john_f Posted October 26, 2007 Share #1 Posted October 26, 2007 Advertisement (gone after registration) FYI Camtec Photo (Montreal, Canada) is having a Leica Demo Day / Clinic today Oct 26 and tomorrow, Sat Oct 27. Present will be Mr. Justin Staily, Leica Camera USA’s product specialist, and Mr. Gerry Smith. I am told the full line of Leica sport optics will be on demo - along with the new Summarit-M lenses. See this link for more info: Come on ! Come all ! Address: See: Store Info 26 Notre-Dame Street East Montreal, Quebec H2Y 1B9 Tel: (514) 875-5110 Toll Free: 1-866-875-5110 I intend to ask as many questions as I can about the upcoming "R10", the next "M digital" (both apparently to be unveiled at Photokina 08), along with possible new lenses, including (maybe) a new Noctilux. If there are any questions you would like me to ask Leica USA (the future R10, new lenses, LeicaWorld 01/2007, firmware upgrades, etc...), please feel free to add them to this thread as I will most likely go to the Demo Day both today and tomorrow. Reading the several threads in this forum about the "R10" has reinforced my belief that this new Leica Camera is back on track. According to the latest issue of ReponsesPhoto magazine, Leica Camera AG has declared 4.2 million Euros in profits between March and June 2007. Best regards, John F. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted October 26, 2007 Posted October 26, 2007 Hi john_f, Take a look here Leica Demo Day in Montreal - Oct 26 & 27. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
miami91 Posted October 26, 2007 Share #2 Posted October 26, 2007 Hi John. Not that I expect the Leica reps to be *too* forthcoming about details, but I'd be interested in knowing the following: If there is a digital M revision due in the next year or so, will it incorporate either full-frame, normal IR sensitivity, or both? These are the two things that have kept me shooting my M7 and film. Assuming there is indeed a digital "R10" coming in the next year, will there be support for a new line of autofocus lenses? Will the R10 deliver speed (auto focus speed, frames per second) and high-ISO performance on par with the top class offerings of Canon and Nikon? What is the future of Leica's involvement in the Four Thirds consortium? Was this just a stop gap till the introduction of the R10, or will they have a Digilux 3 successor in the near term (hopefully with similar specs to the Olympus E-3)? Look forward to hearing about your discussions. Kind regards, Jeff. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angora Posted October 27, 2007 Share #3 Posted October 27, 2007 Can you question about the overall size of the camera and the coverage of the viewfinder ? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
john_f Posted October 27, 2007 Author Share #4 Posted October 27, 2007 Angora, Jeff, I did raise the issue of the "R10" with the Leica USA person I spoke with today. By coincidence, he happened to be present at the LHSA (Leica Historical Society of America) meeting with Dr. Kaufmann. He confirmed to me what was written in another thread in this forum about Dr. Kaufmann's answer regarding a potential "R10". Basically, when someone asked if the R10 would indeed be announced at Photokina 08, the answer given was something along the lines of "well, what comes after nine ..?" wink-wink nod-nod sort of way. Same thing by the way when someone asked about a new Noctilux f/0.9. The answer given went something like "well, would it not be interesting to see what a new Noctilux would be like if it was designed in Germany?" On that last subject, I also learned that only one single employee is left in Midland (Canada) to make the 50mm Noctilux, and he is apparently retiring in the near future (months? years?). All this means that the odds of a new made-in-Germany Noct are even higher. About the four-thirds business, I did raise this issue. Again while there was no absolute confirmation, it sounded like Leica is not as enthusiastic with this format as we thought. They will continue to design 4/3 lenses (and yes, they did design the new 25mm D-Summilux) and allow their name to be used on 4/3 lenses for Pana stuff, but we probably should not expect a new Leica 4/3 SLR any time soon. Leica has other fish to fry it would seem ... Notice that none of these answers represented an explicit and definitive YES. And the reason for this was made very clear to me: everyone at Leica has been warned NOT to leak ANY information before any new product is officially announced (all of it at Kina '08 - most likely nothing at PMA 08). In short, anyone working at or with Leica is/are on pins and needles. Therefore, we should not expect clear answers about any aspect of the upcoming "R10" (sorry Angora) or any other new Leica cameras (digital ot not) or lenses. This time, there will be no leaks. Only one thing I can tell you: Photokina 2008 will be BIG for Leica ! Best regards, John F. P.S. I did get to try out the new Summarits - great lenses! more in another thread ... