[Leica] Brief Report from Melbourne

[afirkin at afirkin.com (Alastair Firkin)]

G'day all,
Adeal the local leica dealer ran an information release night this week to 
which
I was invited. Sadly there were no representatives from Germany, but they 
had S2,
M9's and a "dummy" x1 to play with. My impressions: The M9 is the M8.2 
really,
but with "hidden" gems: larger sensor improved noise etc. It was not really 
the
place to do testing, but it was nice to find the camera handles as you would
expect. Its quieter than my M8, but probably not quite as quiet as the 
classic M.
Still the wind on options and the lens coding options are really nice: Leica 
have
listened and tried to make the M their flagship: it will sell. 

The S2 could be a wonderful camera. Here in Australia, its going to be about 
20%
dearer than any where else (M9 is only 10%) and this alone may stiffle its
progress. In your hand it is heavy, but not too large. Felt no different 
really
to handling the R9DMR combo, but the lens is clearly "larger". Only the 70mm 
was
on offering. It works well with the camera. The camera focuses very quickly 
even
in very low light and using it was very intuitive. But it probably not for 
me.
There will be no R adaptor, and the very limited range of lenes will inhibit 
its
uptake. Leica need to get them into circulation quickly and the camera really
should be on the shelves a year after photokina. 

Nice to catch up with like minded folk, pleasant evening, no surprises. X1 
look
cute and "handy" but i'm not sure of its target audience. It was 
non-functional
so I did not linger with it. 

Like a lot of people there, I kept hoping for some hope for the R, but 
logically
it would be hard for Leica to compete, so its probably dead. 

What I "probably" learnt was: keep the DMR, keep using the R lenses when you 
need
and SLR, buy the M9 when you can, and consider the new 39CFE back for your 
'blad:
the S2 is too far off, too big a risk and too much money. 

cheers from Ballarat

Alastair Firkin
www.afirkin.com