The Most Desirable Cameras on the Planet: Numbers 3, 2, and 1

...To continue from Number 4, yesterday....

The Fuji X100 next to a Leica MP.
Photos by Ken Tanaka, from his X100 review.

Number 3: The Fujifilm X100. No matter how you slice it, this thing has been a phenomenon. From all indications, Fuji fully expected the X100 to be a boutique camera and to claim no more than a modest niche in the camera market, but the buzz it created right from its announcement was widespread and genuine. The camera itself tends to provoke strong reactions, from both owners and onlookers, but it has become a major product, both for its maker and in cameradom as a whole, with its mindshare handily outstripping even heftier-than-expected sales. I tend to think it's overfeatured, which impinges on its functionality, but there's one great thing about it: its image quality. The combination of an all-out lens design effort and a great sensor, each betrothed from birth exclusively to the other, creates files that are special. No matter what their opinion of any other of its many other aspects, from its classical retro styling to its unique viewfinder, few people disagree about that.

Number 2: The Leica S2. (Here's the normal lens for it. And don't forget to budget for the hood.) The Leica S2 is a prime candidate for all of the following: a) the best camera in the world; b) the best camera Leica currently makes; and c) one of the three or four most significant and important cameras in Leica's history (according to my own humble estimation). It shows what happens when very smart people who have lots of resources and who are actual, real, honest-to-god, dyed-in-the-wool camera guys start fresh and imagine something amazing from the blank sheet on up. The best thing about the S2 might be that it's the only digital camera on the market with the courage to ignore "feature-anxiety," by which I mean the tendency every digital cameramaker has to anxiously lard their products up with too many features at the expense of simplicity and directness. The only guy I know personally who has an S2 actually uses it as his point-and-shoot as well as his serious professional camera, because it's so straightforward and comfortable to use*. A huge sensor and stunningly superb lenses are, of course, very nice bonuses.

•     •     •

Which leads us to...drum roll, please, Maestro....

The Most Desirable Camera on the Planet:

The Sony NEX-7 with Sony ZA 24mm ƒ/1.8 Carl Zeiss Sonnar-E lens.

Pity about the floods. And it really is: I want to avoid seeming to be flippant about the human cost of the flooding in Thailand, which of course dwarfs any effect the disasters might have on industrial production, of any kind. Still, those effects exist, and one of the most signal among them is that Sony's NEX-7, planned for a triumphal rollout this holiday season, has unfortunately been all but stillborn so far; we're going to have to wait until spring (although there are some early reviews out there) to get the real measure of this delicious new device. 

Yet there are certainly signs. It is a NEX, which means it's among the handiest cameras with a "real DSLR-sized" APS-C sensor. (And that's significant, because the photography world seems like it might be undergoing one of its periodic sea-changes, from giant professional cameras the size of thick hardback books to small, light, but high-performance camera bodies.) It's the first APS-C sensor to have 24 megapixels. It's going to offer the same ability to have fun with adapters and adapted lenses that many NEX and Micro 4/3 users have been having such a good time with. It has an OLED screen. And so on.

And, it has a lens that's perfect on paper: a fast, 36mm-equivalent prime from Carl Zeiss.

In the world of traditional photography, there have always been Leica lens guys and Zeiss lens guys. I've always been a Zeiss guy. Lifelong. I admire Leica lenses; I just don't love them. I love Zeiss lenses**. If I'm really gonna have the lens I most want, I want it to be a Zeiss. If this one has that meaty large-structure (i.e., high 5–10 lp/mm) contrast and Zeiss's inimitable rich, saturated, yet still delicately vareigated and gradated color, like the best Zeiss lenses have always provided, then say no more. Once you fall for that look....

So, a small camera, with a potentially outstanding sensor (again, we really have to wait and see), and a potentially outstanding made-for-the-camera lens of perfect specification? This won't get the pull from the hoi polloi, the mass market, or the mainstream media that some cameras-of-the-moment get, but for real camera buffs, there's just nothing we desire right now more than this little beauty.

Wait for it.

Mike

*He has an M9, too, which hardly sees any use since he got the S2.

**Just not all of 'em.

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Original contents copyright 2011 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.

