Leica ME?

bwcolor said:
That made me smile.. As long as they don't have to focus their cellphones then most people will be free of the need to focus to record images.
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Absolutely. You have gadget users and you have those who want to understand/master a given medium. As witness the general standard of literacy of alleged 'native English speakers' on the internet.

Cheers,

R.
 
Ruhayat said:
Hmm. According to the article, the ME will be full frame, have an M mount, and optical viewfinder. Yet the M10 will have CMOS, live view and video.

Sounds like the ME might be the photography-only option for people who don't want a "bells and whistles and the kitchen sink too" M-gadget, no?
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This sounds pretty plausible. Maybe a CCD sensor?

Just an M9 with better noise capability would be great and sell well I think.

A lot of people aren't interested in video or live view etc.
 
ME(leven) maybe?


I don't know what will be released, and it doesn't really matter cause there is noo way I'll be able to afford whatever it is until even more product is released.

However, I do look forward to whatever they release. Cause as it has been said, anything with that red dot will attract people.
 
Kent said:
Yeah, it's just that only an infinitesimal fraction of those 7 billion people can afford to buy anything Leica. ;)
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Yeah, and the rest also can't afford a Rolex ...:bang:.

People have different income and different priorities in their lives. For most of them photography is not something that high on their list and if it is, there are plenty of choices besides that company with the red dot. I taped mine over btw ;).
 
I'm just hoping the Leica ME is an M mount RANGEFINDER. And I hope its only $2500 or well, $1500 for that matter. Seriously though, really hoping for an affordable M mount Rangefinder. Keeping my fingers crossed......
 
buzzardkid said:
So, to sum it all up:

A full frame digital Leica with possibly an EVF finder, that can take both M and R lenses, to fill the gap between the X2 and the M9, pricewise.

Yeah, right...
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My thoughts exactly. People have wanted a digital CL for a while, but I'm guessing it won't be affordable anyway even IF that what it is.

From the description in the link it sounds an awful lot like a cheaper version of the M9. Now why would Leica cannibalize its own M-series sales for the sake of an ME? Why not just lower the price of the M10 and make everyone even happier?

My guess? No way.
 
I could see a cheaper digibody with a true optical RF as a good way to sell more lenses, but people would would buy the a less expensive Leica body would probably end up spending their money with Zeiss or Cosina, if not on the RFF classifieds.
 
froyd said:
I could see a cheaper digibody with a true optical RF as a good way to sell more lenses, but people would would buy the a less expensive Leica body would probably end up spending their money with Zeiss or Cosina, if not on the RFF classifieds.
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Exactly. Ask simple questions: What would I spend my money on? How much money have I? Sod the imaginary demographics.

Cheers,

R.
 
froyd said:
I could see a cheaper digibody with a true optical RF as a good way to sell more lenses, but people would would buy the a less expensive Leica body would probably end up spending their money with Zeiss or Cosina, if not on the RFF classifieds.
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Sure, but on the other hand Leica could get the owners of ltm and m mount lenses that would buy a new mirrorless camera as the nex or fujis or used m8s just because there's no affordable digital Rf M camera: but probably, and Leica knows this far better than me, it's not a market large enough to be profitable also considering the risk of killing the M9 and M10 camera sales.
I'd like to see a Leica ME as an affordable (for my pocket) digital CL on the market but I suspect it won't happen ...
 
jbielikowski said:
CL Digital? cool...
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Here's the problem with that. The CL nearly killed Leica in the 1970's. Too many people bought them instead of the M4 or M5. And too many people bought SLRs at that time, instead of RFs, too. Leica stopped M production for a couple of years. Any lower-priced M, digital or otherwise, would be carefully scrutinized to make sure it doesn't come too close to satisfying the needs of a potential M9 or M10 buyer.

muser53 said:
Back to the original post~a full frame camera with a sensor optimized for M mount lenses with an evf only, no rangefinder. As long as the finder is a good one and the ergonomics mimic the M's this could be the camera (currently unable to afford an M9) I've been waiting for.
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The site linked in the first post does say it will have a "regular finder." It also says it won't be an EVIL or EVF. So it apparently will be an optical finder (what else is there, besides optical vs. EVF). It doesn't say it will have a rangefinder, though. And I doubt it will, for that would bring it too close to CL status (see above paragraph). And the RF mechanism is an expensive part of a Leica--no cost saving there. So maybe it will have an optical finder with bright-line frames, but no rangefinder; the focusing being done with electronic focus confirmation. (?) Just a guess. Focus confirmation would be needed for R lens compatibility anyway. So maybe that's a good guess.
 
I never said there will be an AF M next month....but wait and see in a few days, you'll see what I mean.

Archlich said:
Based on the information available, I highly doubt there will be an autofocus M coming next month. You won't see it in 2013 either - no reason for Leica to release another $10,000 M camera with AF to cannibalize the M10 only one year after the later's release (longer will it take them to keep the production up to demand).

Leica's been doing well financially. In fact, better than ever. If the company's truly "user oriented" it would have gone AF long ago instead of now, thirty years after the AF revolution. They are doing good by producing luxury goods, and the luxury market doesn't care if the camera's AF or not anyway: it's the red dot the customers seek.

They could and had opened up cheaper product lines in the past. But in order sell products from a company who had spent a questionably smallish amount into R&D in the past fifty years, they have price with a premium over the competitors. Now add the Red Dot Value (why not?), and the Made in Germany value (look at the X1 and X2), you end up with something not cheap at all. Since it's not cheap and only the well-offs will be interested, why not price it even higher? In that case, which is the case in real life, only the M line survived. On the other hand, why spend the R&D toll when you can simply make money by sticking the red dot upon some readily available Japanese product? Ask all the D-Lux and C-lux users on RFF and they'll agree with me and Leica, that the dot alone is sufficient enough.
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deang001 said:
This sounds pretty plausible. Maybe a CCD sensor?

Just an M9 with better noise capability would be great and sell well I think.

A lot of people aren't interested in video or live view etc.
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A brand new photo-only M9-Lite at exactly the halfway price point between an X2 and a "regular" M9? Say $1k higher than film MP prices? I think that might be enough to tempt more than a few Leica users who'd otherwise go for the Fuji alternative.

Me included. Not that I ever considered a Fuji digital "rangefinder". I found the X100 and X1 focusing systems "unsettling", for some reason. The only Fuji I tried and liked enough to consider buying is the X10. Very nice package.
 
Why doesn't Leica have Cosina build an inexpensive digital M body? A digital CL? 18 mp FF, manual exposure and focus, no bells and whistles. They'd sell a bunch of them.
 
All those nice 'price point between this and that' stuff won't happen until the M9 sales slow down.

From the number of M9M threads that popped up here recently I can tell that the recession hasn't put that much of a dent into some peoples spending pattern and as a result that ME or whatever you want to call it will not materialize.

Leica isn't even lifting a tip of the veil when it comes to sales figures but they have moved to newly-built locations recently, and there still is a waiting list for many products (lenses in particular) so my guess is that the revenues from the M9 aren't dried up yet.
 
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