I generally agree with Michael's viewpoint (I have an M7 and M8, but haven't yet bought an M9, and now probably won't.)
If you read the Leica forum (
www.l-camera-forum.com) you will find, in addition to discussions of the Leica, discussions of fine fountain pens, fine mechanical watches, Porsche cars, etc. Many Leica people use their cameras for status display, and because of an attachment to mechanical, analog equipment. They buy tradition. And I'm not arguing here that great photographers haven't used the equipment, or that great pictures can't be taken with it -- many have been and continue to be. But the Leica is not a modern camera, and after the market rejection of the M5, which was an effort to modernize to some extent, Leica crawled back into its shell, and essentially refuses to modernize. Leica got burned last time, and I think this has colored the company's whole culture. This is reinforced by customer feedback: I mean, the M8 was literally one or two millimeters thicker than the M7, and some of the traditionalists essentially argued that this made the camera unusable. That is the mentality Leica is dealing with. I will be interested to see what happens with the M10, because here's what I think will happen with the M9: there has been a persistent backlog of orders. I think this might come from people upgrading from M8, but also people upgrading from film, who skipped the M8 because of its problems with filtration and less-and-full-frame sensor size. I think when the backlog is filled, that sales will decline, and fairly rapidly. Then Leica goes to work on the M10. But why would somebody upgrade to the M10, if they already own a FF, CCD, rangefinder Leica? A few more pixels? A little better ISO response? For $8,000 or so? I think the M10 (assuming that Leica simply makes incremental changes) is where the trouble will become obvious.
Anyone who has put a Leica lens on a Panasonic m4/3 camera finds out two things very quickly: it's a little awkward to use the lenses on the camera, because it's not made for them; and there's a brilliant opportunity there to make a terrific camera specifically for Leica lenses, and I think they would sell like hotcakes. Leica could and should make it, but probably won't, not because it wouldn't sell, but because they are too hidebound to do it. Panasonic would be a possibility, except they may fear it would cannibalize their m4/3 success (I doubt that it would -- the cost of Leica lenses would put such a body in a completely different class.) It doesn't so much need an optics-speciality company here, as an electronics company, a Panasonic or Samsung or Sony, to produce a CMOS 1.5x or 1.3x sensor with D3-like ISO response, Live View, clip-on optional viewfinder, internal IS, focus confirm, etc. I mean, ALL The Technology is out there. We've got it NOW. With a good Live View screen and focus confirm, you bring the real possibility of good telephoto and even macro work to the the M-lens system. I would pay $2,000 for the body in an instant. I have a GF1 here, for which I paid less than half that...and the GF1 is so close tothe alternative Leica future that you can almost taste it.
JC
