Rangefinders

I agree with the comment that rangefinders have great future in digital photography.

Pretty soon they can substitute reflex cameras, provided electronic viewfinder will be as comfortable as viewfinder in SLR.

Except for EVF Limiting factor for now at least one more problem needs to be addressed.

Sensor is less sensitive to the light beams striking it at sharp angles. Regular lens design, customary for rangefinders and even for some SLRs, is not suitable here, provoking digital vignetting because light is at frame edges light is deflected sharply. As soon as lens design and sensor design will be improved, and/or noise level brought down (which will allow to increase amplification for peripheral pixels without visible noise and loss of sharpness), rangefinders may become quite popular.

In detail the explanation can be found at Joseph S. Wisniewski site:
http://swissarmyfork.com/digital_lens_faq.htm

see chapter "Longer "throw"'.