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Simple high quality digital camera?

Why does the Sony RX-1 get so little attention? Full frame, compact, Carl Zeiss 35mm f2 lens.... it should be getting talked about more in this kind of thread. I've never seen one, let alone handled one though.
 
topoxforddoc said:
To be honest, a Leica is much more discrete than a Bentley. If you don't like the Red Dot branding, you can cover that up with a piece of black gaffer tape. But a Leica or other small rangefinder cameras (eg old Contax, Zeiss, Voigtlander) are the epitome of the stealth camera - small, unobtrusive, quiet and definitely not flash. You can even put it into your jacket pocket. The complete opposite of a SLR or larger modern mirrorless camera with large lenses.
I accept that Leica prices are steep, very steep. But if you are an old film camera user, you could pick up a M10 and use it without even looking at a manual. You have a shutter speed dial, a film speed/ISO dial, manual focusing and an old fashioned aperture ring on the lens. You don't have to reach for the manual to look at the menus to change the ISO or change the shutter speed/aperture. Everything falls into place, just as you'd expect it to.
My suggestion would be an used M10 - great image quality, quiet (virtually silent shutter - pretty much as quiet as the M2 and M6) with a small 35 mm lens (vintage Leica or new Voigtlander 35/1.4 Classic). If you already have a M2, you could just use your existing Leica lenses.
Click to expand...

That's a thought! Could put a 35 Summicron on it. Any other (cheaper) cameras use the same bayonet mount?
 
You could indeed use your 35 Summicron on another camera system. There are lots of adapters available, some cheap, some less so. However, the imnagfe quality on your 35 Summicron may be slightly compromised, if used on a another camera system. It's to do with the angle that the light strikes the sensor pits, particularly at the edge of the sensor. Each camera system designer will have optimised the sensor and sensor microlens array for their own lenses. There's a bit about it below on a couple of blogs.

https://www.leica-camera.blog/2017/01/18/looking-back-move-forward/

https://blog.mingthein.com/2018/03/17/leica-m-mount-lenses-on-the-x1d/

Remember first that we are trying to make two things work together that were never designed to in the first place. It is a bonus that they work at all. The whole question of optical compatibility and synergy is a complex one as with digital cameras, it now involves the sensor color filter array and microlens design; this is why for instance lenses that may be great on FF look terrible on M4/3, and Leica lenses do better with Leica bodies. Peculiarities include: M4/3 has a very thick (5mm+) filter pack; this causes all sorts of havoc with lenses that are even slightly non-telecentric. Leica M sensors have a progressively offset microlens array to deal with the extreme angles of incidence in the corners.
 
Are you needing a full frame sensor so your 50mm lens looks the same as on your M2? If so that rules out the fuji offerings, the 1.5x crop mean my Canon m39 screw mount RF lenses still mount and work with a suitable adapter, but the 50mm f1.2 now looks more like a 75mm f2.0, which is still nice, but not what it was.

Sonys full frame offerings are good, but I never found the handling as intuitive.
 
Might be a little pricy but I just bought a Nikon Z50 kit with included Nikon 16-50mm and 50-250mm Lenses. When you consider the overall package it's a lot for the money, like a mini Z6 with almost all the same features & takes phenomenal pics and is small and light weight. ...It can be as easy yo operate as a simple point and shoot but also gives you the ability to be a full manual camera with all the flexibility the full sized Z series cameras if you choose, great for the beginner too that want's a camera that they can also learn more complex photography on without any real drawbacks. I'm super happy with my purchase and I can see owning it for some time as I don't feel like need anything more. Read some reviews on it.
 
Thank you, Rock and Tpetsch. I've sorted it by deciding I can't be bothered for the time being. But much appreciate all the advice for when the urge returns. Incidentally, I see they now make digital cameras that look exactly like a 1980s Pentax or Canon, with the pentaprism and the shutter speed dial on top. Interesting how industrial design seems to "reach back" to imagery from the past. One could suspect it is not about functionality, but psychology and marketing.
 
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