[Leica] new 1ds mark II

[banacloj at mac.com (Juan Gea-Banacloche)]

I guess most people always want more. In a Leica users group, this 
would be expected. More megapixels give you more freedom. The issue is 
not so much if 6MP are "enough" for "almost" everything. If many users 
will go the extra effort and $$$ to use the apo-aspherical instead of 
the Summicron, or Kodachrome 25 instead of 64, it means that, for some, 
that "almost" is important. There are shots that can only be taken with 
the Noctilux; I would venture there are shots that can only be taken 
with the new 1ds Mark II (sometimes it's nice to be able to crop and 
crop and keep getting detail!), and in 5 years who knows how many 
megapixels will be considerde "enough".

What baffles me is the pervasive comparison between Leica and Canon & 
Nikon in terms of bang for the buck. Has Leica ever been "competitive" 
(value for money) in the SLR arena? My impression is that they stopped 
even trying decades ago. Don't get me wrong, the R8 and R9 may be 
absolutely wonderful machines, but do they offer more features (for a 
similar cost) than the flagship Nikon or Canon? In this context, the 
pricing of the Digital Module seems quite standard for the company (or 
even less disproportionate than usual).

I hope that the digital module is a home run and the digital M another 
home run, so this does not become the LEUG (Leica Ex-Users Group)...

Juan