Thread: Leica Announces the X2 Compact and M-Monochrom Rangefinder

Originally Posted by Armanius

Gotta say this looks really cool though - Hermes edition



Kits ranging from $25,000 - 50,000.

Sweet but unobtainable. I will admire from afar. Very afar.

this kind of price disparity exists in every category of consumable goods on the planet.

a typical point and shoot camera purchased at a big box store $ 199
the Leica Hermes collection $50,000

a new compact car (gets you to and from work just fine) $ 15,000
the Zenvo ST1 (base model......seriously) $1,800,000

a pretty good turntable for your records $ 299
The Goldmund Reference II (your records aren't good enough) $300,000

the average queen sized mattress $ 700
The Vividus (by Hastens......like sleeping on a cloud, I hear) $ 59,750


I could go on and on.....it never ends. Someone will always build a bigger, faster, more perfect one and they can charge what the market will bear. As the gap between the haves and have-nots widens these products will not disappear. It's the ones in the middle who get squeezed out. So there will always be these "pie-in-the-sky" products that we can all dream of. There is a trickle-down effect though. Look at the cameras we can buy now in the $500-$2000. The selection and quality is dizzying.

M9-Mono...quite simply.... I want one!!! Though I'm with Amin and would toil through with my Zeiss lens/es - Planar 50/2 (absolutely stunning) and Biogon-C (on the way) even if it makes for inferior outputs. But the files I have seen off that Monochrom sensor are jaw-droppingly delicious.

Now to polish up my old Zenvo ST1 for sale to fund the purchase

There is just no way the the files are $12,000 better than what I can get out of my XPro1, to say nothing of the slow AF on that camera

Originally Posted by Landshark

There is just no way the the files are $12,000 better than what I can get out of my XPro1, to say nothing of the slow AF on that camera

Don't know Bob...not being able to judge RAW files side by side but if Jono Slack's Henri images are anything to go by then the XPro1 must be better than I thought. These images have a certain character about them, while the Fuji's B+Ws that I've spied seem flatter somehow. OK not sure if that aesthetic is worth and extra $10k but just saying...

Then again I found the onion in the ointment with the M9-Mono....no Panda version.

Hmmm....

With all of the excitement over the new M9M (and disappointment with the price), I must say what has truly disappointed me is the direction (or lack thereof) with the X2. It is almost like Leica is totally unaware of the developments that have been going on around them over the past few years since the X1 was released. Come on, faster autofocus and a port for an EVF? All for only $2K! Wow wee, I am so under-inspired. Here are some improvements to the X2 that would have kept Leica ahead of the game:

• Integrated optical (or EVF for that matter) viewfinder (not hard considering the 35mm EFL). Yes, this would have required a body redesign but who wants a huge camel hump sitting on top of the camera. It looks ridiculous and like an afterthought (no offense to Oly PEN folks out there but your EVF was designed FOR your camera, the Leica EVF doesn't look thought out at all).
• Faster lens. F2.8, really!? Come-on, with the glass geniuses at Lecia, you would think they could have brought this down to at least f2.0.
• Upgraded LCD. Given that this is how most people will use the X2, you would of thought they could have updated to a higher resolution LED display. Remember the display on the X1 was already old and crappy when the X1 came out in 2009 so to keep this display was a huge mistake.

Yes, the M9M is a very exciting camera and if I had $8K to spare (not to mention the need for at least one M-class lens), I would be in line already. I think what Lecia has done though is they have put forward a concept design that other camera makers will pick up on. For example, I'm hoping that Ricoh eventually releases an A16 35mm module for the GXR that uses a B&W sensor. Now wouldn't that be cool (not to mention the new forthcoming GXR body and Pentax K module which are in the pipe-line. . . so the rumor mill says).

Anyway, sorry to be so down on this X2 but I wanted something more from Leica for this new version of the camera. What we got are upgrades that should have been in the X1 (or at least been called the X1.1 ;-)

Paul

I'm with you Paul, in particular about using the same 50 year old LCD on highly priced cameras. Maybe Leica had too many old spare parts laying around unused.

Very interesting:

I did an experiment with the EVF out of curiosity – the plug looked like any one of the existing EVF plugs. It did fit to my Olympus OM-D and Pen Mini. Even more interestingly, it worked!

Originally Posted by Boid

Excellent pictures of the X2 on this blog/review

Exclusive premiere: The full Leica X2 review

Leica prices are what they are. A Monochrom with the 50mm APO for 15G is a used car in my world, but Leica will sell these to their customer base that will be glad to pay the price.

What does concern me, though, is that I wonder if Leitz has a business plan that's sustainable. Rebadging Panasonics for almost double the Pany price with very minor differences. Having to buy their sensors instead of developing them in-house. Will the S2 feel the heat the rest of the medium format market is feeling from the new Nikon, which will surely be followed by more ever larger pixel count cameras. Will they ever update their back-panel LCD. Those of you who are in the Leica community would have more examples of this kind of thing.

I'm a big fan of the best, and hope there's always a Leica. I just wonder if they can keep up.

Joey Wilson

Originally Posted by Joey Wilson

Leica prices are what they are.

What does concern me, though, is that I wonder if Leitz has a business plan that's sustainable. Rebadging Panasonics for almost double the Pany price with very minor differences.


Joey Wilson

They do, they now sell Olympus EVFs for the X2 at double the Oly prices. On a more serious note. Leica cameras have become a status symbol just like Patek Philippe is in the wrist watch market space. A business strategy which works for other markets should also be usable for camera and lens markets.