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angora Posted October 27, 2007 Share #5 Posted October 27, 2007 Thanks you very much for questionning, John Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ptomsu Posted October 27, 2007 Share #6 Posted October 27, 2007 Hi John. Not that I expect the Leica reps to be *too* forthcoming about details, but I'd be interested in knowing the following: If there is a digital M revision due in the next year or so, will it incorporate either full-frame, normal IR sensitivity, or both? These are the two things that have kept me shooting my M7 and film. Assuming there is indeed a digital "R10" coming in the next year, will there be support for a new line of autofocus lenses? Will the R10 deliver speed (auto focus speed, frames per second) and high-ISO performance on par with the top class offerings of Canon and Nikon? What is the future of Leica's involvement in the Four Thirds consortium? Was this just a stop gap till the introduction of the R10, or will they have a Digilux 3 successor in the near term (hopefully with similar specs to the Olympus E-3)? Look forward to hearing about your discussions. Kind regards, Jeff. The R10 is rumored to be supersized format (whatever that means I do not know) The M9 will be full frame The current Nocti will be replaced by a new one with max. aperture 0.95 or similar The 4/3 will see some Leica designed cameras Most of it due at PK 2008, when actually shopping I have no idea. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ptomsu Posted October 27, 2007 Share #7 Posted October 27, 2007 Advertisement (gone after registration) Angora, Jeff, I did raise the issue of the "R10" with the Leica USA person I spoke with today. By coincidence, he happened to be present at the LHSA (Leica Historical Society of America) meeting with Dr. Kaufmann. He confirmed to me what was written in another thread in this forum about Dr. Kaufmann's answer regarding a potential "R10". Basically, when someone asked if the R10 would indeed be announced at Photokina 08, the answer given was something along the lines of "well, what comes after nine ..?" wink-wink nod-nod sort of way. Same thing by the way when someone asked about a new Noctilux f/0.9. The answer given went something like "well, would it not be interesting to see what a new Noctilux would be like if it was designed in Germany?" On that last subject, I also learned that only one single employee is left in Midland (Canada) to make the 50mm Noctilux, and he is apparently retiring in the near future (months? years?). All this means that the odds of a new made-in-Germany Noct are even higher. About the four-thirds business, I did raise this issue. Again while there was no absolute confirmation, it sounded like Leica is not as enthusiastic with this format as we thought. They will continue to design 4/3 lenses (and yes, they did design the new 25mm D-Summilux) and allow their name to be used on 4/3 lenses for Pana stuff, but we probably should not expect a new Leica 4/3 SLR any time soon. Leica has other fish to fry it would seem ... Notice that none of these answers represented an explicit and definitive YES. And the reason for this was made very clear to me: everyone at Leica has been warned NOT to leak ANY information before any new product is officially announced (all of it at Kina '08 - most likely nothing at PMA 08). In short, anyone working at or with Leica is/are on pins and needles. Therefore, we should not expect clear answers about any aspect of the upcoming "R10" (sorry Angora) or any other new Leica cameras (digital ot not) or lenses. This time, there will be no leaks. Only one thing I can tell you: Photokina 2008 will be BIG for Leica ! Best regards, John F. P.S. I did get to try out the new Summarits - great lenses! more in another thread ... I have heard all these rumors - myself from partners being very close to Leica - already 2 months back. So Leica obviously lets intentionally leak this information in order to speed up rumors and discussions, which should generate (keep) interest for this brand, till they have something real to show. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
john_f Posted October 27, 2007 Author Share #8 Posted October 27, 2007 Peter, I too have been hearing about those rumors for many months. But Leica insists that it will not confirm any of them. I got the definitive impression that even the guys at Leica USA are (mostly) kept in the dark when it comes to new products - including that "R10" we're all waiting for! I guess we'll all have to patiently wait until next Photokina! Regards. John F. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ptomsu Posted October 28, 2007 Share #9 Posted October 28, 2007 Peter, I too have been hearing about those rumors for many months. But Leica insists that it will not confirm any of them. I got the definitive impression that even the guys at Leica USA are (mostly) kept in the dark when it comes to new products - including that "R10" we're all waiting for! I guess we'll all have to patiently wait until next Photokina! Regards. John F. Also Leica Austria (admittedly much smaller than Leica USA) does not have any info on these (at least they say), so they seem to keep their representativies dumb as much as possible. But somehow they seem to spread rumors willing to initiarte discussions, maybe to even get some feedback about what potential customers would like to see, so at least thy somehow could adjust their plans (if this would be possible on that short notice). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
spylaw4 Posted October 28, 2007 Share #10 Posted October 28, 2007 The R10 is rumored to be supersized format (whatever that means I do not know)The M9 will be full frame The current Nocti will be replaced by a new one with max. aperture 0.95 or similar The 4/3 will see some Leica designed cameras Most of it due at PK 2008, when actually shopping I have no idea. I would be very interested to see what, if anything, Leica come up with as a 4/3 camera! Roll on Photokina! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.