Oh man, I desperately want one of these cameras. If you look in the sidebar, you’ll see a BlogTalk Radio thing where you can hit play and almost immediately listen to me salivating over the new Leica gear. I can’t afford it, of course, but I can’t afford your mom either and I still talk about her! Moving on… the Leica M8.2 is not an SLR, but I trust them to make a very responsive and high-quality non-SLR camera. I know they’re expensive as hell (~$1500)(lots more than that) but I want one. There’s lots of specs here and the press release (translated from Polish) is here.
Also officially announced is the Noctilux F/0.95 lens and a few pals. This is of no interest to anyone but lens junkies, I guess, but since I’m one of those — posty posty! Pics after the bump.
[via Leica Rumors]
Update: The $1750 I saw quoted was the upgrade price if you’re rolling with a Leica M8 already. I thought it seemed slightly off — by an order of magnitude. No price on the M8.2 at the moment but I think the commenters below know what they’re about when they estimate at least $5000.
Where the hell are you getting a Leica M8 for $1500? They actually cost $5,000+. That lens would probably go for around $7,000.
If it were $1,500, that would be cheap, not expensive. $1,500 is in the price-range of a typical prosumer-level, disposable plastic camera from Nikon or Canon, not a Leica.
I dunno Dave, my Digilux 2 was £1000 about 6-12 months after being released.
Leica are being as competitive as they can be in prices these days with their digital cameras, i mean the Digilux 3 is now £1700.
I would estimate a new release price of £2000. Which is expensive for digital cameras, but cheap for a leica.
Matt.
p.s. hang abouit long enough and Panasonic is bound to make their own knock of it (as they did with the LC1 for the Digilux 2), which will save you 20-30%.
Just realised you were talking dollars… Damn my cursed eyes.
Yeah, ok, double my figures then for the US$.
I’d like to change my answer… Just seen that the M8 is still selling for £3K+
Leica M-series rangefinders are what Leica is known for…since the good old days of film cameras. These are in no way comparable to cheap, Panasonic-sourced point-and-shoot Digilux series that you got ripped off on. This is the real thing and yes it costs A LOT more than what this author thinks. If the author really thought this was 1500USD (probably a typo — let’s give him the benefit of doubt), then he (1) doesn’t deserve this camera, (2) is a douche for salivating after something he does not realize the value of, (3) is not a lens junkie that he claims to be.
I’m tripping, I guess - I thought I saw a price quoted at around 900 pounds, but that must have been for something on the same page. The F/0.95 noctilux costs about $10K though, we reported that a week ago or so.
I will not buy a digital M until they put a great full frame sensor in it. Until then I cannot take it seriously…
You are not alone in being a knowledgeable, independent photographer who would be delighted for the opportunity to work with this configuration.
It’s enough to make one wish to be a student for the 25% discount… for starters anyway.