REDITED:
I would only want to try out the newer P&S digital stuff *PanaLeica*
(I`m getting a Lumix LX1 in a trade)
but I honestly would`nt invest in anything new (my personal opinion) while the horror stories I read about the M8 leads me to think, why have so many problems with a $5,000 dollar digital camera?
The M6 should have been pushed forward in a lot more different modifications, not just as a special edition camera (Danish Wedding - who cares? - this shows how greedy the company was for sales back then) but more technical advances placed into it, not just changing the viewfinder.....
A 12 MEGAPIXEL LEICA M6 DIGITAL BACK WOULD HAVE BEEN THE DREAM, WHY DIDN`T LEICA LISTEN, SO MANY CONSUMERS WANTED THIS?????
THEY WOULD HAVE SAVED THE EMBARASSMENT OF THE M8 AND MADE SO MANY PEOPLE HAPPY 😀
(and at a price that more people could afford say $2,000 to $3,000 and don`t say it can`t be done, I KNOW that could have been done and done well, they should have pared up with SONY and worked out a Euro/Asian M6 deal)
They should have busted out with something to ENHANCE the M6 line and make Leica Photography more accessible to the average man or woman, this way helped the company boom in 1954 with the M3 - why didn`t Leica pull off another M3? and not a boner like the M8
And as for RETRO FILM camera s - the M6 J would have been a hot seller if they had produced it as the MP is now, put a Leicavit on a Chrome or Black M3 styled body with M6 mechanicals - they would have flew off the shelves back in the 1980`s and 90`s!
They`d fly off the shelves now, but they would have to set up an assembly line back in Wetzlar to stamp the top plate in the old fashioned style!
(look how crazy the Nikon guys are for that SP2000 camera- why Leica doesn`t make a REAL retro looking camera I don`t know?)
The M7 is an orphan just like the M5 was and the M8 was`nt ready for the market....not by the way I see all the problems they are having with it, not worth paying the hefty price for a first ever digital M, it might be a good camera in 5 years after all the "bugs" are out of it
Leitz should have just let well enough alone and built up a more affordable M film system to get back more film shooters as customers and leave the digital stuff to the Far Eastern boys
Sorry I don`t want to get away from the OP`s original subject....but I`m putting my personal opinion into this a bit 😉
The immediate postwar era 1945/50
(not counting the contaminated chrome batch in 1948/49)
and mid 1950`s to the early 1960`s were the haydays for Leica, they built the BEST cameras then *Leica IIIC and M3* and these were coveted instruments of Photography, they also seemed more accessible to a wider range of people back then and the amount of famous quality photos from PJ`s prove it from that era
The whole Wetzlar vs. Midland thing is pure ego and a label, sadly also effected on resale price as well (except with the Noctilux`s) everything Midland Canda except the rarer 1950`s stuff is almost always cheaper than Wetzlar items and the quality is just as fine and good in terms of performance
This whole M8 deal just left a sour taste in my mouth with new Leica, I love the early pre 1988 M6`s and late 80`s and early 90`s lenses
(with the removable lens shades)
I personaly think that era was the height of the modern day Leica quality and workmanship - still "Made In Germany"
Leica for me personally lost it`s importance and significance as a serious market camera after they moved to Solms......
Old dogs don`t want to learn new tricks, that`s why I still shoot with the vintage stuff 😛
Tom