On 22 October 2010 17:46, Godfrey DiGiorgi <gdigio...@gmail.com> wrote: > > I can only conjecture from the outside, but I suspect it was > combination of several things: > > - I don't think Panasonic ever expected to sell a lot of the L1 > cameras. That particular camera I think was a cannon shot across the > water saying, "We are going to play here!" ... It was designed in > tight collaboration with Leica on layout, functions and style pretty > obviously. The Leica version, at a $500-600 premium price, was on the > same order. Leica was more "testing the waters" for a FourThirds SLR > involvement, I think. The viewfinder/shutter sub-assembly is a shared > component with the Olympus E-330 ... > > - For Olympus part, I think they felt the sales of the side-winder > bodies (the E-300 and E-330) were both disappointing, irrespective of > the technical merits of the design, and that was largely because the > porro-finder light pipe is simply less efficient than a pentamirror > and especially than a large pentaprism leading to poorer viewfinder > brightness. > > - Both companies follow on products used more conventional > pentamirror/pentaprism (L10 - pentamirror, E-500 - pentaprism) and had > conventional SLR shapes that most buyers found more appealing. By the > time the L10 was released, Panasonic was already deep into the > development of the Lumix G cameras and had pretty much stopped > development on SLR technology, where Olympus with a larger footprint > into SLRs and a big user base, had a more complex game to work through > with pro to consumer grade customers, many of whom at the high end > already had big investiture into their lenses and bodies. > > Business and technology often interact in unpredictable ways. The > LC-1/L1 design is brilliant, the resulting camera has been a delight, > but I think the E-5's viewfinder and other features go so far beyond > it that I'm retiring mine now. The E-1, for sake of shared batteries, > cables, cards, accessories, control layout, etc, is a better backup to > the E-5 than the L1. > > -- > Godfrey > godfreydigiorgi.posterous.com
Thanks for that, Godfrey. I'd read about the sucky viewfinder on the Porro cameras but I've never looked through one so I don't know how bad it is. I imagine Leica decided to concentrate its efforts on getting a digital M out to market, which makes more sense than a 4/3 camera. It is amusing that they managed to make their L1 look so much like a rangefinder :-) --M. -- \/\/o/\/\ --> http://WorldOfMiserere.com http://EnticingTheLight.com A Quest for Photographic Enlightenment -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