Featured Comment by scott kirkpatrick: "I'm delighted to discover that I will exit 2011 with no serious but unrequited photographic desires caused by your list, and an exhaustive list it is indeed! Well, I think I can live without the 20x24 Canham camera, but #11, the Phase One 180 80 MPx digital back, I won't need because a few years ago I bought a lovely EBay Hasselblad SWC/500C 'point 'n' shoot' and last year discovered that I could put the still state of the art P45+ 39 MPx digital back on it for a fraction of the usual entry cost into the Luminous Landscape and GetDPI clubhouse. And I have an M9 which I do use frequently. In the small sensor arena I see that you didn't mention the excellent GRD series (I have the GRD, the GRD2, the GRD3 and GRD4)—they keep getting more capable, still fit into a shirt pocket, and are used by the whole family. So my 2012 New Year's resolution will be to get out and use 'em all.

"The TOP 2011 desireable list is wonderfully democratic—something for every pocketbook. And even the one piece of unobtainium, the #1 NEX-7, will be obtainium next year."

Comments

[Chuck Kimmerle]

The S2 may be among the most desired cameras for those who write "MD" after their name and want people to know it, but for masses? Really?

[Mike Johnston]

Chuck,
Again, look at the wording. Very important when it comes to lists. It says "most desirable." Who said anything about the masses? Is a Ferrari not more desirable than a Ford Focus?

Mike

[Trevor]

I live in Japan and loved this list... until I got to number 1. Every Sony product I've purchased has been lousy: computer disk drives, a portable DVD player, mp3 players, and more. My Japanese friends here don't buy Sony, and someone at work told me many people here call Sony computers "time bombs."

I'm a Zeiss guy too; I'd prefer my Zeiss glass, especially my new 18mm, on the new Ricoh GXR A16 mount.

(I love my X100. The purchase took me 3 seconds... I only had to hold it to know I needed it.)

[Tom Higgins]

5d mk1. With the right glass a true, original, show stopper. In terms of print quality vs. the time spent, (a Print quality previous generations of photographers could only dream of.), it's worth the money to this day.

[Chad Thompson]

I pre-ordered the NEX-7 several months ago for a video project I shot last weekend (b-roll). Knowing that it would be a while before I got it. I just didn't know it would be this long.

My purchases are constantly a trade off between what I want to buy and what I should buy for my business. What I wanted to buy was the Fuji X-100 as I love the focal length, design and function (mostly). But the lack of a zoom lens for video made it a non-starter for my business. So, while waiting for the NEX-7 I rented a Sony NEX VG-10. I was happy enough with that rental to leave the NEX-7 on order. I've seen that they started to ship last week and I have been reading Michael Reichmann's "Rolling Review" to validate my eventual cashectomy.

So we shall see.

[Andrew Lamb]

Leica are on a real roll right now. I've just been told that they have recently brought out a set of motion picture lenses that make the S2's range look positively cheap.

I gather that this is the first time they have brought out high-spec lenses for movies. If not, certainly they are the first in a long time.

Wonder if you can stick 'em on a Nex 7?

[John Robison]

Please excuse my question if it is out of line.

Why build such compact bodies if the lenses have to be so large? I assume the reason is to optimize performance on a digital sensor. When designers got rid of the mirror box I thought 'Great, now a fast wide angle won't have to be one of those expensive, large, heavy 10 to 13 element retro-focus monsters needed to clear a swinging mirror.' It appears I was mistaken.

[Stephen Best]

Thanks to the floods I've managed to keep my resolution of no new camera for 2011. Even if the NEX-7 has shortcomings in real world use, its successor (or like cameras it inspires from Fujifilm, Leica etc) seem like the future.

I've already ordered an E mount adapter for my Contax G lenses ... who would have thought these would see life again?

[A Major Fuji Fan]

I am the PROUD owner of a Fuji X100 and can't praise its many merits enough. It is the perfect substitution for my M6/35 Summicron which will now find a revered place in my cabinet of past but not forgotten photographic friends. My folding Fuji 645 Professional is in there, too. The X100 is the "real deal". I did have the very rare shutter assembly issue with it early on. The shutter/aperture assembly was not responding correctly to the F-stop selected in aperture priority. I sent it to Fuji Priority Mail at 2:30pm on a Thursday. Fuji, New Jersey, fully serviced it at NO CHARGE and had it back in my hands FEDEX Next Day at 10:00am the following Tuesday. No that is customer service tenfold. KUDOS to FUJI, NJ.... Do not tell anyone I told you, but there is an interchangeable lens version of the X100 in the not too distant future. You did not hear that from me! P.S. I am buying a Fuji X10 for my wife for her birthday to replace her aging Canon SX800is. One of the rare pocket/purse cameras with a quality zoom AND viewfinder.

