When will we get a new Leica M?

[mac_wt]

I agree that they shouldn't change the M-concept as available now with the M7 and MP.
But I rather like the idea of a fixed lens (40mm?) Leica-quality rangefinder; a CL with fixed lens, AE and modern shutter speeds. While they're at it, they should release a digital companion for it. ;-)

Wim

 

[JNewell]

Very, very true. Consider, moreover, the number of people who profess to *prefer* the older lenses to the current versions!

It's a problem for a company when the product they produced is so well made that the used market of 50 year old (and older) product eats into their new product sales. But that's what makes Leica and similar high quality camera companys (Contax, Canon, Nikon, Rollei, Hasselblad, etc.) special.

 

[JimG]

Has any technology oriented company as big as Leica ever survived reproducing the same model product indefinitely? Might work for Scotch or chocolate but not cameras.

 

[javimm]

JimG Has any technology oriented company as big as Leica ever survived reproducing the same model product indefinitely? Might work for Scotch or chocolate but not cameras.

I don't agree here. Maybe it's true in the digital world, but not for film, IMHO. Who would need more functions that a Nikon F6 gives in the SLR world?. With so many things it has, any feature is more a matter of personal taste than necessity.

What is true about your thought is that it's obvious that a person who owns a MP or/and a M7, will not feel the urge to buy anything if Leica doesn't make another model. If they do, I agree that somebody will feel the need to have the "latest". But I doubt every Leica user is like that.

Leica can improve the M8, and make a DSLR, but the M film cameras are hard to improve without breaking some kind of balance in the camera. What would you like to see in a new M?. I mean, which features?.

 

[CameraQuest]

Being the scenes Leica has revealed they are working on a digital SLR. Personally I think this is a huge mistake -- unless they come up with something as that competes well with Canon and Nikon technologically. That seems unlikely judging from Leica's past SLR attempts.

If Leica ends up with another another DOA SLR sales leader like the money loser R8, who knows where the chips would fall?


As far as RF, I am guessing some sort of M8 improvement or successor in about two years.

Stephen

 

[varjag]

I can't help myself, I can't think of anything which can be changed on a film M.

The logo.

It should say Ernst Leitz Wetzlar 🙂

But I heard they're working on it.

 

[aizan]

if leica had actually innovated in the last 50 years, maybe their oldest cameras wouldn't be competing with their newest cameras. 🙄

 

[bobkonos]

Uh, tell me again why there's a need for a new Leica M. I asked myself that question the other day when I used my MP in tandem with my M2 fitted with a C/V light meter.

 

[ZeissFan]

I say there has been only one new Leica in the past 20 years or so, and that's the M7.

The rest have just been reworkings of the same camera to make the Leica crowd think they're getting something new. There have been a handful of new features -- different viewfinder magnifications, different framelines, on-board light meter and TTL flash, but in general, the M6 is really not that distant or different from the M2 -- mechanically or in handling. And we all know what happened when Leica tried to take a new route (M5 and CL). If those cameras had been THAT successful, they or a successor model would still be in the catalog today.

If we see any new Leica film cameras, it will be more of the same -- sort of like lipstick on a pig. It looks a little different, but it's still the same pig underneath (although it's a very nice pig). But it works for Leica, so no reason for them to stray too far from a well-traveled path.

And a radically new body would require R&D, new tooling and possibly new assembly methods. That leads to this question: Would Leica be able to see a return on its investment? That's always the bottom-line question.

 

[JNewell]

Look where the genuine innovation of the M5 got 'em...seriously...

😉 😱

 

[Nachkebia]

1/8000 would be good for daylight shooting, but without sound compromise, I don`t like metallic shutter boom 🙂

 

[dll927]

Frankly, about all I see in this thread is speculation and opinionated statements. Everyone sounds as if he/she has done scientific comparisons of lenses, etc. from various brands.

Maybe Leica should have stayed away from digital to begin with. There's too much competition at much better prices, and with Leica's reputation, they are throwing it away with the M8 problems (to the degree that they really exist.)

If Leica winds up biting the dust, so be it. I'm not an economist, and the company's bottom line doesn't interest me. A lot of their stock is supposed to have been acquired by some high-level French outfit that wants to raise prices even farther into the stratosphere. Let them - the world will survive.

 

[JeffGreene]

Never. All that can be done with M series has been done. Perfection.

R10 will be digi only with autofocus glass and ability to retrofit older R glass.

Entry level film M or R will never happen.

There are some questions about about the R line continuing. My local Leica dealer mentioned the Digilux 3 represents the new Leica SLR direction. Who knows? 😕

 

[x-ray]

I can't help myself, I can't think of anything which can be changed on a film M.
A hinged back and vertical shutter? Impossible!

Impossible? What about the ZI?

Certainly there's plenty of improvements to be made but I can't see the logic in another film body. How may years can one camera be reintroduced? One of the reasons Leica is in the trash is because they hang onto old traditions and refused to move forward. Shure you guys want them to stay the same for reast of time but the majority of the photo world has moved on and the traditional Leica M has only a small place in the photographic world.

I have plenty of leica gear to last me the rest of my photographic life and would'nt consider any new Leica product unless it was a little more innovative that what they've been making of the past 55 years.

 

[Ben Z]

Being the scenes Leica has revealed they are working on a digital SLR. Personally I think this is a huge mistake -- unless they come up with something as that competes well with Canon and Nikon technologically.

I've found that people who are into the R system are intractable in their belief that it's superior to anything Nikon and Canon had, have or will have, and one or two of the more vocal proponents tend to sneer publicly at everyone who embraces AF, IS/VR, or any of Canon/Nikon's digital technology. So I don't see that being an impediment to Leica's potential success with an R10 no matter what its specifications are.

I don't disagree at all though that Leica ought to be concentrating on an improved successor or upgrade to the M8. But there again so many people are on soapboxes shouting down every criticism, that you can't blame the guys at Leica for shifting over to the R.

 

[aizan]

i wouldn't be surprised if the r10 was full frame. kodak's made full frame sensors before, and it could compete against the canon 5d and 1-series for those who don't need autofocus.

 

[varjag]

R10 might be just R9 with the Modul upgraded a bit and installed permanently. I'd guess Leica is in tough situation with R: they already invested decades and trucks of money into it and some of that stuff sells, but it would take quite an optimist to see bright future for the system.

 

[phatnev]

Pretty much Leica needs to figure out a way to convince the people that have been spending extraordinary amounts of money on their film M line that it is time to switch to digital. Once they can shuffle their base fully to digital they can afford R&D, but until they offer a digital RF that offers something the film M's cant do they'll never replace the film bodies.

 

[jarski]

to respond competition from latest Bessa and ZI models, why new film body with lighter build material and brighter viewfinder would sound so impossible ?

M8 is still taking its baby steps, so new digital M-body any time soon sounds hard to believe, to me.