For those of you who wanted a Leica M9

[rogerzilla]

It's now only £3,700 (from £5,000).  OK, it's the new M-E without a USB socket (which no-one uses) or a frame preview lever (likewise, and wasn't on early M3 bodies) but it is otherwise identical.

http://uk.leica-camera.com/photography/m_system/m-e/

It's only £500 more than a film M7 now, which makes it sound rather reasonable.

Leica has form for this sort of thing; the M2 was supposed to be the cheapie version of the M3 but is just as well made and it turned out that most people preferred its 35mm framelines anyway.  Nowadays they sell for the same money, secondhand.

[Charlotte]

Nice, very nice.  But I think I'd still rather have a Fuji, two good lenses and the change.

[mike]

gotta love leica, imagine the product development meetings:

> so, the M9s been out a couple of years, we should probably update it.

> no, just change the colour, leave off a couple of bits, call it something different and chop 1/4 off the price.  People'll love it.  We'll sell even more lenses.

> Super.

[rogerzilla]

The M line had a bizarre history:

M3: the ne plus ultra of 35mm cameras, only affordable new by millionaires
M2: cheap version with a simpler frame counter (gosh!) and 35/50/90 framelines instead of 50/90/135
M4: OK, people preferred the M2 framelines so we'll sort of combine the M3 and M2 and make it a bit uglier
M5: let's make something the size of Adele's arse for a laugh to see if anyone buys it
M6: no...so let's make the M4 again with an extra frameline
M6 TTL: we'll make the shutter dial go the wrong way to piss everyone off
M6 Classic: OK, you can have it going the other way again
M7: the world might finally be ready for an electronic shutter again
MP: or not
M8: Look!  A digicam!  But with a 1.5x crop factor so we can sell lots of wide lenses
M9: OK, a proper digicam.  But it'll cost ya.

[Efrogwr]

The M line had a bizarre history:

M3: the ne plus ultra of 35mm cameras, only affordable new by millionaires
M2: cheap version with a simpler frame counter (gosh!) and 35/50/90 framelines instead of 50/90/135
M4: OK, people preferred the M2 framelines so we'll sort of combine the M3 and M2 and make it a bit uglier
M5: let's make something the size of Adele's arse for a laugh to see if anyone buys it
M6: no...so let's make the M4 again with an extra frameline
M6 TTL: we'll make the shutter dial go the wrong way to piss everyone off
M6 Classic: OK, you can have it going the other way again
M7: the world might finally be ready for an electronic shutter again
MP: or not
M8: Look!  A digicam!  But with a 1.5x crop factor so we can sell lots of wide lenses
M9: OK, a proper digicam.  But it'll cost ya.

Did you miss out the M Monokrom deliberately? It's a commercial dead-end, a fine example of technological arrogance, an answer looking for a question or a brilliant idea. I'd like to try one and find out!

[rogerzilla]

I could live with an M Monokrom except that it doesn't have a low enough ISO (320!) to use in the normal Leica style, i.e. full aperture and feel the bokeh.  ND filters mandatory.

[Efrogwr]

Bugger!

 E Minor's trust fund is safe then.

[geraldc]

Good write up in the Guardian though...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/photography-blog/2012/dec/28/leica-m-e-rangefinder-photography

[rogerzilla]

It's the ultimate champagne socialist camera