FAKE: Jeff Ascough is testing a new rangefinder…MicroFourThirds or not?
This rumor is a FAKE!!!
The Canon wedding shooter Jeff Ascough just revealed that he is testing a brand new rangefinder. I highly doubt that he is talking about a Canon camera. Not one of our sources ever heard something about it.
P.S.: Jeff has protected tweets
source: canonrumors.com
Ranger 9
4 years ago |I hope it’s true… but I can’t help pointing out that a lot of photographers incorrectly use the term “rangefinder” to refer to ANY non-SLR camera. A real rangefinder camera has to have, well, a rangefinder — an optical device for measuring focusing distance.
Steve
4 years ago |Jeff is a Canon Ambassador and is currently doing seminars for them. I think it is safe to say he is testing a new Canon camera.
Here are some more comments from his cached Tweeter account.
http://74.125.93.132/search?q=cache:wH79YXtJ5PQJ:twitter.com/jeff_ascough+http://twitter.com/jeff_ascough&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ca
Using the ultimate stealth camera over the next few days – stay tuned
And it isn’t a Leica LOL
not even close
Elliot
4 years ago |Ascough used to be a card-carrying Leica guy and moved to Canon when he went digital. Since Leica already has digital rangefinders and he decided not to go with one it’s likely that he’s playing with something by Canon and not Nikon. Why? Not only because he’s a ‘Canon Ambassador’ (whatever that means — I hope he’s not worried about havinghis Canon passport revoked!) but because Nikon’s upcoming mirrorless camera line is said to use a 2.7x magnification factor, and it’s doubtful that a pro wedding shooter would want to shoot a camera with a sensor even smaller than 4/3.
Jay Gloab
4 years ago |I don’t understand why anyone besides Leica would bother making a true rangefinder in this day and age. Makes me wonder if Ascough is misusing the term the way Ranger 9 points out.
The Camera Guy
4 years ago |I think it’s a rangefinder look-alike. I have heard people calling Olympis E-P1 and Pansonic GF1 Digital Rangefinders. True rangefinders is something from the past (!) and only Leica is stubborn enough to try something like that!? Besides, I think an optical rangefinder would be much too expensive to produce and will of course only work with fixed focal length lenses (primes).
If it’s a Canon, I do not think it will be a Four Thirds format camera, rather an APS-C, so that existing EF-S lenses will fit.
Edi Weitz
4 years ago |On the Leica forum someone wrote that Ascough had claimed this new “rangefinder” would be full frame and come with a 35/1.2 lens.
I rather think he’s preparing an April fool’s joke…
killian
4 years ago |this is exciting news! and would be a terrible April fools joke
I certainly hope it’s not!
tp
4 years ago |Perhaps it is one of the newly rumored Fuji cameras? The (assumed) higher dynamic range of these might catch a wedding photographers attention.
reverse stream swimmer
4 years ago |With the April fools day imminent, I would guess this is about the rumoured Fujifilm appearance on the mirrorless scene.
Jake
4 years ago |I hate this time of the year (April Fools time), because I genuinely hope that there will be a manufacturer that will have the nerve to produce a “photographers camera” in the Leica-sense but without the Leica-price. Dedicated manual control, large aperture primes with a compact body sporting a full frame sensor (or closer in size than m43).
Somehow I doubt it will happen.
Joe
4 years ago |Oh, wow, can hardly wait … he could at least tell us the price range. If the price is like a Leica, I can forget it and not wait
Miroslav
4 years ago |If that update is correct, then it is not a m43 camera. I suppose it is a FF Canon rangefinder then.
Nathan Bonsal
4 years ago |Canonet?
nug
4 years ago |Epson has the EVF.
Cosina Voigtlander the 35/1.2 lens (m-mount).
They together produced RD1 RF.
Last year they tested the market with bringing it back as RD1x. It took off.
The camera could be Epson RD2 with EVF ‘rangefinder” , Leica m-mount and Canon full frame CMOS.
nug
4 years ago |The price will be half of Leica M9, or 3k.
ljmac
4 years ago |I’m with nug – if this really is a rangefinder and it isn’t a Leica, then it must be a follow-up to the Epson RD1. Nothing else makes any sense at all (unless it isn’t actually a rangefinder at all).
Jimmy
4 years ago |What about a Voightlander Digital Bessa? Seems like they are due for one. Not sure how that would work for AF, but everything else is in place, including the 35mm F1.2.
Ranger 9
4 years ago |Okay, let’s play handicapper. Collating the rumors, it sounds as the mystery camera has a large sensor, a limited range of wide-aperture lenses, non-reflex viewing system, and some type of very fast AF (ruling out a traditional optical rangefinder design.) It’s described as “stealth,” meaning it presumably offers unobtrusive, very quiet operation; most likely it’s targeted at the wedding and photojournalism markets; and given the 35/1.2 normal lens, I assume it will be rather expensive (although maybe not in the Leica M9 category.)
So, who could and would make such a thing?
