For LCT: you were right about the M8, my friend...

[leica_mage]

Dear LCT (and others!),

You were right and I was totally wrong about the M8 images that first appeared here from RFF. Chapeau. Humbled.

One thing my close friends know about me is that I am daemonic with predictions. I have a frighteningly high accuracy rate for predicting things.

But with the M8 I failed miserably. I questioned myself immediately back then because your tone betrayed that you had actually seen the camera. I, on the other hand, had not - but above all, I was convinced that the depicted M8 was a red herring originating in Solms itself.

Firstly, I could not believe they would call it 'M8'. I still cannot believe they called it 'M8'. In fact, I cannot believe it is called... 'M8'. I consider this a major marketing blunder. I might be wrong, again.

Secondly, I cannot believe my eyes that they're using the M7-style body. I feel that's another marketing blunder. I may be wrong - again.

Lastly, the images originally posted really did look like Photoshop pastiches, which I felt reinforced my convictions above...

Best to you, LCT. You were right, I was wrong! Simple as that.

[bill]

I'm curious.

1. What's wrong with "M8"? It seems to me to be a logical progression. You surely don't expect another new film M body after this, do you? It wouldn't surprise me if in a couple of years the M7 is dropped, leaving only the "revolutionary" M8 (M9, etc) and the "reactionary" MP.

2. Surely one of the greatest triumphs of the M8, and the "digitisation" of the M-line in general is that the M8 is more like the M7 than the M5 was like the M4...

Regards,

Bill

[sean_reid]

Everyone has his or her own opinion. I think that basing the camera on the M7 and calling it the M8 was exactly the right thing for Leica to do.

Cheers,

Sean

[mr_big]

Are we to assume then that the M7 is the end of the line for film-based M series cameras? Maybe the next version will be the M7.1.

[pascal_meheut]

So do I. I even think that most of Leica recent moves are smart, including delivering Capture One LE with the M8, the new and not too expensive 28mm, the tri-elmar, the accessories...

I wish they had offered the same things for the DMR when it went out.

[lct]

Originally Posted by leica_mage

...I am daemonic with predictions...

Reminds me something...

[johnbuckley]

I agree with Pascal and Sean, and others who support the M8 name. Objectively, if you look at all the new products announced this week, Leica is on fire. Sure, Panasonic has carried some significant weight for their digital products. But everything I have read about the M8 says that this camera is going to revitalize the Leica brand, the Leica image, and that everything we know about Leica -- the glorious optics, the minimalist aesthetic, the emphasis on photography, not computing -- will be pushed to a broader audience. And then there is the way we all have been manipulated like Pavlov's dogs, drooling over leaked photos. This is buzz marketing, and who would have believed "sleepy Leica" would have used the Internet the way they have. I say bravo on the products, and as important in some ways, bravo on the strategy for engaging a core audience and branching out beyond it with these product launches. JB

[leica_mage]

Originally Posted by lct

Reminds me something...

Of course it... 'reminds you something'...!

What did you expect from me? Inconsistency? Never!!!

When one is wrong, and needs to apologise, one must do it accross the board.

And that's what I did, as you can understand.

I was wrong.

That's dead simple.

And it's a pact: whenever I am right, I celebrate; whenever I'm wrong, I descend into myself and see what's wrong.

And, of course, je rends hommage to whomever it's due...

Best,

[marknorton]

I am certainly more encouraged by Sean's guarded comments on image quality than I am discouraged by Erwin's test report. There will be lots of pepole who will be out to rubbish this camera. Ultimately, you have to decide whose opinions you trust.

Erwin has had it in for Leica for a while, so he is hardly objective. If the Canon 5D is so good, how is it Nikon are selling any D2X's?

[dugby]

Originally Posted by johnbuckley

.... But everything I have read about the M8 says that this camera is going to revitalize the Leica brand, the Leica image, and that everything we know about Leica -- the glorious optics, the minimalist aesthetic, the emphasis on photography, not computing -- will be pushed to a broader audience. ......... This is buzz marketing, and who would have believed "sleepy Leica" would have used the Internet the way they have. I say bravo on the products, and as important in some ways, bravo on the strategy for engaging a core audience and branching out beyond it with these product launches. JB

I couldn't agree more....with these words. Even though I'm a 35yr photo-vet..... and extremely internet embedded (might have something to do with working with the net for 20+ years......well before most had heard of it)

I decided to rebirth my photographic aspirations about 7 years ago (1999). I remember the day clearly. I was walking around Akihabara in Tokyo, ....for those unaware, this is the electronics capital of the world. Its the sort of place ...."If it's not there.....it's not invented yet".

They have huge 8-storey electronics shops (8 storey's is huge for an earth-quake prone city) and they have street level stores pushing the latest cell-phones.

As I walked these streets, I passed a table of tech toys, tripped-over my dropped jaw.... and did an 'instant replay'.......What was theat little silver camera with the red-dot...?

Sure enough it was a Leica Digilux...... it was that instant...I said to myself.... for Leica to put it's name to a digital camera (albeit a Fuji)....... this digital camera fad....is not going away.

This started my journey down the digital path. the internet provided me the resource to determine that the little Leica I'd seen was a re-badged Fujifilm and analysing the models I bought one.

The world wide market has proven (and we see it in these pages) that despite our aspiration to own 5D's and R9/DMRs..... etc most of these users willingly 'pine' for extreme high quality in a small portable package (look at mobile phones....the smaller it is the more desirable and expenive they are).

Websites like deepee-review are showing the rest of the non-Leica world that such solutions exist. And Panasonic's capture of the X, Y and Me generations has ensured that these kids know that a Leica lens on a Pana is something "kewl"

I live in the remotest capital city in the world, the next nearest capital city is 5000Km away so rely heavily on the net to keep me worldly. the net has brought me to a D2 and now possibly an M8 ......

So I really believe Leica's current marketing strategy which covers D/C-Lux, D, M and R systems and a Panasonic Co-opertition arrangement is correct.

It's certainly won over a sizeable percentage of the net-genners that I come across in my work.

Dugby
Perth, Australia (latitude and longitude is almost diagonally opposite to NYC......you can't get any further from NYC than my place.....)