Gary Clennan wrote:
Carsten - let's check back in a few years and see how obsolete some of the current Sony offerings are. M9 has been going strong for 5 years now... Sony is not a camera you buy for longevity. HOWEVER, to each their own and they obviously produce some incredibly popular cameras. I may eventually buy one as a backup once they produce a model which meets my needs.
It does depend strongly on your definition. If you mean how long people use them, then yeah, you are right. If you mean image quality, then the M9 and M are already obsolete (not that they don't produce quality images, just that there are noticeably better sensors on the market), except for the special case of getting the most out of a stable of wide M lenses. It is also possible to buy a series of new Sony bodies over the years, always keeping current, and still paying less than for a single Leica body...