Seeing the Light: November 2009

I have talked in the past about divergence in the camera industry, that is a willingness by some manufacturers to follow philosophies and therefore product paths that diverge from the mainstream camera makers. These companies do not necessarily pursue an anti-convergent product strategy, where convergence is defined as the trend of companies to combine video and still photo technology in a single camera. Rather, divergence is defined as the willingness of the companies to pursue non-mainstream technologies and/or system packaging and design in their products. In no particular order, here are my Top 3 Divergent Camera Companies.

Sigma Corporation

Sigma stands out for two reasons: the Foveon sensor they use and the DP series of cameras.

The Foveon sensor directly captures all three colors at each photosite, unlike the Bayer sensor which captures either red, blue or green at each photosite, and then mathematically combines the information from adjacent photosites to produce a full light spectrum. A fuller technical discussion is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foveon_X3_sensor .

Regardless of the technicalities, expert observers have picked up on a noticeable difference between the “feel” of a photo taken with a Foveon sensor vs. a Bayer sensor. There is a richness and depth to a Foveon image which seems lacking in an equivalent Bayer image. I have seen this difference myself, and can only say that a Foveon image appears to have more density, or “chewiness” than a Bayer image.

Sigma would have been in the final running for top three honors for the Foveon sensor alone, but what really clinched their placing is that they put the medium size Foveon sensor in a compact camera, becoming a leader in this product segment. For the first time, one could put a camera in one’s pocket which produced images far better than any previous compact could. It was revolutionary 2 years ago, and other manufacturers have now entered this market. But there is no other place to get a compact with the remarkable Foveon sensor, and it’s unlikely that will change soon.

Ricoh

Ricoh is THE compact camera manufacturer in the world. Sure, other companies make compact cameras too (and make lots more as well), but no one is as committed to producing serious compact cameras that are so highly oriented toward easy control by the photographer. Most compacts are heavily weighted toward ease of use as a “point and shoot” camera. Ricoh cameras can do that as well, but what distinguishes them is the straight forward ability for the photographer to access controls for aperture, shutter speed, manual focus and lens focal length, among other things, with ease.

And who wasn’t stunned by Ricoh’s recent announcement of the GXR, In which one doesn’t simply change lenses, but sensor and firmware as well when one wants to change lens focal lengths. Honestly, I felt both wonder and horror at the announcement, mostly weighted toward wonder it’s true, but there is still a part of me that questions the wisdom of the design.

Be that as it may, the design they chose makes sense if your overall objective is to keep a camera compact. A small, optically superior zoom and an APS-C sensor is not the ideal formula for a compact camera. But if they could design the camera to have different sensors for different lenses, the compact requirement can be met. So, I suspect we will see zooms and telephotos packaged with the small sensor, and fast primes and macro lenses packaged with an APS-C sensor.

One can argue the the pluses and minuses of this compact-first philosophy, but "C"for Compact is apparently not only Ricoh’s middle letter, but also their middle name.

Leica

In 1925, Leica made it clear they were diverging from the photographic mainstream with the introduction of the Leica A. By 1975, with the tidal wave of Japanese-made SLR’s overwhelming the 35mm film camera market, Leica was looking decidedly old-fashioned. But the rangefinder way of seeing the subject is still entirely relevant, and indeed an advantage in some circumstances, in the current camera world.

So through many ups and downs, Leica has persisted in making exceptional rangefinder cameras and equally exceptional lenses for those cameras. As such, I believe they are one of the oldest and most persistent of the divergent camera companies.

Leica seemed to be falling victim in the middle of this decade to their legendary reputation for changing at a snail-like pace. But the emergence of the flawed, but still useful, M8, and the improved M8.2, showed that Leica was committed to quality digital as well as 35mm film capture.

But it was 9/9/09 that showed that Leica’s owners and management are pursuing an enlightened and innovative path without compromising their long held core beliefs in quality and taking a long-term view of what makes a good camera.

They simply announced 3 groundbreaking cameras in one day, a 35mm-sized M digital, a medium format SLR, and a large sensor compact. So, while reaffirming in a big way the soundness of Oskar Barnack’s 84 year old vision, they also launched products into segments still desperately in need of innovation.

Leica is still the leader in taking a divergent path.

Honorable Mention: Panasonic

I have to mention Panasonic for their single-minded product development in their serious compacts (like the LX3) and in Micro 4/3rds. They have brought a great deal of innovation to the camera world, have dealt quietly and persistently with their products’ shortcomings (remember when Panasonic was the leader in producing noisy images--it wasn’t that long ago) and recognized that new ideas brought problems that could in reality be an opportunity for improvement. A good example of that is the fact that of all the camera companies in the world, Panasonic has made contrast detection autofocus work almost as well as the phase detection systems common in DSLR’s by importing expertise from their long established video camera group. That is good stuff.