to reality
GH
3 years ago |I’ve heard other rumors that the M10 will use a Sony sensor, which seems more likely.