I am just glad it wasn't $4000 or even $5000, I would have considered one then, with 75/2 APO and 28mm either 2 or 2.8. And possibly a 50 Summicron.
Phew! Thanks Leica!
Wow, the X1 looks like an attractive compact option! (and much more within budget, I might add!) ;p Wish the M9 was a bit more within reach, but like kosmoskatten it might have become too tempting!
"The current M-Lenses are delivered with 6-bit coding on the bayonet, that is
optically read by the M9. With this information, the M9 can compensate for vignetting."
Would this mean that all other M lenses, incl old Leica will have severe vignetting?
Ok, the webcast will not bring new news I guess, the question remains about the price of the new M9. If it is at $7000 in the US I expect it to be at least 6500EUR over here, and that is out of the question for me. Strange enough, the new X1 will cost $2000 for a APS-C with 2.8 lens - why on earth would somebody want such a camera ( besides the obvious red dot ) ?
According to Ken's (1) authoritative review: "The M9 is a winner. It is now the first choice of the serious digital travel, nature and landscape photographer because it offers the highest possible quality available in digital capture coupled with its small size and weight. There is no other full-frame digital camera anywhere near this small, and regardless of size, there is no line of optics which offers the always superior performance of LEICA lenses. "
(1) Come on, you know who I mean.
But back in the real world, where a review is based on a real camera, and not pure guess work, we await test images to see how it performs. Vignetting might be an Achilles heel. Even if the camera corrects for it, if that mean 2 stops gain near the field edges, that might mean horrendous noise at the field edges except at low ISO. And we also need to see about IR and UV issues, and fringing, among other potential bug bears. Looks very exciting. But the proof of the pudding is in the eating.
ovredal73 wrote:
"The current M-Lenses are delivered with 6-bit coding on the bayonet, that is
optically read by the M9. With this information, the M9 can compensate for vignetting."
Would this mean that all other M lenses, incl old Leica will have severe vignetting?
Probably depends on the particular lens, especially depending on the distance from the exit pupil to the sensor, just like on the M8.x
The X1 has no rangefinder and requires an accessory brightline finder unless you want to use it in p&s mode. Built in IS. interesting. At it's price point, seems like it may end up competing against used M8's on one end and new Panasonic GF-1's, Olympus E-P1's and Sigma DP's on the other. Just from the size of the lens, the Elmarit is not the same as the 24 ff elmarit. Too bad it was not an F2 speced summicron! The image of the camera in the brochure does look nice.
This should have been priced much lower if Leica really intended it to compete in my opinion.
Sean Reid (www.reidreviews.com) says he will have a very exciting review of a very much anticipated new camera available on his site on 09/10 September.
. By at least a G.