For me, I would consider BUYING an M8, if the M9 comes out.
Reason being, I can't afford Leica's. My only Leica is an M4-P, at $700, that's about all I can justify for a cult rangefinder film body - that works with some rather exquisite lenses - If I was really pinching - I would opt for the CL, but that's a whole other topic of rationalization . For digital, I use a studio Mamiya Phase One digital back. And for studio - sorry to say, I can not imagine that even an M9 would fulfill our needs for a digital work flow (I work for Weiden & Kennedy in Portland, Nike is one of our clients) - we wirelessly have our file sent to G-Safe, and then they are programatically sent (FTP I presume) to a network location, we don't do the post processing, there is a staff that does all that. - We spend a lot of time with lighting, thats our real job, if you ask me, the digital image acquisition - Oh yeah, I guess there is an adequate enough capturing device to do the job, no love for it, but it's there, on a remote controlled arm, and we can move it all around the studio, we have software to pre image - that works with our lighting.
So you see, an M camera is pretty much for pleasure for me, and 5-7K ? Unless your getting paid for your images, that's an expensive hobby, I would suggest taking that and putting it into your Fidelity IRA or Roth - great time to put money into index funds.
98% of photographic equipment deprecates in value, and digital camera's ? - rapidly - Point one camera out to me that has not lost value. Sure, if you enjoy fondling gear, and you get that much pleasure out of rubbing your fingers across a digital rangefinder from Solms Germany ? .. Then far be it for me, on how to tell you how to hold onto your money.
You see, I wait, for gear to become avail cheap, let the early adopters get their thrill of being first to buy, to hold, to fondle, a new piece of gear, then in a couple of years, maybe they are going through a divorce, or need the money, I'm waiting - patiently - for them to list it on Ebay. Heck I got the Panasonic G1 for $300, and it's a lovely little camera, and it's quite a kick to put on CV or Leitz lenses. Although truthfully I see very little gains by using manual focus legacy lenses on that camera, lower stop's - yeah, but compared to the kit lens ? not much, but it's small, and I got my cheap thrills by bringing it to a wedding this summer with a 90mm f2, pre ASPH, yep Canadian, got it for 450, that's how I roll ....
So you see, I lurk here, and enjoy all the fuss about a new digital camera that might be available soon, On my timeline, that means, oh, in about 5 years, I might be able to get one for $1200, That is, unless, Zeiss Ikon goes FF digital, or Cosina - and markets one for sub $2,000. But please, continue, discussing, how much you might sell your M8 for 🙂
