For Tim .........and all others interested

[parisian]

From a conversation between a LUF member in France and the marketing director of Leica France....

He told me:
- that the date of availability was maintained for the end of September,
- that there would be another presentation of a possibly finalized S2 in Arles Photo Salon in July, and another one in Paris in beginning of September, just before launching,
- and that there will be a successor to the R9 that will be Autofocus with new lenses, and same Maestro processor but on which existing R-lenses will be usable with focus confirmation.

Rather very good news... He also told me that they apperently reached the number of potential customers for the S2, which would accelerate the launching of the successor of the R9.

About the price of the S2, nothing is fixed yet, it will depend of the prices of the concurrence in september.

[topoxforddoc]

But at the Leica Hessenpark meeting last week, Stefan Daniels said that the R10 is dead.

Charlie

[parisian]

I know Charlie, that is the frustrating thing about the whole protracted gestation of these systems.
Apparently knowledgeable people are hearing (or relaying) different stories on an almost daily basis.
Least surprising is the complete lack of information from corporate Leica through their website.

[TimF]

But at the Leica Hessenpark meeting last week, Stefan Daniels said that the R10 is dead.

Charlie

Stefan said there would be no R10 from Leica, that's true. It may still be that we are losing something in the translation; despite the presence of two reliable LUF-fers in Carl and Jaap (who both speak German fluently). Neither of them is British - one's Norwegian, the other IIRC from the Netherlands - so some nuance might have slipped through un-noticed. Translating is a very fine art indeed!

I think it is accepted by most that the S2 is meant to be the daddy of a whole new system, which will also entail cameras with lower pixel counts, and, if what Peter reports has any truth in it, maybe with smaller (ie, 24x36mm) sensor down the line. It's sincerely to be hoped so, but Leica does seem to be in a chopping & changing mode at present.

[franklid]

Damn, just when I thought one day I might change my ways and switch to digital. This is a big disappointment
Guess it is film for life now then - an "enhanced" G1 with an adaptor or whatever is being hinted at does not attract me one little bit.

Leica do seem to be putting a lot of eggs in the S2 basket here?

[parisian]

All the eggs I suspect. They do suggest that pre-orders have reached the target but if it looks shaky or doesn't do what it says on the tin then I think they will fall.
The dependance on the 'M' series has carried them several times but it can only go on for so long. Even the prospect of a 'full frame' M wouldn't save them again.