Leica M9 later this year

<p>I was speaking to the owner of probably the largest Leica retailer in Australia today, about the options of the D-Lux 4 or the G1 with M adaptor. He asked me to consider the M9 to which I replied that it didn't exist. His reply was:<br>

"well I have a release date, and it is later this year" <br>

"Really?"<br>

"yes"<br>

"Is it full frame"<br>

"Yes it is. I was hoping it would come in around $12 000, but it will likely be closer to $15 000!".<br>

"Too much. How much is the D-Lux 4............."<br>

I cannot find any reference to this anywhere, but this guy is a straight shooter and I have bought a bit of Leica gear from him. I take what he told me at face value. </p>

 

<p>uh la la :)</p>

<p>but... 15.000 USD?!? ouch!</p>

<p>You should speak to the dealer again when he is sober.</p>

<p>I'll save my pennies just in case he is sober. </p>

<p>I would think that Leica has been working on the M9 ever since they made the M8, which is to be expected (who wouldn't). Maybe they'll announce it soon, but their lag bringing the S2 on the market seems not to bode well for an on shelf camera this year....</p>

<p>http://www.welt.de/die-welt/article1418788/Drei_Stufen_Plan_fuer_Leica.html</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Ouch! $15,000 US? I'd rather buy a couple of Nikon D700 bodies, a full assortment of lenses, studio lighting gear, and a vacation to a nice destination.</p>

<p>Leica just isn't a serious contender in digital.</p>

<p>I haven't seen anything about an advance in sensor technology that would allow a FF sensor to work in an M body. </p>

<p>I am afraid Jim is right there will be no M9 any time soon , info already released is for a R10 and even this is two years away.</p>

<p>Maybe he was thinking of the S2. $15k seems like a good price point for that.</p>

<p>My entire camera purchases over the past 40 years (and That includes M3's and R equipment, and numerous medium format stuff, and a complete color darkroom) has not totalled $15000. How can they possibly justify that price for a body only? </p>

<p>No it was AUD$15000, so that would be around US$8-9000.</p>

<blockquote>

<p>.... but their lag bringing the S2 on the market seems not to bode well for an on shelf camera this year....</p>

 

</blockquote>

<p>Could you expand on this further? There has been no "lag" in the S2 program from the schedule announced by Leica at photokina. They have multiple pre-production units in the hands of professionals and are gathering comments from users for the final product "tweaking" prior to full production. Leica has said fall of 2009 for the S2 - I would expect that to mean sometime in November.</p>

<p>On second thought I'll save my pennies for another film scanner if mine dies. My full-frame Leica film cameras will do just fine.</p>

<p>Oh yea? Well, this one time in band camp the drum instructor said one day there would be a M11, price point at around $12,211.00 USD and it would most likely be released in the future. I'm tellin' ya, he told me, he's one of the camps biggest Leica users!!!</p>

<p>Come on already, who cares, enough of this.</p>

<p>Looks like to be one week too late.<br>

I belive what i see, no what i hear (or read on internet). ;)</p>

<p>Just what the world needs haha.</p>

<p>Full frame M Leica is definitely newsworthy, given today there are Zeiss, Voigtländer, Leica M mount lenses available in a great variety. If it is technically feasible, it would probably make me invest in the M system. However, obviously the price can't be real.</p>

<p>All this is irrelevent if Nikon or Canon makes a HD lcd evr (no mirror) that has a short backfocal length that can be adapted to leica M lenses just like D300, D700 and D3x do with manual AIS lenses.</p>

<p>Nikon and Canon want to make money selling Nikkors and EF lenses, absolutely the last thing they want is to make bodies for a high end competitor's lenses. Besides, the microlenses, AA filter, as well as image processing would have to be redesigned to work with rangefinder lenses. And focusing would be practically impossible (no, zooming the image in an LCD is not acceptable for hand-held operation).</p>

<p>If the pricing is true, then the whole digital thing has got out of hand. All it will do is create a resurgance in film...A phenomenon we are seeing here with the Aussie $ at US $0.60 anyway.</p>

<p>Harvey, R mount Leica lenses can already be used on Nikons. I don't think the smaller size of the M lenses is much of an advantage on say a D300 as it is on an M7.</p>

<p>"I was speaking to the owner of probably the largest Leica retailer in Australia today, ... He asked me to consider the M9 to which I replied that it didn't exist. His reply was: 'well I have a release date, and it is later this year' ... I cannot find any reference to this anywhere ..." </p>

<p>You can't verify his story, because it isn't true. We are at least two years away from a FF digital M camera from Leica. In the mean time, Leica is hanging its hopes on the S2 and the yet-to-be released R10.</p>

<p>i didn't say that i could verify it and i won't try, but i don't see that he had any reason to lie to me. i rang him to buy something now (albeit not an M8). He had nothing to gain, but he just seemed excited to tell me about it, as though he had just found out himself. I'm not interested in started a silly rumour, just thought i'd share what i had been told. <br>

FWIW, his estimated price is about 150% of current retail here in Australia.</p>

<p>Stephen is right... make the price $20,000.</p>

<p>i love the idea of a full frame leica rangefinder....but for $15k i'd rather buy an old Porsche 911. </p>