[Stephen Gillette]

Aha! I guessed #1! Of course, it was not too much of a head scratcher. Full disclosure: I currently own a NEX myself, the trail-blazing NEX 3. And I am also on record commenting right here on TOP that the initial 24mm equiv pancake was a poor choice by Sony.

So much for being a know-it-all! NEX is a dandy compact system. I really like the [taste of crow in mouth] pancake and the kit zoom. Plus I have used legacy glass from Pentax, Olympus and Minolta to great effect.

The NEX 7 simply defines a new level of performance for the evolving NEX system, a level that is competitive with the world's best cameras on many levels. I'm not sure I need the horsepower provided by all 24 of those megapixels, but I remember when 6MP seemed adequate to take over the world...

[Jean-Francois Pare]

Ouch, not using the M9. I am out of a job and it seems out of perspective. I have a nice bokeh on my future. Still, I volunteer... help-portait and stuff.

If he gives me his M9 and lenses, I will marry his dog (or cat). Promised!

Jeff

[Bill Hughes]

I'm really tempted by the NEX-7, it looks like a sweet camera if Sony release a new firmware from what I've read. Really tempted, but then I've been waiting for the D800 for a while now which would be a more sensible camera for me (for the price of two NEX-7s admittedly).
The NEX-7 is enough to stop me drooling at the idea of an interchangeable lens X100.
Of course I am supposed to be finding a house to buy but….

[Richard]

Nice job, I think you have covered them all, not necessarily in that order but everyone is different. It will be interesting over the next couple of months to see if you feel you need to update the list.

[Amin Sabet]

With the Zeiss 24/1.8 and Sony 50/1.8 OSS, Sony has a very strong two-lens kit. Add to that the fact that the 16mm pancake is better than people say, the Sony 18-200mm is smaller (and better) than people say, and that they're finally bringing out an affordable telephoto zoom, well... things are looking good for Sony NEX :).

I still shoot primarily Micro 4/3, but I keep a foot in both camps and started a Sony NEX user group at TalkNEX.com, which I hope will flourish like our Micro 4/3 user group at Mu-43.com. I don't see it as a zero sum game. As long as Olympus can weather the storm, both systems look to have bright futures.

[Richard Ward]

Mike, I like your list a lot. Would probably shuffle a couple around for myself and I'd definitely bump the NEX7 off the top spot, but all in all, a terrific compilation.
thx

[Dennis Hoover]

Mike,

Now that we know the most desirable cameras,
how about a list of the most significant images
from the last 50 years and what cameras they were produced by.

[Rob Grey]

Holy Moly! 200 bones for a lens shade? You'd think for five large for the lens they'd include such an essential piece of kit.

Doesn't make me want it any less, however...

[Richard Howe]

Isn't the hood built into that Leica lens? — They usually are, or rather were, with the R series lenses, anyway (I don't know about the M lenses). I think I can see the ends of the hood in the photo you posted (but I could be imagining that) . . . .

Unfortunately all too rich for my blood even if I'm right that I wouldn't have to sprint for the hood too.

[Chuck Kimmerle]

"It says "most desirable." Who said anything about the masses?"

mmmmm....then who is doing the desiring?

[James Liu]

Mike,

Totally agree about Zeiss lenses. There's something just perfect about the way they render images, very iron fist, velvet glove.

But re: the Zeiss 24/1.8. How Zeissy is it going to be, does anyone yet?

[JohnMFlores]

Leica lens hoods are expensive because Leica owners are constantly dealing with the clouds parting and a beam of light streaming from the heavens and landing squarely upon their camera.

That they can live with. It's the choir of angels after every shutter press that get annoying.

[Jeremy Breningstall]

I see one camera was left off this list... the Pentax K5. I've been looking for your review but haven't seen it (unless I missed something).

[John Krumm]

For me the S2 (was there an S1?) falls into the same category as a Lamborghini, even though I suppose I could max out a couple credit cards, buy the body, and then sell my Accord for a lens. Kind of takes the desire out. I have some desire for the Nex 7, but more for the supposed interchangeable lens version of the X100 that's supposed to come out next year sometime. It's healthier for my budget to keep desiring cameras that don't exist yet.

