Leica M9 brochure leaked...

Don't know if anyone is interested as it is hard to read people on this forum, but it looks like the brochure for the Leica M9 was (perhaps accidentally) leaked by Leica's webmaster. The M9 is the highly anticipated full-frame digital M from Leica. The previous digital M8 had a 1.33x crop factor, which was unsatisfactory for many M users like myself. This camera will be the smallest full-frame 35mm digital camera available when it is released on September 9th.

Here's the link to it:
http://m9.leica-camera.com/res/dnl/en/m9_brochure_english_RZ_low.1.pdf

Put down your deposit yet?

I wish! I made a recent, substantial purchase for some much needed furniture. If I knew, for sure, the actual specs of the camera before hand, I probably would have placed a deposit on one instead of buying the furniture.

This camera would be mainly used for colour photographs as options for colour developing locally are no longer financially feasible to me. Around $15-$20 per roll is absolutely ridiculous. Not to say that digital is necessarily cheaper... it is more expensive in the long run if you plan on archiving your photos for decades. Also, the equipment doesn't last and its resale value is always peanuts compared to the initial investment. If I lived in a city like Toronto where C41 processing for under $5 dollars is still common, I wouldn't be in the market for an M9. I have no intentions of giving up black and white film at any time if I can help it.

I am not happy about being forced to the dark side. However, I am happy that Leica has listened and made a product that fits the needs of its users. For me there are still a few minor issues and one major issue but they're not deal-breakers.

Leica took down the link almost immediately.

However, it can be downloaded here:
http://litpixel.com/m9_brochure_english_RZ_low.1.pdf

That brochure makes me wish I had studied to be a doctor or a dentist.

From Leica's twitter page:



My guess... the pricing. We will see tomorrow.

My dealer, Tony Rose, has put up prices on his website.

http://www.popflash.com/

Yikes! I was hoping for it to be the same price as the outgoing M8.2 but on the other hand, the M9 is a much improved camera. It is in the same price range as Nikon's and Canon's flagship dSLRs... so to me anyway, the Leica seems like a bit of a bargain. Though I hoped that it would be a bit cheaper, I feared that it would be much more.

I'll take 2.