[séamuis]

I don't have a problem with products like Leicas, Lamorghinis and Rolls Royces being unattainable for most of us. It would be a sad old world if we could satisfy all of our wants and have nothing left to dream about.

I want an M9
SUMMICRON-M 28 mm f/2 ASPH
NOCTILUX-M 50 mm f/0.95 ASPH
APO-SUMMICRON-M 75mm f/2 ASPH

there I said it. and damn it all if I don't hate Leica to a small extent because I cant afford any of it.

[Wombat]

I want an M9
SUMMICRON-M 28 mm f/2 ASPH
NOCTILUX-M 50 mm f/0.95 ASPH
APO-SUMMICRON-M 75mm f/2 ASPH

there I said it. and damn it all if I don't hate Leica to a small extent because I cant afford any of it.

Amen, brother.

[B Grace]

The people who appreciate Leicas are those who spent too much time in darkened rooms staring at large B&W prints coming up in developing trays and if you've been there you know where this is going. They're not folks who shoot pro-football games with their $700 Canons or African wildlife on their faux-safaris using their expensive Nikons from the safety of a truck in the refuge. They're not even people who enjoy buying cheap and obscure old lenses that screw onto a modern DSLR. It's all about image texture, transitions, contrast and clarity. Or maybe it was the chemicals back in the day.

If you don't want a Leica M-series camera then don't ever pick one up and shoot with it for a day, especially one of the early M3's. I can afford an M9 kit with one of those wonderful Summilux 50's but I'll never spend the money. Pentax is obsession enough.

[Urkeldaedalus]

Pentax is obsession enough.

This would make for a good ad campaign. Pentax, the obsession for reasonable people. Well, mostly reasonable

[pingflood]

If you don't want a Leica M-series camera then don't ever pick one up and shoot with it for a day

Truer words have never been spoken!

I can't think of a single person I've talked to who tried shooting with an M and didn't end up buying one later.

Just got done "converting" my 50mm frameline screwmount adapter to pull up the 35mm framelines so I can mount the Acall -- 35mm is just a nicer focal length for these cameras, and with the M4-2 you get almost the entire viewfinder filled!

[B Grace]

Truer words have never been spoken!

I can't think of a single person I've talked to who tried shooting with an M and didn't end up buying one later.

Just got done "converting" my 50mm frameline screwmount adapter to pull up the 35mm framelines so I can mount the Acall -- 35mm is just a nicer focal length for these cameras, and with the M4-2 you get almost the entire viewfinder filled!

I had the chance to buy a nice, near-mint condition M3 single-stroke advance preview with a decent 50 Summicron for $1000 maybe nine years ago and I walked on by. Coulda-woulda-shoulda.

[k100d]

Leica M9 and hands-on preview: Digital Photography Review
$7000

Leica X1 and brief hands-on: Digital Photography Review
$2000

expensive but what do you expect ... i think the M9 will sell like hotcakes, the X1 will bomb esp compared to the GF1

[nostatic]

$2000

expensive but what do you expect ... i think the M9 will sell like hotcakes, the X1 will bomb esp compared to the GF1

Not so sure about the X1 bombing. If the iq is up to snuff, it'll sell just fine.

[Blue]

Only $7K . . . where is the pre-order form.

Not so sure about the X1 bombing. If the iq is up to snuff, it'll sell just fine.

A "large" aps-c sensor? Wouldn't that be like an aps-H sensor? I realize there are some minor variations from manufacturer to manufacturer, but size is what determines the designation.

Edit: That X1 is a small cam!

[cyg]

Leica X1 and brief hands-on: Digital Photography Review
$2000

expensive but what do you expect ...

Considering the price of an Elmarit 24mm f/2.8 lens alone, it's almost as if they are throwing in the camera for free...

[nostatic]

Only $7K . . . where is the pre-order form.




A "large" aps-c sensor? Wouldn't that be like an aps-H sensor? I realize there are some minor variations from manufacturer to manufacturer, but size is what determines the designation.

Edit: That X1 is a small cam!

When I first saw this early this am, I thought, "no way, u4/3 will crush it." But I'm warming to the concept. They clearly got a number of things right with the design, and if the IQ delivers, I'll drink my kool aid and buy one as my primary street cam. It is a camera taken back to largely essentials. You want aperture priority? Fine - put the shutter dial (not a reading on an LCD screen) to "A" and spin the aperture dial. You want shutter priority? Put the aperture dial on "A" and spin the shutter dial.

Is it perfect? No - I would prefer that they do like Canon did with the MF wheel and put that on the lens. But you can get an OVF that allows you to still see the AF confirmation light. And the whole camera has a style and aesthetic. And it is pretty darn small. If the lens is up to Leica standards and the sensor/iq is on-par with other current APS-C cameras, it'll likely carve out a nice niche.

