Huss
Mentor
And yet Nikon felt to note Leica's 'energy' as the reason why they brought the S3 2000 to market.
https://imaging.nikon.com/history/chronicle/history-s3/index.htm#id03
css9450
Mentor
I have a hard time believing Leica had any "energy" in the 1990s. Didn't they almost discontinue the M line some years earlier? The author of that article could have just as easily said "Contax" instead of "Leica" so I suppose if he did, we'd now be thanking Contax for the S3 2000. We don't even know if the author knew any other "old camera brands" besides Leica.
micromontenegro
Well-known
But we need to thank Contax for the S3 2000...
Leica wasn't behind the energy directly, per se; it was consumers "driven by the surge of enthusiasm for Leica and other classic cameras"
Huss
Mentor
Weird then that Nikon directly mentions Leica.
Why is that weird?
The quote refers to consumer enthusiasm for classic cameras; other companies noticed it too at about the same time, such as Konica, who introduced the Hexar AF in 1993 and the RF in 1999. And then came the 'rangefinder renaissance' that is well-documented on the cameraquest site.
Leica during most of the 90s wasn't doing much related to Ms, other than special edition M6s for the collector market. Very late in the decade they started offering the 0.85 viewfinders in the M6 Classic, but that was one of the very few technical changes during that period. Right after this the TTL was released.
During this time there were many users urging Leica to finally catch up with AE, but that was not until the 2000s.
The quote refers to consumer enthusiasm for classic cameras; other companies noticed it too at about the same time, such as Konica, who introduced the Hexar AF in 1993 and the RF in 1999. And then came the 'rangefinder renaissance' that is well-documented on the cameraquest site.
Leica during most of the 90s wasn't doing much related to Ms, other than special edition M6s for the collector market. Very late in the decade they started offering the 0.85 viewfinders in the M6 Classic, but that was one of the very few technical changes during that period. Right after this the TTL was released.
During this time there were many users urging Leica to finally catch up with AE, but that was not until the 2000s.
furcafe
Mentor
Semantics man, semantics! Classic cameras including (but not limited to) Leica. The early to mid 1990s was the peak of the bubble in Japan, and all the guys in their 40s and 50s who were feeling rich were buying up all the cameras they couldn't afford to buy when they were younger. Neither translation is referring to the M6
Interesting back story to this translation (well, as far as I'm concerned). I think it was about 2007 or so when this article and the one on the SP 2005 were posted in Japanese on the now defunct Nikon archives website (the articles have long since been deleted). Since the articles contained a wealth of information I expected English translations to follow soon after, but none did so almost a year later I translated them myself and posted them on the NHS website. Shortly afterwards, I casually mentioned my translations to the guy in charge of the Nikon archives, and he responded by telling me to take them down. Ooops, that didn't go as planned. Anyway, I did, but before I did, he copied them and used them as a base for his own translations, which are on the Nikon website to this day. Oh well, and least those translations turned out better than the translations that usually get posted.
BTW most Nikon collectors consider the SP to be the pinnacle of Nikon RFs. After copping so much flak for making a reissue of the lowly S3 instead of an SP, Nikon ended up having to appease its fans and make a reissue SP anyway. Oh and the SP has parallax correction.
Thanks for the backstory. I always wondered what the deal was with those article archives!
furcafe
Mentor
Agreed, granted the imperfect translations, but the quote is "enthusiasm for/popularity of Leica and other classic cameras", not "enthusiasm from Leica . . ." I suppose Leica should be given some credit for simply having stayed in business & continuing to make RF cameras, but that's not quite the same as them doing anything to re-energize or popularize RFs in the '90s or early 2000s.
BTW, being the owner of both the S3 2000 & SP 2005 sets, I've always felt that Nikon got the lenses wrong--I find the 35/1.8 to be easier to use on the S3 & the 50/1.4 "Olympic" easier on the SP.
Filter Factor
Established
You're reading too much significance into a single word taken from what otherwise is an extremely interesting article. Yes, they could have mentioned Contax instead, which actually might have been a more appropriate "inspiration" seeing how closely the Nikon rangefinders resemble those early pre-war Contaxes (including of course the lensmount and the lens' focusing direction). But Contax is long since dispatched to the dustbin of camera history and they instead have mentioned the "other" big German contemporary from the same era, Leica.
Had the article made NO mention of another camera brand at all, we'd all be laughing silly at any suggestion they built the S3 2000 because of all the surging admiration of the Leica.
I think my translation is closer to the original Japanese (which I'm pretty sure included the phrase "ライカなどのクラシックカメラ"). Yes, Leica is directly mentioned, but its just a qualifier that modifies "classic cameras" and the sentence still works as a sentence if "such as Leica" is removed, so "such as Leica" is not a part of the core sentence/meaning.
"In the spring of 1994, the popularity of classic cameras such as Leica was extremely high, so Mito Nikon started a new project to reissue a camera recognized as the pinnacle of Nikon, a rangefinder camera."
"In the spring of 1994, the popularity of classic cameras was extremely high, so Mito Nikon started a new project to reissue a camera recognized as the pinnacle of Nikon, a rangefinder camera."
Huss
Mentor
Not relevant because Nikon on their own volition mentioned Leica.
Nikon introduced the S3 remake in 2000. The same era the Leica was making and selling the M6.
The denial that this is what happened is kinda funny, because that is the reason Nikon gave. And everyone can see that. I'm not making this stuff up peeps! It's on Nikon's website.
Huss
Mentor
This I agree with.
Filter Factor
Established
Filter Factor
Established
If the M6 really had anything to do with the re-issue Nikon rangefinders, why then did Nikon faithfully recreate a camera from the 1950s? Why not a Contax G2 or Konica Hexar-style modern rangefinder instead? Had they done that, I'd have no problem agreeing the M6 was the inspiration. But no, they recreated one from the 1950s instead. You know, just like the classics.... Leica M2 and M3 and screwmounts, Contax I and II, Canon and Nicca's excellent LTM clones, etc. I'm just not drinking enough Leica Kool-Aid to specifically "thank" Leica for the S3 2000.
I’m just glad that Nikon green-lighted the project.
Something similar is unlikely to ever happen again...
bayernfan
Well-known
Just purchased an S3 2000 (new in box). I'm very familiar with classic Ms (2,3,4), having used them for several years now. This will be my first Nikon RF experience and I'm pretty excited.
MikeL
Go Fish
I’m just glad that Nikon green-lighted the project.
Something similar is unlikely to ever happen again...
Wait, R, no SPX 2020? Arrrgh!
RObert Budding
D'oh!
Inspired by Leica? If so, then I’m relieved that we didn’t get a Hermès Edition S3.