Only 9 years to go for the 100th anniversary

<p>2025 will be the 100th anniversary of the first Leica. It will be 100, I will be 90.<br>

I've been using them for nearly 65 years, and have definitely decided that, when the time comes, I'm going to have one (even if it bankrupts me). For my 50th birthday I gave myself an anniversary edition CL (NOS from Tamarken).<br>

I wonder what they will have in store for us in 2025? Something incredible, or perhaps reissue copies of the Leica A -- that would be my choice.<br>

What's YOUR idea?</p>

<p>When I was shooting as an amateur I always hankered after Leicas, could not afford them and so had a Voightlander. Sold all my 35mm film gear when I turned professional. I would, one day, want to shoot a wedding with a Leica, maybe, 2025 would be the year when I would be able to buy one and try it out!</p>

<p>I'll be 50, give or take. By then, the M will still be around. I'm sure you will be too, Bill! But I'm pretty sure DSLRs won't be - including the Leica S.</p>

<p>Only 37 years use, but will be 78. I hope M still around, but also DSLR's, which I find just so impressive. The thing with existing lenses made me go digital M; now I have a few very suitable EOS lenses that do just what I want; again why change.</p>

<p>I'll be 55. - I thought I am saving up for a used 4th incarnation of the Monochrom, that I hoped to be available around that time. - But with no post-240 color M announced on Photokina, I'm starting to wonder if Leica put the M system development on a back burner and I might have to settle for something else.<br>

With unexpected wealth at hand I might go for an SL. <br>

Remaining a realistic pessimist: The best idea for Leica would be to offer <strong>Anniversary lens</strong> <strong>caps</strong>! - Even I could splurge on one for a favorite lens.<br>

BTW: I don't share Karim's prediction about DSLRs. They might become less common but compared to consumer obstinacy 9 years are too short to change the world.</p>

<p>When Mozart was my age, he had been dead for 40 years.<br>

I hear that he is still dead.<br>

When Leica is 100, I guess he'll have been dead for around 234 years or so.</p>

 

<p>A new digital version of the Leica 1? Depending how you look at it, Leica will still be either a pinnacle of cameradom, or a plaything for rich "know littles". To be honest, as a Leicaphile, I am not sure quite what the company represents today - incomparable optics and ridiculous prices (as it was back the days of film), but somewhat uninspiring electronics (not a consideration in film days)? So how will Leica be viewed in 2025? The electronics may have settled down by then (everything will be "good enough"), so Leica may have regained its status as a genuinely aspirational brand, something I feel it has lost in the last 15-20 years.</p>

<p>I'd like to point out that once upon a time, Leicas weren't all that absurdly expensive, but were quite competitive with the high quality NIKON products.</p>

<p>Agree, even 20 years ago they were expensive, but not crippling.</p>

<p>At 72 I've been using Leica gear for over 49 years along with lots of other gear. These days I'm too poor to afford digital Leica gear, so I just keep using up the bulk film in my fridge with the Leicas, and use 2nd hand digital gear with some of my Leica lenses. Years ago I was ecstatic when the Silicon Film scheme was originally announced...as it meant I could use my old bodies and get digital results. Well, we all know how that one ended. The DMR inspired me to get an M8, but then I couldn't get my hands on a DMR so sold it. So these days, I read new photo gear announcements daily, then go out and shoot with what I have, trying to improve my technique, and come home usually satisfied with my "older" stuff.</p>

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<p>So these days, I read new photo gear announcements daily, then go out and shoot with what I have, trying to improve my technique, and come home usually satisfied with my "older" stuff.</p>

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<p>Well I for one have become totally disinterested in the annoying "camera of the month announcement" routine, and like Stephen am quite happy working with my old Canon, Nikon and Leica film items, plus the (very) occasional digital usage of a D300s and D700.</p>

<p>I will be 57 then. I think the changes will be more advances in connectivity and in ways I can't predict. I recall about 15 years ago wishing for a very small very high quality (equal to my best film) affordable digital camera that could use either my Nikon or Leica lenses and a small affordable note book computer where I could plug in a card and see my pictures. Furthermore I thought it would be cool to be able to economically and easily look at them on one of those big fancy expensive slim plasma screen televisions that had come out. This was all possible but not simple or economical, so I waited. I even got an HDTV about 2004, but it didn't have an HDMI port. They were not standard yet, so at the end of the television's life, it still wasn't easy to get the most out of it.</p>

