Come on Leica, let's be fair...

[Ian]

Dodgy marketing blurb does get under my skin and this time it's Leica's website and its page on the new Leica M-E. Here is a section:

Uncompromising image quality

The Leica M-E features an 18-megapixel high-resolution CCD sensor in full 35 mm format. The sensor is perfectly attuned to its role in the very compact M-System and the superior performance of M-Lenses. The special layout of the micro lens makes it tolerant of oblique light rays impinging on its surface, and guarantees uniform exposure and extreme sharpness from corner to corner in every image. The omission of the otherwise usual low-pass filter reduces the need for digital post-processing and ensures that images possess a particularly natural visual impact.


Uncompromising? Well, the sensor is quite old by digital sensor standards and several APS-C and even Micro Four Thirds sensors can match or beat the Leica sensor, let alone more modern full frame sensors.

I'm sorry, but off-set microlenses on the sensor cannot guarantee "uniform exposure and extreme sharpness from corner to corner in every image.

[Bob Ross]

Re: Come on Leica, let's be fair...

Hi Ian,
They knew you would be reading it
Otherwise, you are mostly right within the usual parameter questions of: "At what magnification?" and "At what light intensities(ISO)?"
The CCD is indeed nicely aged like a fine ale....it began its life in our Oly E-1s, which still has a cult following. The data depth is a bit better than the E-1 and the color pallet is different and more pixels, of course.
You are right about the off-set microlenses. They only get things into the zone where they can be digitally corected to the parameters give by the lens coding. If there were long teles, there might be some problem creating to match the problem solving at the wide end.
The absence of the AA filter on my M8 hasn't produced any ugly stuff and moire is mostly a non-issue for me. My E-3 produced moire where the M8 wouldn't. You can get moire, if you work at it. What the lack of an AA filter has meant for me is that I have to watch out when sharpening. It is really easy to over do it.
You are right, they don't have to stretch notions.
Bob

[John Perriment]

Re: Come on Leica, let's be fair...

It surprises me that they use this type of marketing hype because I would have thought the market they are aiming at is far more discerning than that. Those photographers are likely to buy a Leica for very different reasons than wether it's actually got the best sensor or not.

[Ian]

Re: Come on Leica, let's be fair...

John sums it up well - I just don't see this type of marketing-speak being appropriate for the kind of audience Leica is targeting. Someone who buys a Leica does so for reasons that rise above all that.

Ian