A Photography forum. PhotoBanter.com

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Go Back   Home » PhotoBanter.com forum » Digital Photography » Digital SLR Cameras
Site Map Home Register Authors List Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read Web Partners

Canon, Nikon mirrorless = Disney and FOX on DVD



 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old September 15th 11, 09:42 PM posted to rec.photo.digital.slr-systems,rec.photo.digital
Neil Harrington[_6_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 674
Default Canon, Nikon mirrorless = Disney and FOX on DVD

Bruce wrote:
"Neil Harrington" wrote:

I agree it's an unhealthy situation if Panasonic is not being the
sort of cooperative partner that it should for the good of the Micro
Four Thirds standard.



It is important to realise that Panasonic and Olympus are competitors,
and that Panasonic's original foray into Four Thirds (not Micro) was a
commercial disaster. Micro Four Thirds was Panasonic's idea and
Olympus was a long way behind in developing MFT cameras and lenses.

Panasonic's sensors saved Olympus' Four Thirds and Micro Four Thirds
ranges from oblivion. There is no obligation on Panasonic to offer


Those are details I wasn't aware of. I'm a latecomer to Micro Four Thirds
and mainly got into because of the great enthusiasm of a friend for it --
he's had a G1 and GF1 for some time. He has relatively little interest in
lenses actually made for the camera, but has a ball (as he puts it) using
old manual focus lenses of various brands and mount types via adapters. Some
of these old lenses he finds very cheap, in pawn shops. He takes 'em apart,
cleans and repairs them, etc. For him m4/3 is a fun thing, not a serious
photography thing. Mostly these are long lenses, there being little point in
using short lenses in this way.

It sounded like fun to me too, though there are no pawn shops around here
and I'm not about to try taking lenses apart anyway. But there are loads of
old Nikon-mount manual focus lenses on eBay, and the G1/G2 system of
offering 5x or 10x magnification for manual focusing, on that magnificent
1.4-megadot EVF, made the whole idea very attractive. So I bought a G1 with
the 14-45mm and 45-200mm lenses, and a cheap Nikon F adapter. Then I started
collecting old Soligor lenses (from eBay, of course).

The cheap adapter I bought looked too crudely made for me to want to put it
on my lovely new G1, so I returned it and bought a Metabones adapter from a
seller in China. That is a nice piece of work, but unfortunately I mislaid
it within a day or so of receiving it (you would have to know what my
apartment is like to understand this) and haven't yet found it again. But I
have started seriously to clean up my apartment so it will come to the
surface -- sooner or later. In the meantime I have collected a nice little
battery of old Soligor lenses, the best (?) ones being a 200/3.5, 300/4.5
and 75-260/4.5 (constant aperture), all with tripod mounts and all about
mint. Can't wait to try them out on the Panasonics.

I've also added a G2, and a lovely Olympus 9-18 in m4/3 mount. I don't
expect to add many (if any) more m4/3 lenses than that.

Olympus its latest, high resolution sensors, but Olympus has
definitely been held back by the 12 MP upper limit that Panasonic
appears to have imposed.


Really, held back? Personally I wouldn't want any more than 12 MP on a
sensor of this size. But then I have no interest whatever in making super
sized prints.


As you say, it's an unhealthy situation, but I wouldn't want to be
seen to blame one party or the other for that.


That seems certain to discourage any other manufacturers from
joining m4/3. It looks short-sighted to me, but then I'm not in that
business of course.



That's a good point. It appears Nikon has chosen a sensor slightly
smaller than Panasonic and Olympus when it would surely have been just
as easy to choose to follow the Micro Four Thirds standard. Maybe it
would have been difficult to arrange for compatibility with AF Nikkors
on an MFT body, maybe the 3:2 aspect ratio was considered too
important to drop, maybe there were licensing issues - while Four
Thirds is an open standard, I think some of the IP related to Micro
Four Thirds is proprietary, being owned by Panasonic.

Given the unhappy experience paying steep royalties to Canon for the
first few years of AF-S "Silent Wave" lens production, I cannot
imagine Nikon being keen to pay royalties to Panasonic for Micro Four
Thirds.


Probably you're right. Not being in the business I have absolutely no
conception of what such royalty payments are like, or how many makers have
to license which features from other manufacturers.


It will be interesting to see what Canon does. Early rumours
suggested a sensor size close to Micro Four Thirds but with a 3:2
aspect ratio. That sounds remarkably similar to Nikon's.


Yes. I haven't heard anything about a Canon ILC at all, but since Nikon is
introducing one I just assume Canon must be getting a competing product
ready too.

In another week or two we'll know what Nikon's is like, if reports are
correct.


 




Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Canon, Nikon mirrorless = Disney and FOX on DVD Neil Harrington[_6_] Digital Photography 10 September 15th 11 09:42 PM
Canon, Nikon mirrorless = Disney and FOX on DVD Neil Harrington[_6_] Digital SLR Cameras 2 September 10th 11 08:12 PM
Nikon, Canon at a disadvantage for mirrorless Rich[_6_] Digital Photography 7 July 6th 11 12:49 PM
Nikon, Canon at a disadvantage for mirrorless Robert Coe Digital SLR Cameras 0 July 6th 11 12:49 PM
Nikon to go mirrorless Neil Harrington[_5_] Digital Photography 1 July 22nd 10 05:21 PM


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 11:09 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2004-2024 PhotoBanter.com.
The comments are property of their posters.