[cheap columbia jackets]

I'm a Zeiss guy too; I'd prefer my Zeiss glass, especially my new 18mm, on the new Ricoh GXR A16 mount.

But re: the Zeiss 24/1.8. How Zeissy is it going to be, does anyone yet?

[Friedrich]

I think the lenses are exactly the problem with the NEX line: They are just too big. Too big in relation to the camera, and too big in absolute terms as well. I thought the promise of mirrorless cameras was "pocketable" cameras with big sensors? How am I ever going to fit a NEX (itself a wonder of miniaturization) with a lens this size into a pocket?

Panasonic shows where things are going with their Lumix G X 14-42 lens. And I wish Pentax would make an entry into the mirrorless market with some Limited-like lenses.

[David Mantripp]

Huh? Where's the Fuji GF670W???

[Craig Arnold]

Great list.

I have a 5D2 and an X100. If I could afford it I'd swap the 5D2 for an S2, and I'd also have an M9. Exceeds my photography budget though.

I won't buy Sony products (if I can manage it for the rest of my life) since the Sony BMG root kit shenanigans of 2005 - which I genuinely think are unforgivable.

But the NEX7 is likely the most innovative and brilliantly realised digital camera ever made. If it had been made by anyone other than Sony I would be very tempted.

[Andrei P]

I look for dynamic pictures and took the decision to buy X 100. But I had the opportunity to borrow one for 2 weeks. This camera has great components, but is not good enough designed. As an architect, I know very well that. I never had in my hands a camera handling so unbalanced. You can't hold it, neither with the right or left hand. With slow and unsure AF, visible time-lag, and also occasional banding at high Iso.
I was very disappointed.
May be it's a great camera, but not at all suitable on my taste.

[Barry Reid]

I can't go along with the NEX-7 as number one choice, even as a zeiss fan. This is for very much the reason that the x100 would be my choice for 2011. That is, none of the three control dials on the NEX are directly dedicated to important shooting controls and and I find working from a giant LCD for shooting data/settings distracting. Personally, I'm looking forward to the rumoured Fuji ILC which, if the leaked shots are anything to go by will have the Shutter dial/aperture ring controls of the X100.

[Brett Jensen]

The Sony made "Zeiss" lenses are in the same class as the Panasonic made "Leica" lenses. A Rose by any other name is still a... Petunia?

[scott kirkpatrick]

@John Krum: Yes there was an S1 -- a scanning back on a frame resembling the Alpa technical cameras. About 15 years ago. It found its niche in copying artwork for museums, and was used to document, thread by precious thread, the restoration of the unicorn tapestries at the Cloisters in NY. There is a lovely New Yorker story that describes it and the stitching computation that put it all back together.

[Andy]

Nex 7 ergonomics look really terrible, like taping a coke can onto a cigarette packet. Image quality may be great, but small body size is only a bonus if the lens doesn't drag it around like an anchor.

[Lukasz Kubica]

I would love to have an S2, period. But coming to the ground, I would like something more compact than NEX-7 + Zeiss (which has definitely the best size/capabilities ratio ever). So, for now, the most wanted cam for me is the fuji X10, maybe because I already own a MF film camera :-)

[Richard]

That NEX-7 with the Zeiss 24mm sure is an ugly and awkward looking SOAB. M9 with 40mm Summicron certainly beats it for desirability and pocketablility. Which makes me think, this list is supposed to be for the most desirable cameras - without the undoubtedly excellent Sony/Zeiss lens, where does this leave the camera itself?

[Keith I.]

My NEX-7 has been preordered for a while and with each new review I want it more. My 24/1.8 Zeiss is backordered but should come keep my NEX-5 company for a while I hope. I also have the LA-EA2 coming in to let me us my A-mount Zeiss lenses on the NEX-7 along with some very fun Minolta MC and MD lenses.

[Ludovic]

I've been torn for weeks between getting an X10 or an X100 ("not getting either" isn't an option) and I still don't know, but at least I'll go to bed tonight knowing something I didn't before, and that's the word "vareigated". Thanks for improving my vocabulary on top of my photographic knowledge!

[Ray]

@Trevor:
"Every Sony product I've purchased has been lousy..."

