RichC
Well-known
I'm a pro - well, photography is one service my company offers - and I guarantee that if the M9 features were stripped down much more, let alone losing the LCD, I'd walk away.
In fact, MORE pros would be attracted to the digital M if it had more features whilst retaining its core features (top-end image quality at normal ISOs from a compact optical rangefinder with manual controls): pros want convenience not nostalgia - cf the well thought out controls of the Leica S2 (which concentrates on traditional still image capture and thus lacks extras like face capture, video, blah, blah).
That said, Leica only has the resources for one digital M at a time and it can either concentrate on its traditional users (and thus we have the minimalist M9 - and it is minimalist compared with every other digital camera) or create a digital M with the aforementioned core features that appeals to photographers who are used to or want the convenience of a modern camera (I'm not talking about making a competitor to a dSLR but a tool that's a usable alternative or companion camera).
Leica is, probably wisely, concentrating at present on those who want a traditional M fitted with a digital sensor, but as old-fashioned film cameras with their minimalist and anachronistic technology disappear into landfills and display cabinets, and people become increasingly used to modern digital cameras, they will want a camera that works more like the mainstream.
I took up photography a handful of years ago, and have never used film in my life,* and although I use a Leica M8, I have a love-hate relationship with it because I find it too basic since I'm used to Japanese cameras with their automation. I'm not alone, and most photographers I know consider my camera so basic as to be unusable: I belong to the local camera society, which has about 150 members (including quite a few pros) - three members have Leica Ms (one M7 + two M8s), only about a dozen still use film and only two still shoot film exclusively (and they're in their 70s). And the society's membership is pretty representative of photographers as a whole.
Leica stuck to its (traditional) guns for its manual focus SLR series, the Leica R, and even went as far as developing a digital module for it. I've heard that both the camera and module excel (though the latter's somewhat dated now). But look where tradition got it: dwindling sales. The Leica R series is now dead.
The Leica M will go the same way unless Leica gives people what they want rather than what it thinks they want. That means a Leica M with more features, not fewer.
In short, an LCD-less "Leica M9P" is a truly ridiculous idea...
[* I confess I developed an interest in film for a short time, and bought a couple of film cameras, but lost interest and haven't used them. I doubt I will ever use film in my life.]
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