<p>So my point is that in actual use, the common 24 MP sensors of today are not necessarily so significant compared to the 6 MP sensors of 12 years ago or so. What is amazing is that I can take a picture with my Sony NEX 6 (purchased used) and wifi it to my iphone 6s anywhere and then email a high quality picture in about 1 minute. Or I can take the card out of the camera and install it in my slim 11.6" touch screen Dell two-in-one notebook that cost just $400 and not $2,000.., and you can find a wi fi zone anywhere. Or I can hook the laptop to my $400 40" LED TV because they both have HDMI ports, or for that matter I can hook the NEX 6 directly to that TV with an HDMI mini to regular adapter and watch videos playing directly from the camera. In fact, I carry the adapter everywhere because I can go to almost anybody's home, shoot some video or pictures, and you can count on them having something connected to their TV with an HDMI cord, so I just use it to plug in my camera. I am not into any of the social media sites (for some reason), but I enjoy documenting life and sharing it with people and saving my work, and that is all unimaginably easy now. I held out of using mainly digital equipment for years because what I thought I wanted to do was just not popular, practical, or possible, but then all of the sudden it was, so I dove in. I so adored slide photography, but then when I could do what digital allows, finally slides lost a lot of their relevance to what I wanted to do. That is probably because I always wanted to document beautifully, and digital allowed me to do more of it. One might argue that the artful care is lost with the bulk shooting ease of digital, but I would instead say a little of the mystery and luck is gone, but I get more great images than ever before when film and developing cost and not seeing what you got before-hand were factors.</p>

<p>In 9 years I would guess we will just be further down the road where imagery is more of a part of our immersion in our every movement more than it is part of classic photography or even documentary photography as we know it now. I recently disappointed my home security system salesman when I told him I don't want cameras in my house. Maybe as time goes by, whatever I am afraid of will feel fine. I guess I would say it isn't a question of what is new; it is a question of what we will be able to do with things we are already familiar with.</p>

<p>It is possible that Leica will offer a few absurdly priced "Centenary" models. While Leica are historically important, they are just another camera maker.</p>

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<p>9 years are too short to change the world.</p>

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<p>Digital cameras changed the world in less time than that. The iPhone changed it in less than two hours.<br>

<br>

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-has-story-kodaks-demise-got-do-third-sector-lucy-gower</p>

<p>I'll be 75, so still in me prime :D .<br>

I think Leica will be busy re-inventing <strong>M</strong> film cameras. Let them - I have no intention of buying new Leica film equipment anytime soon.</p>

<p>How about a gold-trimmed leather hotshoe cover like Nikon's?: http://petapixel.com/2015/08/06/nikon-announces-a-new-black-and-gold-leather-hot-shoe-cover/<br>

Because you wouldn't want a naked hotshoe. I'm sure Leica could bring this in for under $100.</p>

<p>Leica will have a traveling show where anyone with the $5,000 admission can take images of quaint Leica cameras using their OrganicCom® infinity meg sensor, Smarty-Pants® cell phones ... images that are Adobe AutoPro® edited and processed then instantly transmitted to the entire world via SkittleShuttle® where they appear for no more 5 seconds ... (Andy Warhol's "15 minutes of fame" reduced to a more modern 5 seconds).</p>

<p>Leica will also sell $10,000 T-Shirts.</p>

<p>: -)<br>

</p>

<p>It is possible that they will reissue their spectacular gold and rosewood Leica with its famous 50mm f/3.5 gold Elmo lens. </p>

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<p>MMM This will presumably be at the end of the second term of President Trump, therefore all American citizens will be able to afford a <em>spectacular gold and rosewood Leica with its famous 50mm f/3.5 gold Elmo lens.</em></p>

<p>In regards to pricing (Bill Mitchell) I've been buying Leicas for a while now. I bought a new black chrome M4 in (about) 1976 for $600. That was not cheap nor inexpensive. When the 50 Jahre black chrome M4 came out about a year or so later they'd raised the price to $650. I considered that quite expensive. Mark's Photo in Grand Rapids, Michigan had two of them with consecutive serial numbers. I have always (somewhat) regretted not buying both of the 50 Jahre M4's. But *that* was a lot of money back then. My first Leica M2 (1966) was (all used) $150, 21mm f4.0 + finder $160, 35mm Summaron f3.5 $25, Leicameter (not much) and Leicavit MP $25.00. All bought with money I earned freelancing for local newspaper as a teenager. I had already owned Nikon rangefinders and didn't like them very well. (The Nikon F was fine). After the Leica M2 there was no going back to the Nikon rangefinders. Nice cameras but not built like a Leica. Back to topic I have priced out an ala-carte M240 so I could get 50 Jahre engraved for MY 50 years with Leica but it's a bit pricey. I hope all of you are well and shooting a lot of photographs!</p>