Except, apparently, for the sensor in your X100. Just saying.

[Marcelo Guarini]

Well, I don't agree with the #1 this time. Its shape alone doesn't invite me to grab it and go out to take pictures. The other nine are better choices to me.

Regards

[Thomas Twine]

Chuck,
Again, look at the wording. Very important when it comes to lists. It says "most desirable." Who said anything about the masses? Is a Ferrari not more desirable than a Ford Focus?

Hey, I resemble that remark.

[Dave Jenkins]

(Sigh...) Move along, folks. Nothing to see here.

[Steve]

NEX 7 bodies are certainly hard to come by at the moment. One just sold on Ebay for $3550! Several others sold for more than $2000. Crazy!

[Ranjit Grover]

Can we hope to get a list of the most disastrous cameras that you have come across?
I guess it may not be politically correct.
Ranjit Grover
India

[Peter Gilbert]

@ Bill Hughes. The D800 is likely to cost more than 3 NEX-7's according to Thom Hogan.

[Armand]

Hi Mike, I like the list. S2 would top my list. Nex 7 #1?..Thanks.

[Carsten Bockermann]

>>For me the S2 (was there an S1?)...

Yes, there was. It was introduced back in 1996. See http://www.bhphotovideo.com/find/newsLetter/Leica-S1.jsp

[B Grace]

The S2 isn't on this list because the masses are willing to give up their homes in order to purchase one. It's a desirable camera system because it's Leica saying "we've been making professional grade cameras since about the time professionals first started using cameras. This is the camera you should now be using." No compromises. No coulda-woulda-shoulda's. Both very cool and rare in business these days. The S2 system made every other camera system obsolete for a select group of well-heeled professionals.

[Brian White]

Mike feel free to edit my flame. But why are MD's always perceived as having too much money? What about all the other professions, or business people or politicians, or atheletes, entertainers and such. I am getting a XZ-1 for Christmas and am fortunate but I guess I should be able to afford an S2 and I just don't know it. PS You could adopt a parentless child for the price of the S2.

[vlatko]

lens of perfect specification

Mike, I know you love the focal length of 35 mm, but is it perfect? For everybody, anybody, anywhere?

My preference would certainly be the Leica, anyway. :)

[CK Dexter Haven]

"Is a Ferrari not more desirable than a Ford Focus?"

- or a Mazda Miata?

......

"Every Sony product I've purchased has been lousy.... My Japanese friends here don't buy Sony, and someone at work told me many people here call Sony computers 'time bombs.'"

- I used to have the same feeling. I've had Sony tvs, vcrs, MiniDisc players, Walkmans.... And, with each of them, i always got the feeling they were engineered with a self-destruct chip. Something that 'expired' the unit and forced a new purchase.... But, my PS3 is still going strong. I have a NEX-7 or a Fuji Interchangeable or whatever Canon's got cooking... in my future.

....

Mike - did you see the rumor about a B&W-only Ricoh? Are you saving that for a co-No.1?

[Benjamin Marks]

Mike: as boring a comment as this is, I agree with the list. I might shuffle the order around in the top three a little, but all of the cameras on my "what if I won the lottery" list are here. I think I will catch the Fuji x100 in three years on the downwards curve of its popularity. The Leica though occupies the space in my adult world that the R4s occupied when I was in college: camera made from unobtainium. In the 1980's, Leicas were so far beyond my means that I could only look at them in store windows. After a period of reasonable professional success in which I have been able to splurge on my unobtainable Leicas of the 1980's, Leica has plopped me right back in the past, staring through the plate glass at cameras too expensive to purchase. Sigh. But the list did say, as you have pointed out above, "desirable." What are you going to do?

[Peter Hovmand]

good choices ... but the NEX-system really need a proper fast, pancake prime ... otherwise it could just as well have been a DSLR ...

[John F. Opie]

Nex 7 as the most desirable camera? FUD, FUD. Nobody's got one to really put through the ringers and if the current set of NEX lenses is any guide, meh.

There's a reason why they're pushing the Zeiss glass. It's a very high resolution, relatively low contrast sensor (think of souping Panatomic X in Microdol-X) that apparently cries out for serious glass to get good results. Meh. I want my sensors to give me Adox KB-14 developed in Rodinal 1:50, thank you very much (okay, I'll live with Technical Pan...).

