Start saving. Leica have released a proper digital range finder.

[pcolbeck]

Leica M9, full frame sensor and it's a proper range finder. Camera porn here.
Unfortunately it's just a tad exepnsive ....

[Frenchie]

Nice but... Ouch!!

[pcolbeck]

Well it does have a magnesium chassis and that red logo on the front ...

[clarion]

I have a birthday coming up in the next year.  If anyone wants any ideas for presents....

[Frenchie]

Well it does have a magnesium chassis and that red logo on the front ...

I know. 

[pcolbeck]

I have a birthday coming up in the next year.  If anyone wants any ideas for presents....

Then you could get a couple of extra lenses for Christmas too

[TimO]

I think it would be a couple of extra Christmases (actually a lot more than a couple) for a lens.

I've bought two things more expensive than that camera, both of them houses.

[mike]

lovely, but why would you? 

A 5D mark 2 and a bag of lenses, plus a good compact with AF that you cant use with the lens cap on would make much more sense (to me, at least....)

[pcolbeck]

The view finder, it's all about the view finder. And the seriously sexy build quality.

[bomber]

Lovely!

I'll be sticking with autofocus, decent macro, telephoto, cheap accesories and change from a grand mind you

[Tewdric]

Ooooooh.

I had an M6 a few years ago which eventually got sold to fund an underwater SLR housing.  It was a lovely thing.

If my lottery ticket comes up I will be beating a path to the nearest Leica dealer..

[fred the great]

The  Agents for DPR are very expensive when I checked. For example I can buy a Canon 1000 D in Bangkok for roughly half that quoted on the DPR Website.

My experience, some years ago, of Leica and their lenses was fantastic and if money was no object.......

[LEE]

If money was no object I still wouldn't buy it. 

There was something rather magical about the Leica 35mm cameras, like an automatic swiss watch.

This is basically a quartz watch, a box of solid-state electronics, selling for "hand-made" money.

[rogerzilla]

And in 15 years' time you won't be able to get parts to fix it, because they'll have been made by someone else in Japan/China.

You can still get a totally knackered Leica I restored to perfect working order by an ex-Leitz technician for surprisingly little - about £100.

[Tewdric]

If money was no object I still wouldn't buy it.  

There was something rather magical about the Leica 35mm cameras, like an automatic swiss watch.

This is basically a quartz watch, a box of solid-state electronics, selling for "hand-made" money.

That misses the point for me.  Sure, the mechanical Leica Ms were micro-mechanical marvels, but it was the image quality that set them apart.  

The "look" of a Leica-taken image can't be replicated, even with the various Leica bokeh plugins that have become available for various bits of software.  That's about the lenses, not the body.  A digital body worthy of the likes of the 35 f1.4 Summilux is a very significant advance IMHO.  

As an example, here's a shot taken of Mrs B at a winery in the Hunter Valley taken with an M6 and the 35 1.4.  Not a great picture, but illustrates the atmosphere that is unique to Leica pics..

[rogerzilla]

Bokeh?  You need an old Summar at f/2 for the maddest, swirliest bokeh ever.


and a Royal Crescent

http://www.peeble.com/summar3.jpg

but it was designed for black and white

http://www.peeble.com/baby1.jpg

A Red Scale Elmar, on the other hand, is just sharp.

http://www.peeble.com/steam5.jpg

[mike]

there's a new Leica, and it's a world first...

http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-news/2012/05/leica-m-monochrom-review/?utm_source=b8a7hben&utm_medium=E-Mail

the only Black and White **only** camera - no colour mode at all.  You get more ISO sensitivity than an M9, apparently more tonal range and no confusion over if you should be shooting in B&W or colour. 

I love B&W, and quite often convert stuff, but dont miss having to carry coloured filters and wishing I had colour film for that amazing sunset..

Anyone else?

[andyoxon]

There are sample images on DPReview, I wonder what the dynamic range is like.  Some of the highlights look a tad blown*.
http://www.dpreview.com/previews/leica-m-monochrom/4

* probably down to the photographer.  The wooden water butt shots look like an exposure bracket... (on mike's link)

[Charlotte]

Anyone else?

Although you won't see me buying one any time soon (if I wanted a rangefinder, I'd be buying an X-Pro) I think this is a genius idea.  The people who will use it won't care how much it is.

The M9 was always the reportage, travel, candid and street photographer's favourite, but so much of the work that people do in that genre is low light and B&W that it makes sense to have a specialised camera which will shoot scary-sharp all the way up to ISO 10,000.

I was making useable shots at ISO 3200, f/2.8 and 1/8th sec in an auditorium last night (yay VR lenses!) but can you imagine being able to make images at 1/500th and f/8 in the sort of light that you'd usually be working at 1/30th and f/2.8 or more?

Can you imagine shooting this baby with a noctilux? Leica know what they're doing.

[Zipperhead]

But £6000+, muck fe!

[mike]

But £6000+, muck fe!

but it's an investment..... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturenews/9261983/Camera-sells-for-record-1.7-million.html

[rogerzilla]

Seen the prices of used M8 bodies?  Not much compared to new.  An M3 film body is a bit like a Brompton - it has held or increased its value in nominal terms.