Last Hurrah for Leica?

dpreview.com reports that Leica is prepping its 10 megapixel digital camera back for the R8 and R9 film cameras. The back is scheduled to be released on June 15. The back has a focal length extension factor of 1.37, however buffering and frames per second data was not reported on Leica’s website as of this writing.

This is a hybrid solution: a digital back that works on a film-based camera. Over the years a few other companies have tried to release similar digital backs for Nikon and Canon cameras, but most have failed miserably. The biggest problem with most of the failed hybrid solutions so far has been: 1) high price for poor performance in terms of picture quality as well as speed; 2) poor integration with camera. I will be following Leica’s product closely to see whether it bucks the trend. For this digital back to succeed, Leica must price it attractive enough for R8/R9 owners; my guess is if it costs more than $3000, many Leica owners will defect by purchasing a 6 or 8 megapixel Canon/Nikon/Pentax DSLR with one or two very nice lenses and still get change back. It will be crucial for Leica to retain those loyal customers by pricing it no more than $2000. (But if Leica’s history of pricing is any guide, I really doubt the digital back would be under $2500.)

So my general feeling for the future of this digital back is not good. It will probably be too expensive, and that given that the number of R8/R9 users don’t seem to generate the same economies of scale as Nikon/Canon SLR users, one must wonder what percentage of that already small number of users will want to purchase this digital back. Time will tell.

New IDEO book, Thoughtless Acts

New IDEO book, Thoughtless Acts:

Quoting from David Pescovitz of boingboing:

Thoughtless Acts is an excellent little photo book from the brilliant minds at IDEO. Janet Fulton Suri, who directs human factors design at IDEO, compiled dozens of photographs illustrating how “we adapt, exploit, and react to things in our environment; things we do without really thinking.” From the introduction:

“Some actions, such as grabbing onto something for balance, are universal and instinctive. Others, such as warming hands on a hot mug or stroking velvet, draw on experiences so deeply embodied that they are almost unconscious. Sill more, such as hanging a jacket to claim a chair, have become spontaneous through habit or social learning. Observing such everyday interactions reveals subtle details about how we relate to the designed and natural world. This is key information and inspiration for design, and a good starting point for any creative initiative.”

The (Flash) Web site has a nice preview of the book and invites you to submit your own thoughtless acts to the growing collection. Still, the hardcopy, published by Chronicle Books, is a beautifully-designed objet d’art that’s well worth the cover price. And Suri’s essay at the end of the book reveals some of the lessons we can learn by opening our eyes to this fun and often-unconscious form of reality hacking.

Link

90 seconds

asahi.com raised raised an interesting question regarding last week’s train accident in Western Japan (article in Japanese): is the Japanese culture too obsessed with being on time? The train accident may have been caused by the driver who had done excessive speeding to make up for being just 90 seconds off schedule. In the article, asahi.com points out that in the N.Y., a subway train is only considered late if it is 5 minutes over its schedule when it reaches its terminal station, and in England, 4 minutes. Did JR’s (and on a broader scale, Japan’s) obsession with time indirectly caused the driver to speed up, which in turn caused the accident?

Having seen how the Japanese train system works in big cities I don’t think there is an easy answer to that one. Millions of people depend on the system every day and a late train could mean loss of productivity for thousands of companies, not to mention affecting the schedule of later trains. There is really no other way to run the system except to keep every train on time to the very minute. Having said all that, all train operators should remember that nothing is above the safety of the passengers, even if that means one might lose his job for being late.

But back to Japanese puntuality: most of my Japanese friends would go through all the trouble to synchronize their car clocks to a radio station’s hourly chime, instead of just looking at the watch and adjust the car clock to some time that is close enough. So many times riding in their respective cars, I have always gotten a kick out of watching the minutes of the clock turn :00 at the same time the radio station emits the hourly chime.

And once I asked a Japanese friend why don’t people in Japan set their watches five or ten minutes ahead of the standard time so that they give themselves a cushion to get to work or school a bit early. I remember my Japanese friend replied that after a while he would probably forget that it was set early and think that it was the standard time. (Isn’t that the point though?)

Meet the Fockers

A while back a friend, upon learning that I had become a father, told me to watch this movie.

It took a while, but I finally saw the DVD yesterday. My friend was right: the movie is funny when it gets into all those baby jokes. Seeing Robert De Niro act as an uptight, ex-CIA grandfather who works extremely hard to Ferberize his grandson is funny.

Most critics, however, gave thumbs down to the movie. I guess most of them are not parents.