M8 production ramp-up, how long?

[specular]

OK, if Puts, Askey and the others only have pre-production samples to play with, does that mean we're not going to see M8s in stores this year? Photokina announcements are fine, but how long would it take Leica to ramp-up?

Another question, if the M8 was, say, $1000 less, could Leica keep up with demand?

 

[sunsworth]

I'd imagine that from a hardware point of view what Putts et al have is the finished article. That would have been set in stone a long time ago. What will be different is the firmware.

Leica say they'll ship in November.

 

[Bob Parsons]

I posted these serial numbers on the Leica Camera Users forum:

Leica brochure: N000010
DPR: 3100507
Irwin Puts: 3100677

It looks like the last two are production cameras and it's the firmware that's being tweaked.

Bob.

 

[John Camp]

Firmware is always being tweaked; I would expect Leica to continue tweaking the M8, with firmware upgrades every year or so. Both my D2x and R-D1 have had post-sale upgrades. It's no big deal. Which means that at some point, Leica can simply pronounce the camera ready for sale, even if they realize it may not be in its ultimate form. I expect now (from what Sean has said) that it's very, very close.

If there's any problem at all, it'll be in the physical production of the thing. Even a company as big as Nikon can sometimes be caught off guard, as with the D200, where they apparently were not able to keep up with initial demand, and there were delays in getting the necessary number of cameras to the market.

The Leica seems to be generating a lot of buzz, and if the demand really pops, some people may have to wait. But I expect the first ones to be delivered in November, just as they say. I'm not sure that if someone were to go to Leica now, and ask when he could get a camera, that Leica could tell him for sure.

JC

 

[Ted Witcher]

The Leica guy at Samy's said they are waiting to have the inventory built before they release -- whatever that first run number is, perhaps 10,000. He said November, as others have mentioned.