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@fatcat

“For eon ago, canon S70 has it. Better that blah-blah ‘with marks in it for max zoom and fully wide angle!’ .. S70′s VF is zooooomed .. its viewing angle varies along with the lens’s focal length!!”

Pinhole-sized viewfinders from compact digicams don’t compare to what I presume a Leica optical ‘RF-styl’ VF would offer here. To each their own…

While many are in disbelief that such a camera is even possible, I think the problem is most of us know little about optical designs and are assuming our assumptions based on the size of much larger concentric design lenses with parallel projections while the collapsing compacts do not use this design. Instead the same small lens may be used in a 30X superzoom with 1/2.3″ sensor will be only 20X with a 1/1.7″ sensor at the same lens speed as is the case with the Fujis? Pany was rumored to be working on a 24-140/f2.5-3.3 lens and this could be a superzoom in 1/1.3″ format and 24-72/f3.5-4.5 in m4/3 format? So both Pany models may be linked with the same basic lens with simple in lens leaf shutter. The LX3 is 4.4X form factor while the 4/3 is 2X so doesn’t that mean a loss of only 1 stop in lens speed going to m4/3 sensor with the same focal lengths?

You only have to look at the latest ML500 lens of 24-72/f1.7-2.4 and how small it is to realize that by shortening the distance from sensor to lens to fill the optical circle of the m4/3 sensor, the fixed lens in a 4/3 system need not be much larger if the speed is reduced by one stop(?) so in my mind a 24-72/f2.5-3.5 looks plausible using a difference sensor to flange distance? You use the camera to make corrections for distorsion and CA then would can have a design with much greater angles to the horizontal enabling use of much smaller lens elements especially at the wide angle end and that is what normally requires the greatest size of lens elements. Alternatively at the tele end the lens speed would be further reduced and that is why the 72mm max at tele end to retain more lens speed.

Hope some one with more knowledge then me on these matters will set me straight if I am way off base in these assumptions?

I think the reason the manufactures have been so slow to introduce such a revolutionary camera with stationary lens in a larger format as they didn’t want to detract from lucrative lens sales. However in this case Pany has much less to fear with fewer lenses and most likely the high resolution EVF or optical viewfinders will be expensive addons to keep the basic camera competitive?

“3x zoom says nothing about a lens design or what its application could be.”

It says a little.

A compact camera is going to start somewhere around 24-28mm, so end somewhere around 72-90mm on the long end for a 3x zoom.

“Also, doesn’t Leica refuse to add their stamp to lenses which need in-camera correction?”

We’ve all heard that, and yet the Leica name is on the LX3/D-Lux 4, whose lens is well known to make heavy use of in-camera correction. Not to mention a host of other Panasonic compacts, including various Leica-badged ones.

And then there’s the M system. “The 6-bit code on lenses gives information about optic vignetting characteristics, permitting software adjustment.” (per Wikipedia, which as I understand it is correct in this case.)

So maybe that much-quoted Leica rep really meant “we won’t put our name on an interchangeable lens that requires in-camera geometric correction.” Or something like that.