New range of Leica cameras .

[Gary Sandhu]

I'd be happy with a lighter, plasticky version of the M

 

[Godfrey]

This is good news for those of us with ancient eyes, i.e. eyes that can no longer manually focus very well. I do hope that Leica's first venture into Autofocus will do better than Nikon's first venture into Autofocus. The first F3 to autofocus did not do it very well.

Just a minor point: the Leica S cameras and lenses are a totally modern, built for digital, "larger than 35mm FF" DSLR with auto focus, etc. So this would certainly not be Leica's first venture into an AF system camera... 🙂

It all sounds great, pretty much what I've been expecting. That said, I'm pretty happy with the Leica M cameras I have now (or hopefully will have soon, meaning the MM246 body), so I personally am in no rush whatever to buy another. And as long as whatever they produce in this vein does not obsolete my Leica M lenses, I have the option of buying a body and enjoying it with my current lenses until such time as I feel moved to buy an AF lens or two.

(Just like I'm doing with the Nikon F6: I see no reason not to use my current AI, AI-S, and AI'ed lenses on it, but have added two new AF lenses as well. 🙂

G

 

[Aristophanes]

This seems like a good move by Leica if it comes to pass.

http://cameratimes.org/leica-will-announce-new-camera-system-september/

Sony's lead in sensor tech is far ahead of anyone else right now. I strongly doubt any other company can leapfrog their output and tech specs.

Therefore I don't give a lot of credence to that part of the rumour.

 

[Range-rover]

This is great news, and I just got back into Leica again

 

[newsgrunt]

pardon me for laffing but better hi iso than Sony ? not holding my breath on that one lol

I don't even want to imagine the price structure for this rumoured camera system.

 

[Fraser]

pardon me for laffing but better hi iso than Sony ? not holding my breath on that one lol

I don't even want to imagine the price structure for this rumoured camera system.

By the time it's available on the high street it will be a couple of years behind Sony/canon/nikon. At least the company is trying to move forward its about time they offered an m with autofocus.

 

[Lss]

If whatever is coming works well with M lenses, I am interested as a potential customer.

 

[leicapixie]

In a way if it's true, wonderful new era..🙂
Reality, look how slow the growth of the Leica S2,
and the promised lenses.
A Hasselblad adapter made as the lens selection really poor.
The slow repair of M-digitals, the obvious sensor difficulties,
plus QC , often lacking.
Truth is with so many new models all the time from all the makers,:bang:
QC seems last on their minds..
German design has never accomplished inexpensive.
The design of the Leica CL a case in point.
One can shift blame to Minolta, but "Leica" was stamped and charged for..
I love how so many "push" the EVF and touch screen.
Well the one I cannot tolerate, the other, I am invisible!
Beware of what you wish for..

 

[newsgrunt]

What they shld think about doing is shrinking the S2 down to trad 35mm ff instead of competing M cameras. There's moving forward but this sounds like it'll either flop or decimate the M system.

 

[Michael Markey]

I`m not so sure ...I think its inevitable that they will move away from the RF system whilst still providing for the manual lenses.

The technology is there to able to accommodate that and its been clear to me over the years that fewer people than one might imagine shoot M bodies for the rangefinder.

Even those who claim they do will be zone focusing at least part of the time.

For the majority of photographers af and an evf is now the norm.

 

[robert blu]

AF if fast is good, the main reason for which I like Leicas are weight and size. Not RF.

But film M, digital M, X series, S camera and lenses, T system, Q, new system now...will a not big company like Leica be able to support and develop all these, in a reasonable time?
QC and repair time didn't perform very well in the last times.

I was (still am I ?) on the fence to go into the T with many doubts but now I have even more doubts...there will be new primes? Will they support the camera with new firmware?

On the other side it's nice to see Leica being active...

robert, now shooting the M7 and X1, plus a couple of SLRs 🙂

 

[newsgrunt]

I honestly believe if they want to grow their market, they need to make the M system more affordable otherwise people will go Fuji or Sony. Their days as a luxury camera manufacturer are nigh imo.

Getting photographers in early and affordably will create a future market base. The collectors are most likely on the other side of the age curve so that's not really a long term growth area afaic.

 

[willie_901]

The "Interchangeable Lens Q", aka iQ.

RIP, optical RF. Long live focus peaking.

An Q with interchangeable lenses would be good. This is exactly how Fujifilm proceeded after the X100.

Focus peaking is only one EVF-dependent manual focusing aid. A well-engineered, functional, virtual RF patch would not sunrise me. Of course this would be based on using phase-detection AF sensor regions to simulate how a real RF patch would look.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

I`m not so sure ...I think its inevitable that they will move away from the RF system whilst still providing for the manual lenses.

The technology is there to able to accommodate that and its been clear to me over the years that fewer people than one might imagine shoot M bodies for the rangefinder.

Even those who claim they do will be zone focusing at least part of the time.

For the majority of photographers af and an evf is now the norm.

It is not about zone focusing. Optical RF VF is clear all of the time. While EVFs are still too primitive for advanced shooter due to their sliginesh.
By the time this Sony 7thing stabilizes the image to make it visible, I'll have it framed and taken with my RF or scale focus camera.
But majority doesn't need it, I agree.

 

[willie_901]

...

Besting the A7s high ISOs? Wow, now that's a tall order.

Not really. A monochrome version could best the A7s' signal-to-noise ratio. The A7s is a 12 MP camera by the way and it's only about 10% better than the D810 (according to DxO).

 

[Jerevan]

Fuji XT1 with a new name slapped on it, anyone? 😉

 

[willie_901]

If the new system works well with M.LTM lenses, my respect for Leica will grow. This assumes the new body is priced below than the M240 body.

It would be a brave move to cannibalize the M rangefinder.

It is is also a way to increase market share.

This is not a prediction the M rangefinder body will disappear or that new digital M bodies will not be developed. In fact, the technologies in the new system could be leveraged to keep the M body competitive for a long time to come.

 

[jsrockit]

It is not about zone focusing. Optical RF VF is clear all of the time. While EVFs are still too primitive for advanced shooter due to their sliginesh.
By the time this Sony 7thing stabilizes the image to make it visible, I'll have it framed and taken with my RF or scale focus camera.
But majority doesn't need it, I agree.

It really depends on how you photograph and individual needs. I look in the view finder for about a second... EVFs and OVFs both work well for me.

 

[eric4]

Why not an x-pro 1 type of camera. Hybrid VF for rangefinder and EVF autofocusing?

 

[Jack Sparrow]

This isn't new... La Vida Leica posted about it back in May, and there's a thread around here about it (too lazy to look for it):

The Future of the Leica M (Cometh)