[earleygallery]

I think EP makes some very valid points.

Leica has a very loyal customer base, very strong brand and image.

However, their lower end digital products don't have mainstream appeal to the traditional customers, and aren't unique enought to attract new customers, whilst their flagship digital product has a niche market - and mostly existing/previous Leica users.

The R system is effectively discontinued at present - we all wait to see what an R10 system looks like. What it needs to be IMO is a Full Frame (or larger?!) DSLR with AF.

Although it's not the product which I necessarily want, the M line needs to evolve, and again AF is probably essential to attract new customers.

When most students/hobbyists are using AF compacts, the AF SLR systems, as they trade up are they generally willing at any point to ditch the AF (or TTL multi zone metering, dedicated flash etc).

I have seen/heard of many people who turn to Leica at some point in their photographic journey, being the camera used by some of the most famous photographers, they want to find out what it's all about. 'Real' photography if you will. But that isn't a big enought market in itself (and most buy s/h anyway).

Leica almost need to do something akin to what they did with the original 35mm camera and create a new concept to take them forward.

The M8 is superb, no doubt, but rather like Jaguar found with the S type, they can't keep harking back to the past, when the very product they hark back to was in its time a revolution itself.