The pro camera by Leica will be the S2 for the high megapixel market. There are many professionals using the M8, mainly in the wedding/reportage section, but for Leica that is not their core market.
When I had an M8, I sought out info that would lead me to believe that I was not alone in using it professionally, it is what I wanted to believe so that is where my bias was.
But since I really do meet a lot of photographers through various ways and paths, what you state above is simply not true, especially in this new economy. A few pros here and there use the M8, not *many* as you have stated above. This is mostly due to a bad reputation in reliability and cost compared to other systems.
I wish I could afford the luxury of M8.2 at 6K+ but in all honesty, I can't. I am skeptical of the future economy and not only want to stay debt free, I want to keep stuffing capitol in the bank in lieu of this world worsening. Maybe down the road a full frame, IR filter and bug free M9 would get 8K from me, but not the current incarnation for the current price.
You see, most photographers who earn a respectable living are affected by this crunch. For example, Tribune Media is going bankrupt soley due to the loss of ad revenue. All publications / media are feeling large drops in ad revenue, I talk to many of them. Ad revenue is down the past two quarters an amount that is so scary, no one wants to publish the figure in fear of it worsening the sector confidence level.
This is not just stuff I read on the Yahoo home page, it is what I hear through direct contact with people in the business for real. And this is the global economy by the way, not just the U.S....
So what does all this mean in terms of an M9?
Simple, all companies are afraid of their customer taking a lot longer to return than they would like, so they too, cut spending just like the rest of us. We all scale back into safety mode, some more than others...
Cameras are not food, water or air quality, they are cameras, pretty low on the human scale of basic survival. I can do my job pretty well with FAR less than I have right now and so can many shooters who are both talented & pragmatic.
So R&D slows down if demand does, pretty simple. Companies need that ROI to keep out the red let alone pay shareholders. So expect the cycle for a new M this time around to be a bit longer.....and possibly a lot longer if the economy stays conservative.
RFF and the Leica forums are not Leica's primary customer base, just part. Start looking for even more clues in the bigger picture as to how a company like Leica is thinking right now.
And from what I gather from the shooters I know who were even considering the S2 system at one time, they are no longer.
With products having glitches on intro, the time it might take Leica to actually have stock AND the big drop in ad revenues, there is simply NO way any of these guys are plunking money into a totally unproven and very expensive new medium format system by Leica. This is what they are telling me anyway. These photographers and their clients are more than happy with the look of all the glass and options high MP cameras like the 1DS-III and others have at a fraction of the cost. Some elite names may buy it, some will be given it on permanent loan like Leica did with the M8.
Personally, I doubt the S2 will be able to weather the current economic storm, it is just too much investment with horrible market timing. By the time the S2 actually hits the shelves if at all, the 1DSV will be announced with an appropriate stable of new glass to match it's 30+MP sensor and brand new body design.
So as much as I hate to say it, I am concerned about the future of leica. People seem to think that history will continue to repeat it self...who in the hell says it has to? New times yield new results.
By the way, I am very grateful to be doing decent in light of the economy. The biggest reasons for this is that I have stayed out of debt, have avoided the stock market since 9/11, put money away and liquidated some luxury assets like the M8 that did not carry their weight in my tool box to further infuse capitol.
I am also protecting the pricey Kodachrome Project by keeping liquid...I have full frame film M's and Kodachrome to keep my R/F fix at bay.
Any new digital R/F can easily wait, I am not the least bit saddened by that....