– Panasonic? They have the technology… but since they’re not an old-line camera company, they have no attachment to the 24x36mm “nostalgia format”, and I think their camera plans are more mass-market oriented. Olympus, the other Micro 4/3 twin, is a long shot; they could do it, but I don’t think they’d want to invest that much money. Samsung, the new EVIL kid on the block, is too mass-market-focused to be interested.
– Epson? They got burned so badly with the R-D 1 — a good but misunderstood camera — that they’ll never go near such a thing again.
– Pentax, Sony, Sigma, etc.? All SLR-invested companies; nothing in it for them.
– Fuji? It seems as if they’ll try anything when it comes to film cameras — 6×7 rangefinder folder, anyone? — but their digital strategy seems too disciplined to take a flyer on this.
That leaves somebody totally out of the blue — Leaf? A resurrected Rollei? Some Chinese company nobody has ever heard of? — but I think the most logical choices are the obvious ones: Canon and Nikon.
Both of the Big Two have enough surplus engineering talent to design this type of product and a line of lenses for it, and both have deep enough roots in the rangefinder tradition to understand the value of a non-SLR professional camera.
– Canon? They just seem too logical for such an “emotional” project. Besides, Ascough is known as a Canon guy… so he’s NOT someone they’d pick to test a super-secret camera they didn’t want anyone to know they were associated with.
– So, my bet is Nikon. Why? Well, they’ve already got a tradition of doing short-run special and niche cameras, everything from the S3 tribute to NASA-modified models. And… I seem to recall a rumor kicking around last year (on Thom Hogan’s site?) that they were mulling a very expensive non-SLR digital camera that would accept a limited line of specially-developed lenses: a “digital SP” concept. And… aren’t they the ones who have the recently-aired patent for phase-detect autofocus driven off the main sensor (rather than separate AF sensors as used on DSLRs)? And compared to Canon, I think they’re a small enough company that they might do it for sheer pride.
We’ll see. But in the meantime, it’s fun to speculate!
don
4 years ago |NUG I think your explanation that this camera may be the the new RD2 by Epson/Cosina sounds the most plausible but maybe a combined venture with Canon participation for the FF CMOS sensor and design of some of the camera parts? If using a m mt or Leica mount then wouldn’t be very good for use with Canons many lenses?
I think the rumor of a electronic shutter and very fast AF seem like an April Fools joke? As far as I know only Pany and Sony have been working hard at getting the electronic shutter into production and only Pany so far been able to get fast contrast AF in operation?
I doubt it is a Pany product as getting the EVF, lenses, and sensors from other manufacturers would reduce the profit but not the prestige. However it might be tempting for Pany to debut the electron shutter in such a camera like a mini L1 to silence the Canikon & Sony bigger is better crowd and then gravitate down into their m4/3 lines. Takes too long to develop the FF lenses for this to be a Pany project and Pany seems to be treading cautiously in contrast to their bold start, but they had better watch out or others will catch up if they delay any further in bringing their revolutionary products to market.
Radis.rut
4 years ago |a “Stealth” Camera that can go invisible? YAY !!
don
4 years ago |Ranger 9 – Correction it was SONY that filed the patent for phase AF on the sensor. This would make sense as they have been working hard on getting an electronic shutter to market and the on sensor phase AF would give them very fast AF. As for lenses they could still procure from Cosina if they didn’t have their own in time. Also Sony is very interested in the prestige that FF brings and they have been reported as being close to bring several new revolutionary models to market including HD video to their DSLRs? Sony also has the resources to do this.
G. Tom
4 years ago |Ranger9: Canon is a very large company with nice R&D budget. If they made a rangefinder-esque body that was FF or APS-C that could use EF lenses (most likely with an adapter) I think there’d be a sizeable demand for it. The demand, of course, would depend on how capable they made the body (ie, general image quality, high ISO performances, short VF blackout times, high FPS, etc etc).
hardwill
4 years ago |look here:
http://43rumors.com/ft3-canon-giii/
morgan
4 years ago |I dare to dream that it is an m-mount full frame true RF (no EVF, but the split image true RF focus system). If it’s and R-D2, that would be killer (my R-D1 is still my main camera these days) but I’m open to anything as long as it’s a true RF focus system.
AndersN
4 years ago |A rangefinder with AF? Like the Contax G series, but digital? Kyocera is still in business, although they haven’t been making cameras for a while.
Billy
4 years ago |Robert McCann is also testing one of these and commented on Rangefinderforum.com.
Due to his NDA, he could only state, “it doesn’t start with a “J”…” now… those of us who like trivia and riddles take this to mean, it’s not a “J”apanese maker… which leaves Voigtlander or Zeiss Ikon.
Billy
4 years ago |Robert McCann’s site: http://sepiareverb.com/splash.html
david Braddon-Mitchell
4 years ago |Um surely you noticed he said it had something like Luminosity Optimizing Optical Focuslines or some such; in any case FOOL backwards
M
4 years ago |A(pril)F(ools) RF camera will be presented tomorrow. This is just a way to draw traffic to his site. Quite sad.