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Sometimes, yes, especially when its specifically brought to their attention.

 

But "mostly"? That's not my experience, particularly amongst those very imaginative and creative young people who genuinely do treat their cameras as tools, with the image being the primary object of interest.

 

I'm just stating my impression. Most of those I've spoken to see film as more of an art form than digital photography and something they aspire to if they aren't using film already.

 

Lomo have built a whole business on the back of the 'kewl and arty' aspect of film.

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It seems to me the most logical (but may be not the most commercial) way to go is to buy a M10 body and every 12 months or so drop in a new processor, sensor, memory card and away you go.

 

I do not think that the future necessarily needs more pixels, but the emphasis may well be on quality of pixel, rendering of pixel, and communication of data wirelessly etc etc.

 

In this way the body may become an investment and increase in value mainly due to its content at the time??

 

Would Leica go this route and lose all those sales......??!!

 

My 2p

 

Stuart

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Amazing how every thread has to devolve into a film vs digital fight, complete with catty and derogatory comments.

 

I utterly fail to see how you distilled this from Peter's post.

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Amazing how every thread has to devolve into a film vs digital fight, complete with catty and derogatory comments.

 

 

If I could understand how my comments could be misinterpreted as catty and derogatory, I'd immediately apologise.

 

And if I could understand how my comments could be misinterpreted as a digital v film fight, I'd again apologise immediately.

 

But to be honest, I'm baffled.

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Do any digital cameras increase in value over time? The first camera that comes to mind is the Leica M9 Titanium. Conversely, no matter how special the camera is, it seems that the nature of digital technology will render all digital cameras obsolete. Are there exceptions? Are there any digital cameras out there that have maintained their value and even increased in value over time?

 

If you occasionally look at some of these computer forums, you will find that many begin to speculate about next future models simultaneously as the latest model with the newest technology is released on the market.

I was so lucky to be able to buy a new Mac for only half a year ago.

Already we see that the new models are in the pipeline, with even newer technology.

This is a never-ending story.

If you want to play in the top level in this game, you must expect to renew the hardware every five years, and perhaps even more frequently.

A banker recently told me, that since the moment you drive your brand new car out of the showroom, it has basically already dropped 20% in value.

I do not mean to be disrespectful, but I don’t even think the addict small-villain bother to steal a seven years old computer. It simply has no commercial value anymore.

Now that the cameras have become like small computers, the same will apply to them.

No electronic / microprocessor-controlled equipment will increase in value. This will also apply for Leica's camera bodies, simply because this technology is developing too quickly.

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If you occasionally look at some of these computer forums, you will find that many begin to speculate about next future models simultaneously as the latest model with the newest technology is released on the market.

I was so lucky to be able to buy a new Mac for only half a year ago.

Already we see that the new models are in the pipeline, with even newer technology.

This is a never-ending story.

If you want to play in the top level in this game, you must expect to renew the hardware every five years, and perhaps even more frequently.

A banker recently told me, that since the moment you drive your brand new car out of the showroom, it has basically already dropped 20% in value.

I do not mean to be disrespectful, but I don’t even think the addict small-villain bother to steal a seven years old computer. It simply has no commercial value anymore.

Now that the cameras have become like small computers, the same will apply to them.

No electronic / microprocessor-controlled equipment will increase in value. This will also apply for Leica's camera bodies, simply because this technology is developing too quickly.

 

This phenomenon reminds me of an adult-themed comic from the UK called "Viz". Any UK readers above a certain age will know it. Anyway, one of the characters in this comic is a kid who is spoiled rotten by his mother. There's one comic strip where he demands she buy him the latest Manchester United uniform (because it's the "in thing"), which of course she does. Later on in the strip (in the afternoon) they're still in the sports shop and a voice comes from the intercom -

 

"Attention shoppers. We are now selling Manchester United's newest uniform. This replaces the one from this morning, which is now officially old-fashioned":D

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True, yeah. The specs on that thing (the D3, S, or X) are pretty amazing now, but you'd imagine that ten years down the road they'll look weedy.

 

The question is, is there a point of diminishing returns? Will there be a point where you just can't get any more megapixels in without some kind of negative effect? Or will they just keep raising the MP and ISO while keeping the noise down?

 

I have no idea, but it makes you wonder.

 

Once they'll have squeezed every last drop they'll change the technology and in the meantime they'll keep stuffing in new features you didn't know you need.

As a comparison see what happened with PCs: first they pumped up the CPU Mhz, then when it became impractical going further because of the excessive heat and not linear performance increase they introduced multicore CPUs. Replace "CPU Mhz" with "Megapixel", "heat" with "noise" and "multicore CPUs" with "devilish technology of tomorrow we still don't know of" then tell me if it doesn't fit...

God (and engineers) only know what the new technology may consist of. They might improve the Foveon technology, for instance. This might increase up to three times the resolution in the same footprint. It's been under the radars for quite a long time and its theoretical basis were quite interesting. Or they might change the shape of the pixels, I don't know. Square pixels and curved or diagonal lines do not mix always well albeit it shows only upon strong enlargement. What if they found a way to make hexagonal pixels just to say?

 

And then all the features. Hardware evolved as the software introduced new features and these were power hungry. Think of Word 6 and Excel 5. They did everything you need even by today's standard and barely weighted 15 Mb together. They were a masterpiece. Look at what they've become today.

As of today there are cameras allowing you basic image PP, HDR capability, HR video capability. It started 25 years ago with exposure programs. Then came the autofocus and my first thought was the same: who needs that? But the market proved me wrong.

 

The next step might be miniaturization. As of today a Nokia N8 can handle more things than a PC with a 386 CPU. What if they found the way to make good sensors the size of a nail and the image quality of the M8 and fit it into a mobile phone?

 

All in all I don't think they'll stop somewhere. Once reached a threshold they'll jump to the next one. We'll see.

 

Cheers,

Bruno

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Well, if this guy gets his price... I'd say it's an increase:

 

**LEICA M9 ** PROTOTYPE IN ORIGINAL BOX / VERY RARE !!! | eBay

 

If it's true that might be the exception confirming the rule but due to its unique nature. We're talking of a prototype which wasn't even supposed to go out of Leitz home, not of a special edition. It's like comparing the original Barnack's prototype against the Serie 0 replicas.

So far special editions such as the white M8 didn't go that far. As said before, who'd pay today the price of an M9 to have a white M8?

 

Cheers

Bruno

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Do any digital cameras increase in value over time? ...

Very definitely! For example, my Digilux 2 has greater value to me now than when I bought it. It seems to me that value is being mistaken for price in this thread.:o There is more to value than just economic value and in some instance value may increase even though price decreases.

 

Pete.

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I think in time, the M8 might. Because of it's unique IR sensitivities. I could see it increasing in value, from it's current price. Maybe not the price when new.

 

By the way DMR's are still available there is one on ebay for $6k, but the rest are in the $3k range.

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Special editions should hold their value i guess. Any idea about collectors' prices?

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@ lct: there's been a white edition M8 on sale on the buy&sell section for some time. It started at abt € 7,900 and ended at € 3,900 some months later, still unsold.

As far as I can understand there are two possible explanations namely there were no Leica collectors peeking into the b&s section over a span of several months or Leica digital Ms do not make good collectible items.

 

Cheers,

Bruno

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