Kommer Leica Digital M?

I siste nummer av Leica Fotografie International antydes det at Leica snart kommer med en digital versjon av rammesøker-kameraet M7.

Ifølge Leicas Stefan Daniel vil Digital M "be introduced as a complete package that will include new wide-angle lenses".

Ryktene tilsier 10 megapiksler med 1.3x "crop factor", 2.5" LCD monitor og lagring på SD-kort. Dersom det er hold i ryktene vil kameraet bli lansert under neste års PMA-messe som går av stabelen i februar.

Ifølge LetsGoDigital kan spesifikasjonene se slik ut:
- 10+ Megapixels
- 1.33x multiplier
- Secure Digital card slot
- Kodak image sensor
- RAW + JPEG format
- 2.5-inch display
- Leica house high quality
- Lithium Ion battery

Leica Fotografie International .

Oppdatering 06.01.06:

I et intervju bekrefter Leica USA Marketing Manager Christian Erhardt at Leica arbeider med en digital M-modell, men han sier samtidig at kameraet ikke er nær forestående.

From our chat with Mr. Erhardt, it's clear that the aim of the digital M-series (henceforth Mdigital, for the sake of convenience, but that's our designation, not Leica's) is to reproduce the experience of Leica's classic rangefinders as closely as possible, while simply substituting a digital sensor for the film. The ~10 megapixel digital sensor will be less than full-sized (a 1:1.33 field of view ratio to 35mm), so all your lenses will become slightly more telephoto than on a film-based body, but the user experience will be very much the same as that of the M7. This means in part that the rear-panel LCD will only be active in playback mode: Framing will be determined by the usual viewfinder markings as seen on current film-based models. (Although presumably adjusted to allow for the 1.33x crop factor.) Manual focusing will be accomplished via the usual split-image rangefinder, apparently without any electronic assistance or guidance.