And if they haven't fixed the menus, double meh. Like I said, where's the real-world reviews? Without that, it's all FUD.

The S2 is what I would buy if I won the lottery. Heck, I'd drive up to the factory and pay list price, one of everything, thank you very much, and I'd never have to buy another piece of equipment again...yep, desireable indeed.

[Michael Roche]

Mike am I mistaken [I've been known to from time to time]but did you not so long ago state that the micro 4/3 was a more desirable system to the Sony Nex due to the lens size wise in relation to the body.
For me the oversized lense's in relation to the camera body on the Nex 7 are offputting,even though I realize I may come to appreciate the system in time due to the positive response it is getting from reviewers.

[Rob]

Call me a grouch, but how can a camera that no one, save a few reviewers, has ever laid hands on be considered the most desirable in the world? Not to mention the fact that there is currently only one top-notch lens made specifically for it. Let's face it: This camera almost demands to be used with non-Sony lenses. For all we know, the NEX 7 will be bug-laden and suck with wide angle M-mount lenses, just like the 5n. There are several active threads comparing the Ricoh GXR A12 Mount with the 5n using the same M mount lenses, and the Ricoh absolutely trounces the Sony. Quite possibly, the NEX 7 will perform up to expectations, but it would seem prudent to withhold judgement, until actual production copies make it into the hands of actual users. In Mike's defense, I'm sure that he was counting on the NEX 7 being in wide distribution by now.

My own most desirable, if also unobtainable, camera is the Leica S2. If anything, the fact that it is a complete pipe dream for me enhances its desirability.

[Mike Plews]

Ditto on Zeiss glass. I wonder if part of why I like them so much is that the Zeiss lenses I own are all on medium format cameras.
Nothing makes for crisp prints like a big slab of film. It also helps that Zeiss lenses tend to land on cameras that are built like tanks, keep the film nice and flat and stay properly collimated over the years.
Anyway I feel like I do see something special in the images from the 50mm Distagon, 250mm Sonnar and the 80mm Planar that come out of retirement a couple of times a year to take care of my occasional film jones.

[juze]

Dear God,

There's a lottery drawing tomorrow. If you let me win, I promise to use the Leica S2 I will buy with the proceeds for very good things, such as immortalizing some of your better attempts at creating the perfect woman.

Yours faithfully,

[Mike Johnston]

Brett,
There's no magic in a location of manufacture--or, really, in a company name. The pervading mythos that it matters where a lens was made really amounts to no more than folklore.

Mike

[David Bostedo]

Hmm... when Mike says "most desirable" I assume he pretty much means most desirable without regard for price. I guess some others don't take it that way? You can greatly desire something that you'd never actually pay for yourself. Ferrari's are a perfect example.

[Mike Johnston]

"Can we hope to get a list of the most disastrous cameras that you have come across? I guess it may not be politically correct."

The World's Ugliest Camera

http://theonlinephotographer.blogspot.com/2006/04/worlds-ugliest-camera.html

The Sam Memorial Dog Camera Award

http://theonlinephotographer.blogspot.com/2006/04/sam-memorial-dog-camera-award.html

Mike

[Mike Johnston]

"Mike - did you see the rumor about a B&W-only Ricoh?"

No....

Mike

[Mike Johnston]

"why are MD's always perceived as having too much money? What about all the other professions"

Brian,
I actually (really) don't usually allow anti-Leica anti-snobbery in the Comments section. I barely let that one slide through....

Mike

[Steve Jacob]

I wonder what the odds are of any two photographers picking the same top 10? Probably around 1,000,000 to 1? That's it I need to get my own blog.... ;)

[Kenneth Tanaka]

@ Rob: "Call me a grouch, but how can a camera that no one, save a few reviewers, has ever laid hands on be considered the most desirable in the world?"

Ever hear of Marilyn Monroe?

(Yeah, ok, maybe she had more than "a few reviewers", but you know what I mean.)

[Earl Dunbar]

Let's face it, the most desirable camera is the one that totally captures your imagination but you do not have and are not able to acquire.

[ctein]

Dear John,

"It's a very high resolution, relatively low contrast sensor..."

Ummm, there is no such thing as a "low contrast sensor," not in the way you're suggesting (that is, as a flaw).

The NEX 7 can capture a 13-1/2 stop exposure range! That's huge-- only a handful of cameras have ever done better and your run-of-the-mill good camera does 1-2 stops worse than that.

Nobody considers this a bug. Intrinsically-blown-and-unrecoverable highlights or shadows are nobody's friend.

Thing is, you can't render that long an exposure range in a linear way, either on the screen or in a print. If you do, it looks very flat -- the same way a very long-range negative looks flat printed on Grade 1 paper.

You have to make decisions on how you're going to map the tonal scale or what subset of it you're going to print/display. It comes with the territory of capturing a long subject luminance range. That doesn't make that capture flawed.

pax / Ctein

[ian]

Hmm. Soul, Fuji. Soul, Fuji... it's a toss up.

[JMarcos]

I cannot believe there's so much contempt for the Sony NEX-7. Here we go again with people trying to stuff interchangeable lens cameras in their pockets (I sure never tried that with the Leica M6), or that they want a fast pancake prime (most pancakes lenses are slow), or that the 3-wheel control system, probably the most innovative camera control in years, is not "directly dedicated to important shooting controls" - the beauty of it is that they are assignable to aperture, shutter speed, and ISO!
The Fuji X100, with its superficially nice looking shutter and aperture controls, was, in practice, a prettily bad thought-out photo taker (albeit with beautiful image output) which I returned within a week.
So yes, count in me for the NEX-7 as it sounds a *fun* camera to have. I'll take a Leica S2 as well; a bit pricier, though.

[Patrick Dodds]

@ Kenneth Or George Clooney (just to keep things even).

[Brett Jensen]

"There's no magic in a location of manufacture--or, really, in a company name. The pervading mythos that it matters where a lens was made really amounts to no more than folklore.

Mike"

I was not referring to the location of manufacture, but to the MANUFACTURER. Just wondering if your professed love of Zeiss lenses includes those made by Sony and re-badged with the Zeiss name? I don't think it's folklore to assume the plastic Sony/Zeiss or the Panasonic/Leica lenses are in the same league. Much as I love my Panny/Leica 24mm Summilux, I have no illusions of it being the equal of the Leica built M series Lux. But at least I can afford it!

[Richard]

JMarcos remarks that he never tried stuffing his M6 in his pocket. However, it's not without precedent. Bruce Davidson recounts how he had his tailor produce a seersucker jacket (whatever that is) with deep pockets to accomodate 2 Leica M's in preparation for his famous photo tour of Scotland and England.

But you don't need such exotic apparel - I offer you a photo of my trusty, if battered, linen summer jacket with an M9 in one pocket (with 40mm Summicron) and the Voigtlander Bessa III (Fuji 645 in some places) in the other. Modern digital and medium format film in two pockets.

http://zurich.dailyphoto.forthmedia.com/jacket.jpg

I couldn't get either in my shirt pocket of course, but then I find anything bigger than a credit card to be uncomfortable in a shirt pocket

[Dave Fultz]

My gosh this was fun!

And thank heaven the commenters had fun with it, too!

Dave

[Jack]

Now that you have had success with "desirable cameras" you can move to " desirable Lenses"!
I would guess noctilux might be on the list? Oops, I'm sure it will be a lens starting with a Z?
I have enjoyed this series since we don't need to argue best, but we can always discuss lust.

[Crabby Umbo]

I have one New Year's resolution that I'm going to keep: never buy any photographic equipment unless I've actually handle it, and minimum, rent it for a day to check it out...no more spending 3 grand to be just not all that "wowed" by a tool I need to use.

Someone said on here why are MD's always listed as having too much money. I guess maybe they don't have too much money, just more than most of the rest of us, and yes, even 30 years ago, the only people standing around the Leica stuff at the local camera store were doctors and lawyers, no one I knew who had to use solely the profits from their photography business was buying Leica systems, maybe just an M3 and two lenses, used, for 'sport'...

I haven't seen or handled the Nex-7 (see above), but I hold out great hope for that style of camera: the high-rez electronic viewfinder type. Still want to use the all-time facial recognition that's available with ditching the mirror, and since I can't focus with the 'light-pipe' type screens they have in cameras today, might as well look at a video screen. But please, let's get sensible about lens design again. Where's my 24mm f/2.8 that covers APS-C and is way tinyer than that behemoth!

[David Dyer-Bennet]

Richard, "seersucker" is a cotton fabric used for, among other things, hot-weather sport-coats. To me, its distinguishing characteristic is that it's puckered on a small scale, two or three millimeters; I think this helped it not stick to you all over in hot weather. Back when air conditioning was rare and ties and jackets much more common, it probably saved a lot of people from heatstroke. It seems to go back at least into Britain's colonial period.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seersucker

[Michael Bolser]

What SONY Nex and 4/3rds inventors have done IN ADDITION to optimizing the camera to the maximum PRACTICAL print size (13X18):

(1) Obsoleted the mechanical range-finding viewing component with electronic "focus peaking" software & EVF hardware replacements. RF "Patches" aren't needed any more.

(2) Obsoleted the SLR mirror (And its useless mirror space) with all its disadvantages that led to larger lens, mirror-slapping moving parts and unnecessary optical inefficiencies.

NIKON/CANON have yet to appreciate this as their entire asset pool is SLR mirror-slapping based lenses––all of which are being slowly eaten by smaller, better inventions. Here the ONLY reason for the SLR mirror to begin with was to get accurate simultaneous focus––which is now done by "Peaking" and much better/faster auto focus software.

Smaller lenses require less of the expensive exotic anomalous dispersion glass components AND further benefit by relatively less light absorption in transit to the detector. There is also more room to extend a given design length which always benefits a design due to more optical "leverage".

General advances in silent/stepper motors have boosted MFT into the PRACTICAL HD video realm and Panasonic clearly in aiming their MFT offerings to be a key component in the imaging chain from EVF viewfinder to large screen home TV (Viera). Just remove the SD/HC card and insert it in the home entertainment center.

Winners?

In any revolution there are unexpected winners. The 4/3rds MFT Revolution has benefited Leica M-Mount lens owners to a certain degree but this will only persist IF they appreciate an immediate need to re-invest in plant and equipment in order to fill the spiking quality small lens demand at lower price points. Otherwise Panasonic, et al will swiftly eclipse the Germans. Leica can't survive on stratospheric pricing.

The following quote is in play:

"Of the ten leading vacuum tube manufacturers––none participated in the transistor revolution" Chet Rhaymo (The "R" in TRW)

[Tim]

I've owned a few Sony products in my time, and can only concur with the "time-bomb" moniker above. Plus, speaking as a sysadmin, after the rootkit "audio"-CD fiasco a few years ago, I instituted a lifetime ban on Sony products.

So of course, the NEX-7 has to be the one thing that's tempting me at the moment - I can *get* 24MPel digitally, but it'd sure be nicer to start from that many in the first place.

Meanwhile, I'm happy with my Lumix GH2 - it's the ergonomics of the thing, not just the sensor, that matter. I'd be even happier if Panasonic caught wind of the NEX-7 and strove to improve their sensor in that direction as well.

[allegretto]

Own an S2 and M9. Ordered an NEX-7 for wifey and figured I'd get an A77 for myself. The pull of two bodies sharing lenses was strong.

Amazes me how a few bloggers have made the NEX-7 the "IT" camera.

Well, I have not used an NEX-7 yet, like all the other proles that are not on Sony's opinion makers list... but let me tell you about the A-77;

Some "very nice features" and good ergonomics with the exception of the AF/MF button which is far to easy to toggle when you're not watching carefully.

But the images are faaar from exciting. Just OK. And I'm not talking pixel-peeping, just IQ of reasonable images and crops. Zeiss glass notwithstanding. So I'm afraid that Sony has done a great job of expectation pumping and certain camera bloggers have done an equally good job of "na na, I have one and you don't".

But I cancelled my NEX-7 order and got wifey an nice Oly E-P3. Not perfect either, but no slouch.

Others have asked about the ergonomics of heavy glass and little cameras. I'm sure this will take a lot of getting used to for diehards. Many will just chuck the whole ball of wax. Not everyone found Dolly Parton irresistible.

If anyone is looking to the NEX-7 to be ALL, I think you'll have a rude awakening. Just my $.02, YMMV

[Elpulgaceleste]

Haveing the nex 7 since a few days, i can only say its feature, resolution and usage wise the best camera i owned ever. Superb build and image quality. Waiting for the Zeiss to arrive soon.
Totally stunned by the resolution, viewfinder, tri-navi control, dynamic range, iso performance and the colors.
Nice job Sony, you guys outdid yourself.