I applaud Leica for having the balls to follow their own path instead of chasing the specs of everybody else.

[kmanlaker]

Not so sure about the X1 bombing. If the iq is up to snuff, it'll sell just fine.

i agree --- if it has good IQ then I may have to get on a waiting list. Just this past weekend I was checking out the Oly EP1 and the specs on the new Panasonic micro 4/3, now along comes the X1. And boy does it look nice in the promo shots, except for the price tag ( ouch )

kman

[vinzer]

People just don't get it.

Leica is not in the same market as DSLR companies. It designs carefully made, conservative products. These cost a bomb because of their workmanship and because they sell far fewer units. Any of their great lenses work on any of their cameras, so if you invested four grand thirty years ago you are still using exactly the same glass. That makes the four grand a very good investment.

The camera is a digital rangefinder not a digital SLR. That means it is very good at some things and very bad at others. It is not a general-purpose tool. You will not be using it for macros or telephoto. The M9 does not have auto-focus because that makes little sense on a rangefinder.

All of that said, I think Leica have made some very poor design decisions. On the film cameras you had to take off the bottom plate to load film. I always thought that was stupid, since you can then have to fiddle with three pieces of kit. You might drop the plate, etc. Certainly some sort of hinge system would have been wiser, as only a few Leica lovers will admit.

So what did they do in moving to digital? Kept exactly the same arrangement for loading memory cards. This is dumb beyond belief.

The very idea of a digital Leica seems contrary to their idea of cameras that will last decades. I think, for this price, they should have exchangeable digital backs so you can upgrade as time goes on.

Well-put. My thing is that if ever I did scrounge up the money to buy a Leica, I will do so with the intent to have it as a lifetime camera, knowing the legacy of the brand is in making durable cameras that stand up to abuse for years (like pingflood mentioned earlier).

The question is if today's digital Ms can stand the test of time. The body may be durable, but I'm not so sure about the electronics that go inside of it (and if Leica will support repairs and parts for it long after they've been replaced by newer models), and it may be too much of a stretch to lay down thousands of dollars if ever Leica won't support it that long into the future.

Yes, I know no company supports their products forever, but with the old Leicas (and other precision mechanical cameras in general), they rarely had to if the product didn't have any factory defects from the get-go.

[vinzer]

When I first saw this early this am, I thought, "no way, u4/3 will crush it." But I'm warming to the concept. They clearly got a number of things right with the design, and if the IQ delivers, I'll drink my kool aid and buy one as my primary street cam. It is a camera taken back to largely essentials. You want aperture priority? Fine - put the shutter dial (not a reading on an LCD screen) to "A" and spin the aperture dial. You want shutter priority? Put the aperture dial on "A" and spin the shutter dial.

Is it perfect? No - I would prefer that they do like Canon did with the MF wheel and put that on the lens. But you can get an OVF that allows you to still see the AF confirmation light. And the whole camera has a style and aesthetic. And it is pretty darn small. If the lens is up to Leica standards and the sensor/iq is on-par with other current APS-C cameras, it'll likely carve out a nice niche.

I applaud Leica for having the balls to follow their own path instead of chasing the specs of everybody else.

I'll reserve comments on the unknown image quality, but I think a GF1 would be the more reasonable buy for more people, and it'll probably show up in the sales column (recently at number 7 in DSLR sales charts on the strength of pre-orders alone on Amazon). Of course, the X1 will sell, a lot would probably be from street shooters and those who have grown disenchanted with the DP2, but it will also be buoyed by those people who opted a DLux4 instead of the twin-brother LX3.

The X1's design is refreshing, though, and like you I applaud Leica for going their own way. They've done so since time immemorial.

[pingflood]

Well-put. My thing is that if ever I did scrounge up the money to buy a Leica, I will do so with the intent to have it as a lifetime camera, knowing the legacy of the brand is in making durable cameras that stand up to abuse for years (like pingflood mentioned earlier).

The question is if today's digital Ms can stand the test of time. The body may be durable, but I'm not so sure about the electronics that go inside of it (and if Leica will support repairs and parts for it long after they've been replaced by newer models), and it may be too much of a stretch to lay down thousands of dollars if ever Leica won't support it that long into the future.

Yes, I know no company supports their products forever, but with the old Leicas (and other precision mechanical cameras in general), they rarely had to if the product didn't have any factory defects from the get-go.

I would not consider the digital Leicas to have anywhere near the lifespan of the film ones. As I mentioned earlier there are plenty of Leicas that are seven or eight decades old and still work perfectly fine. The M film bodies have been made since the 50s and hold up quite well. They are still easy to get serviced.

I doubt you will find a working M8 even 20 or 30 years from now though.