Originally posted by Uluru Yes, but that is not Leica's problem; that is the problem of today's digital camera industry that cannot design a camera that isn't an electronic gizmo and as complicated to use as hell, and that doesn't have, for example, sealed most important parts of it. Unless you are into underwater camera market, there isn't a single camera that is made as such.
Well, in fairness, it is rather hard to build a digital camera that isn't an "electronic gizmo", that kinda comes with the territory ('cept if you have come up with a sensor and storage not requiring power...in which case, can I come to your nobel ceremony
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That said, I am /not/ disagreeing with you on, at least somewhat, and at least with some of what you're saying regarding gizmo's....I use about 1% of the functionalities of my digital cameras: always shoot in RAW, always use spot-metering, (almost) always bracket +/- 2, and always either HyperAv or M, and shot MF film for so long that I've gotten used to "focus and recompose", thus, center-point AF only (although in honesty, the K-01 is making me play with AF points outside the strict center) and in the lowest ISO possible. So, every other button on the camera, for features other than these, are just a potential point of failure that should be eliminated, and every extra function that the camera can do is just something adding transistors to the circuit and consumes precious battery
So, my dream Pentax would be K-01 sized, with a single good AF sensor, a spot meter, two wheels (shutter/aperture), switch between HyperAV/M/off, and a green button. It'd always shoot in ISO 64 or 25 (to emulate you-know-what) and it'd always bracket +/- 2. So few mechanical buttons, so few points that can fail, it'd be robust.....Pentax should really build that, I guess that it'd cost about a bazillion Euros a piece, since they'd sell exactly two.....my primary and my backup body
Cameras today are gizmo's because the photographers today are much much more diverse than we were back when we bought Olympus OM-1's (which you can also drag through the mud, I confirm) or Leica II/III. I think that Leica /is/ trying to resist with some of their M-series, although they, too, are sliding down that slope somewhat.....
But you are - kinda - contradicting yourself also. Today's modern camera industry is perfectly capable of designing nice and sealed cameras, cf. Heie's abuse of his K5.....and other brands, too, can and do build well-sealed cameras. It's just that the electronics and electro-motors in today's cameras are extremely sensitive to water and dust, and therefore today's cameras /require/ environmental sealing where yesterdecade's cameras didn't. A drop of water on the wrong part of a circuit board vs. a drop of water on any part of a mechanical gear.....