Those are the first pictures of the Leica-M lens adapter for E mount (Sony NEX) in action:
For more products shots and some samples images taken with the Super Leica Elmar-M 18mm f/3.8 ASPH lens head over to DCwatch (in English).
The M->E adapter will come in two different colors and the price will be ¥15,000 ($158) for the silver version and ¥16,000 ($168) for the black version.
This post on rangefinderforum (quoting the Japanese magazine Asahi Camera, June 20th issue) indicated that Leica has stopped producing film M cameras back in 2009:
“On 30th May, Leica Camera’s CEO said in his lecture at the Japan Camera Industry Institute that Leica has already stopped making film bodies. He also revealed the fact that they had already stopped making them in 2009”
I was not sure if the above text just got lost in translation, so I contacted Christian Erhardt (Vice President of Marketing Photographic Division, Leica Camera USA) and this is the answer he gave me:
“Your questions comes timely, in fact just earlier this week I was in our factory where I saw the production of Leica’s M product lines. While we do not have a constant production of certain lenses and cameras, we have the ability to produce batches of those products. For example: Certain exotic lenses & cameras are produced in batches to be able to produce an economically feasible number of products.
In this case the M analog production line is just next to Leica’s M9 production line to which we have shifted our focus to better manage the backlog and reduce the wait for our customers.
As you might be well aware from the past, we have always stated that as long as it makes sense for Leica Camera AG to produce M analog cameras we will do so. At this time we are reaching our targeted numbers for M analog cameras and do well with the offering of Leica M a la Carte cameras. Just recently Leica Camera AG offered a special Leica M7 Hermes Camera. This camera was quickly sold out and is a sought after collectors camera.
At this time I have no indication that the Leica M analog cameras will be taken out of Leica’s product offering.”
FYI: only 5% of Leica’s sales are generated from film cameras.
An update on the ongoing Leica Gallery exhibitions across the world:
Frankfurt:
May 20, 2010 – June 29, 2010: Manfred Baumann “Photographie”
Istanbul:
June 10, 2010 – July 07, 2010: Sergen Şehitoğlu “Turning – before it came – Underground”
New York:
June 11, 2010 – August 07, 2010: The Marcus Family “Three Generations of New York’s Elite Society and Wedding Photographers”
Salzburg:
June 11, 2010 – August 03, 2010: Peter Rigaud “Portraits”
Solms:
June 2010: Michael Agel “Close to the Action – A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the German Soccer Team”
Tokyo:
June 19, 2010 – August 29, 2010: Jan Reich “Paris”
This is a prototype of a L39 to E-mount adaptor (Sony NEX camera has APS-C size sensor). It is expected to be available in early July and it will be produced in Taiwan. No word yet on who the manufacturer will be.
Rayqual already announced that it will produce Sony E mount adapter for Leica M lenses.
The silver version of the Leica 28mm Summicro-M ASPH lens (#11661) is now discontinued. B&H and Amazon still has them in stock (Adorama is out of stock). If you had plans to buy this lens, now would be a good time to do so. FYI the 50mm Summicron-M silver version (#11816) was discontinued back in 2004.
This is the response a LUF member got from Leica when he sent his Leica M8 for repair:
“Shutter fault in C-Mode this is a bug inside the firmware and should be gone with the next firmware update. New firmware is being tested now and as soon as we have the ok, it will be available for download on our homepage.”
LFI magazine released an iPhone/iPad app that is available for free at the app store. The app contains a collection of images from the Leica S2, M8, M9 and X1 cameras:
