Leica news, before it happens

From an article in the German Giessener Anzeiger newspaper two weeks ago (Google translation):

“The 1000 employees of Leica Camera AG (Solms / Lahn-Dill-Kreis) fear for their jobs. With sharp words of CEO Rudolf Spiller employees in a staff meeting has described the situation of Leica. In order to stabilize the company, the employees are on holiday and give Christmas bonuses for a total of around one million euros.”

At the same time (2 weeks ago) there were 50 pre-orders for the new Leica S2 camera from the US alone.

Moving forward to yesterday: Amateurphotographer reports an incredible demand for the new Leica M9 in London in the first few days after the official launch: photographers were trading in their “bulky” Canon and Nikon DLSRs for the smallest full frame camera on the market today. In one of the Leica stores in London, the initial delivery of eight Leica M9 cameras was sold in 14 minutes and the store’s manager claimed that “I could sell 50 today”.

B&H just confirmed what Stefan Daniel said about the M8.2: “It will be phased out and we’re clearing stocks”

The Leica M8 is currently selling for $3,499.99 @ Adorama, Amazon and B&H still has the black M8 model in stock for $3,995.00. The price of the Leica M8.2 is still $5,995.00 in Amazon, Adorama and B&H.

Update: there is NO RECALL whatsoever. SH-Photo simply did not want to sell the camera to the prospective buyer as he was form overseas and blamed this on Leica (buyers be aware).

There is currently a thread on dpreview stating that the first batch of ten Leica M9 cameras shipped to a store in Germany were recalled from the factory.

And some from B&H:

and a video of the Leica M9 discrete shutter release after the jump:

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The video was taken on 09.09.09. More info on the menu navigation and functionality is available on Leica’s M9 mini site.