Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/05/05
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Hi All, My - very reliable but unfortunately unnameable source - tells me the new 90 is to be an ASPH APO. There was some consternation among dealers apparently that this would hit sales of the 100 APO for R series at a time when the product philosophy at Solms is for the R and M to be complementary lines: in any case an ASPH or two more in the R series was thought to be more in line with market demand... Other goodies are due to be announced over the next few months but not much more for M lenses for the rest of this year. The jury is still out on a flash unit that is small and low-powered (GN 20m) which resembles the form and size of the Contax G2's flash (TLA200?). It is however AA powered and slow to recycle (probably due to its Metz provenence, since Metz does not have the technology to handle lithium cells nor the more sophisticated Japanese electronics as used in Nikon and Canon units...). Bad news is that the R8 motor is still somewhere over the horizon and that the many problems with the R8 winder have only helped to further delay the motor's preparation for launch (again Leica suffering from lack of access to Japanese technology which in this area is state of the art these days). As for the new M - well I have heard that a new shutter is deemed a necessity and that these days, guess what, but the Japanese are the only practical source for state of the art technology (CF the R8 which has a Copal shutter). So I guess we may see something in the M line that shares a lot of the technology and even parts of the R8 which would keep development and production costs down and as a gesture to the traditionalists an updated M6 with TTL flash or info in the finder perhaps?? (This is my guesswork here not some inside scoop). I do not believe a radical change to the viewfinder is either called for or practicable due to prohibitive development costs: the demand for an enhanced viewfinder may be assessed in part to market response to the M6HM. Personally I feel that the shutter is obsolete and needs speeding up: if it can be automated and/or quieter then it would be useful for sales and a lot of photographers. A manual M would be most desirable but I think economics dictate that such a product could only be a relatively unambitious update to the M6 whereas the main R&D thrust and the bigger market potential would be for an automated/motorised/matrix metering TTL flash M and a line of dual/triple more affordable lenses (a la Tri Elmar) as an entry point to the system. Just my two pfennigs... Adrian Bradshaw