The 2012 Photokina show is now over. Here is some additional coverage of the new Leica products:
The 22nd WestLicht Camera Auction will take place on Saturday, November 24, 2012, 11am. Preview will start on Wednesday, November 21, daily 10 am – 6 pm. Here are the details:
After the sensational world record auction this past May – a Leica 0-Series achieved a price of 2,160,000 EUR – the amazing offers of the 22nd WestLicht Camera Auction, featuring many important pieces and special rarities, promise new record results. A selection of about 650 cameras, lenses and accessories, all of the highest quality, will be sold during the 22nd Auction on November 24, 2012.
About 70% of the lots are made by Leitz/Leica. There has never been a comparable selection before. Starting with a Leica I with Anastigmat Lenses, the first Leica serially produced in 1925 (estimated price 70,000 – 90,000 Euro) to the famous “Luxus” Leica from 1929, one of the very few extant original gold-plated cameras (estimated price 120,000 – 140,000 Euro) to the first Leica of the famous photographer Robert Capa (estimated price 15,000 – 18,000 Euro), the auction also features incredibly rare Leica M cameras.
Leica Camera AG settled with their last two minority shareholders after they set a cash compensation for squeeze-out. As a result, the company will be delisted form the stock exchange. With this, Leica will become a “privately owned” entity and will no longer be traded on the stock exchange. Leica’s CEO Alfred Schopf said that this will save them a lot of money because they no longer have to do any regulatory reporting.
Stefan Daniel and Thorsten Overgaard lie down on the floor in Stefan Daniel’s office at Photokina on September 19, 2012 and have a long exclusive chat about the new design of the Leica M, the Leica M-E, the new CMOS sensor that is not like any other CMOS sensors, the lack of AA filter, the new battery time, video recording, the EVF (Electronic Visioflex Finder) and stereo microphone, Jaguars, music, etc.
B&H just started accepting pre-orders for the latest Leica products:
“There’s no way that Leica will launch a below-£1000 compact system camera“.
Q: Can you explain the nomenclature change, from M8, M9 to ‘M’?
A: We don’t want to give our customers the feeling that when the M10 comes out, for instance, that the M9 is suddenly the ‘old’ model and they have to buy the new one because the old one isn’t good enough anymore. We decided that the continuous numbering concept is not the right thing for us in the long term. The Porsche 911 for instance has always been the Porsche 911. The Leica M is a timeless product, and this is what the naming should express.
If you are planning to buy the new Leica M rangefinder and did not get a chance to put your name on a pre-order list, here is another chance: Adorama just listed the new Leica product as available for pre-order. Keep in mind that it will take probably at least one year until all pre-orders for the new Leica M are filled.
Adorama pre-order options (more links coming soon as they become available):
